- Los Montesinos based engineer and diving instructor Peter Gallant talks to Andrew Atkinson about the Revolution in Iran.
Peter Gallant worked in Iran during 1973-79, employed by a Canadian Corrosion Protection company in Kuwait as an engineer and diving supervisor.
“I was on loan to an Iranian oil company as their diving supervisor on Kharg Island, the main exporting terminal for Iran.
“I was supervisor to a team of Iranian divers, mainly for inspection and repair of underwater pipelines, covering 40km, and six major pipelines, from the Iranian mainland to the exporting terminal where the super tankers came up and took the oil.
“When the Revolution started we decided to get out of the country. It was quite frightening with Banks and buildings being ransacked and burned.
“All the airports were closed down and I went to the oil HQ Ahwaz, the main oil company Headquarters.
“At the time I was staying in a hotel with three mates, who were on different projects and decided we would get out of the country.
“We hired a taxi to Tehran, it being a day’s journey, going through towns rioting, and had to level our heads below the window, so we wouldn’t be seen.
“We booked into a hotel near to the American Embassy, where the company had an office in North Tehran. That night the smoke got closer and closer downtown Iran to our office.
“I phoned the hotel and was told not to come back as the place was getting ransacked. The office was above a bank and we got all the sheets, tied them into knots and hung them out of the window. It was quite frightening.
“Rioters smashed the bank windows and burnt the belongings outside. We didn’t show our faces.
“We had got return tickets to Kuwait. A British Airways plane on loan to Iran Airways were taking people back to England and we mingled in with BA staff at the airport and managed to get through the departure lounge, before being found out.
“We just got waived through and got on the plane with 60 air hostesses, many of them crying.
“We arrived at Heathrow Airport and all the media were waiting. The only food and drink I had was a tin of Coke and a fruit cake on the five and a half hour flight,” said Peter.
Peter, 81, who retired in the Jalon Valley, Spain, two decades ago, moving to Los Montesinos recently, said: “Myself and another guy drove to my parents house – unexpectedly – in Abbey Wood, South East London.
“A few days later we flew back to Kuwait – the oil company wanted us to go back to Iran, but we declined.”
Caption: Tanks during the Iran Revolution. Photo: Peter Gallant.
