Posts: 124
From: England
Registered: Nov 2012

posted 12-30-2014 01:25 PM               

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Working in the London insurance market I thought this would be a million miles away from my interest in Apollo but no! My previous boss at Lloyd's worked for Dave Scott in the financial market in London after Dave left NASA and he was a young graduate.

My boss had been a cricketer (I know, a strange game to you Americans) who could have played for England but chose a financial career instead. When I met Dave Scott in England at a signing, I mentioned this to him and he appeared to know a lot about cricket, is there no end to this man's talents!

An ex colleague of mine was responsible for looking after Neil Armstrong when visiting London a couple of years before his untimely death in 2012. Neil was a backer for a new Lloyd's Underwriting Syndicate called, would you believe, 'Apollo 1969' and they have his portrait hanging in the reception.

Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007

Posts: 4167
From: England
Registered: Feb 2001

Posts: 124
From: England
Registered: Nov 2012

posted 12-31-2014 12:44 AM               

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Rick, Neil Armstrong made several trips to London, the syndicate began operating in 2009 and the picture you saw of Neil was probably during one of these visits.

Away from Apollo, Lloyd's sponsored a shuttle mission to rescue two rogue satellites in November 1984 which they had insured. As the mission was successful, Lloyd's flew the whole crew to London via Concord for a reception at Lloyd's. I remember seeing Rick Hauk (Commander) and the two astronauts who did the EVAs - Joe Allen and the late Dale Gardner and everybody was very excited to meet them!