A fond farewell to safety sage Ian Gillett

Ian Gillett retires after 24 years as Safety Director at Imperial College.

There are but a few genuinely larger than life characters at Imperial, who need little in the way of introduction.

Even if you’re new to the College and have never spoken to Ian, you will know him as the imposing figure, always decked out in a loud bow tie, often with a camera in hand.

In fact, when I meet him in person, I can’t resist starting by asking him about his trade mark neck-wear. 

“I started wearing bow-ties when I was 25, after reading that they were coming back in fashion and it took me 20 minutes to tie my first one.

“Since then I’ve only worn a conventional tie once, when I was best man at my friend’s wedding. Although, after that, he was best man at my own wedding, so of course I made him wear a bow tie.”

Among the favourites in his extensive collection is a specially commissioned silk number, hand painted with safety signs.

Fashions aside, Ian says eccentricity and standing out is one important pillar of being safety director — that and having great powers of persuasion backed up by an intimate and in-depth knowledge of safety legislation.

That was just one of the lessons Ian says he learned from his predecessor and mentor Gordon Hargreaves, Imperial’s first ever Safety Director. Gordon died suddenly in 1989 whilst out walking in the Lake District, leaving Ian, who was Assistant Director at the time, to take up the mantle.

“It knocked me for six. I was really saddened by it because I almost saw him as a father figure. I was acting up and then they advertised the post in Feb 1990 which I got.”

Ian’s time at Imperial goes back significantly further though, starting as an undergraduate chemistry student in 1971.

His involvement in safety came more by accident then design (although he does recall a nasty chemical spill at junior school that spooked him). When he was elected President of the College’s Chemical Society he automatically found himself student representative on the Department Safety Committee. As a postgraduate he then went on to become the student representative on the College Safety Council (as it was then known) from 1976-1978.

Another of Ian's favourite bow ties

“I arranged to get a regular report of accidents involving students and I’d go around the Departments and just talk to students, investigate things and try and get measures implemented where possible.”

It was during this time Ian developed the relationship-building skills that would stand him in good stead for his later career ‒ first as a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector, then Assistant Director and Safety Director at Imperial. He sees his role as an enabler rather than an enforcer ‒ working with academics to do new things, within the scope and spirit of legislation. As testament to this approach he has only ever had to forcibly shut down two work places in 24 years as Director.

“We’re surrounded by people who are passionate about what they do and so therefore they care. That makes my job easier.

“All in all, it’s been tremendous working at Imperial. I’ve been involved with everything from a nuclear reactor centre [at Silwood] through to a farm [at Wye] as well as biological labs, high power lasers and earthquake tables. It’s just so varied.”

Still, over 24 years he must have seen his fair share of near misses and obstinate characters to deal with?

“Actually, my postgrad supervisor was a bit of rogue. He used to work in the lab, shirt sleeves rolled up, smoking a cigarette. When our fume cupboards were upgraded with the best quality stainless steel, the first thing he used in there was bromine ‒ the only thing that will attack stainless steel.

“Oh, and there was also the biochemistry Professor who kept 500,000 lethal doses of botulinum toxin in the freezer without fully informing the Health and Safety Executive of what he was doing.”

Among Ian’s proudest memories are becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Safety in Technology and Research and also helping to establish a new safety course and qualification ‒ the National Examining Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH). Members of staff who have taken the course have since gone onto to pursue successful careers in safety themselves – with alumni going on to become Deputy Head of Safety at Oxford, Head of Safety at Queen Mary University and Head of Safety at St George’s Medical School.

One of Ian's shots from a fashion show at Imperial

Of course, Ian will be remembered not only for his work role, but his varied and diverse interests in classical music, vintage cars and most of all photography.

Although he has been taking photographs on and off since he was a boy, his hobby stepped up to another gear when London Fashion Week came to College in September 1997, hosted on the Queen’s Lawn.

“Of course I had to come along and say: ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that, it’s too noisy, etcetera.’ But I thought I’d ask if I could take a few pictures too, and they said ‘sure just come round the back’. I didn’t have the right gear at the time and so the results were awful.”

When the Fashion show moved to the Natural History Museum, they asked Ian to help with some noise monitoring and he agreed – under the condition that he could take some more photos. This time he hit the right notes and eventually went on to take official photographs for the production company that runs the event. He's now photographed all manner of events including Henley Regatta, varsity basketball and motorsports.

One of Ian's favourite College shots of former Rector Sir Richard Sykes

Still, Ian says he will almost certainly be returning to Imperial, hopefully helping with some of the safety training that he helped to pioneer.

"It's ingrained in me; I'm not going to be able to walk away from health and safe