Simon and Alistair Campbell are not just brothers – they’re work colleagues continuing a family tradition which dates back almost 100 years.
As with many Hull families, RB, now a leading consumer health and hygiene company, is in their blood.
Based at the company’s Dansom Lane site, Simon and Alistair have followed in the footsteps of their father, Duncan Campbell, and great grandfather Lucas Howiantz in working for the company still known as “Reckitts” by so many.
Great grandfather Lucas’ story is an inspiring one.
Born in Armenia, Lucas became a prisoner of war in Crimea during the Russian Civil War for being a Christian, but escaped with the intention of reaching America to start a new life.
Instead, he left the ship when it reached Liverpool and worked in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, before taking up the position of pressman in the Reckitt Blue Factory in Hull in the early 1920s.
“He came to Hull because he saw the role as an opportunity to better himself and he then met our great grandma, Sarah Stephenson, who was a teacher,” his great grandson Simon said.
“He started a charity at Reckitts called the Sunshine Fund, collecting a ha’penny a week from the workers, which went towards under-privileged children in the area and later elderly people.”
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Lucas was also the official photographer for the company, taking pictures of King George V when he visited the site, and went on to retire in the 1960s before passing away in 1968.
Working at Reckitts skipped a generation for the family until Lucas’ grandson, Duncan Campbell - Simon and Alistair’s father - began his 25-year career in the export department in the mid-1960s.
Simon and Alistair said memories of their father working at Reckitts inspired them from a young age.
Simon said: “Reckitts was a big company and it was always classed as a job for life.
“As kids growing up, we thought it was amazing that our dad spoke to people in India and the Middle East. Even then, the company had that global spread.”
Aged 16, Simon was the first of the brothers to follow in their father’s footsteps, joining the company in 1989 and becoming a formulation chemist before progressing to project manager in the packaging team.
Watch: RB's new Science and Innovation Centre in Hull
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Alistair followed in 1992, starting his career in the laboratory and joining the company in a permanent role in 1995, working in research and development for Mr Sheen and later in the New Technology Group.
Simon and Alistair even met their wives, Claire and Renata, while working at RB and all four continue to work in the business.
They shared their remarkable family story as RB unveiled its new £105m Science and Innovation Centre in Hull.
“We sometimes struggle to get people to come to this area and this will hopefully encourage people to come and stay,” Alistair said.
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Business Live's Hull & East Yorkshire journalist is Phil Winter, also the business editor at the Hull Daily Mail and Hull Live.
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