John Harding  General Sales Manager, North Atlantic; and General Manager of Golden Lion Travel

Sadly John passed away, aged 72, at his home in Essex on 11th January 2016. My sincere condolences go out to John's family, friends and former colleagues.

John's service was held on 10th February 2016 at the Three Counties Crematorium, Braintree, a wake was held afterwards at The Green Man, Dunmow, Essex.


John Remembered

From Tony Cocklin
As aviation manager for Global Tours in the late 1960s, John was very closely involved with Caledonian Airways when the tour operator entered into a ground-breaking time charter contract featuring Caledonian’s new BAC 1-11 500 fleet on European IT holidays. John joined BCAL in 1970 as managing director of the company’s Blue Sky Holidays subsidiary. He went on to become general sales manager, North Atlantic; and general manager of Golden Lion Travel, BCAL’s in-house Advance Booking Charter operator serving the Far East then later the trans-Atlantic routes.

John left BCAL in the mid-1970s to work at senior level in the UK travel industry, with companies such as Exchange Travel, Rainbow Holidays, Travelscene, Centurion Holidays Group and hotels4u.com. He became a major travel industry figure and most notably, served as President of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) in 2003-4. Throughout his latter career, John maintained a very close contact with former BCAL colleagues, regularly attending informal reunion gatherings in the Gatwick area; most recently in December 2015.

From Richard Webster
My condolences to John Harding's family. I met John a few times at functions and at Caledonian House back in the BCAL days.



If you would like to leave a message in remembrance please drop me a line anytime



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