Upon graduating from Chelsea, Margaret is invited by Jock to assist on the Gatwick project. Unable to start work straight away, fortunately they bump into each other again in the Underground and it is confirmed.¹

He obviously saw that I was somebody who appeared to be applying herself. He’d been appointed to do all the graphics and signs for the new Gatwick Airport and he needed an assistant, so he just came up and said: “Would you be interested in helping me?” To go straight from art school to work for one of your tutors was phenomenal. I was so excited. But then the next week, it was all off. I have no idea why. I thought maybe the commission wasn’t going to happen. As you can imagine, I was completely deflated. It wasn’t going to happen.

At that time, I lived in North Ealing with my mother and sister and most of Jock’s work was exhibition design. One project of his was at Wembley. He was coming back from Wembley one day and we just happened to meet on Ealing Broadway station. I think the shock of seeing me, just suddenly, it was all on again. So, if we hadn’t met… Life is pure chance in that respect. I was of course completely over the moon. When I asked him what it would involve, he said: “Absolutely nothing like what you’ve been doing at Chelsea.”²

Margaret Calvert, 2019