I was a pupil at Mayfield from 1957 to 1962. In 1979 I was a co-founder of a sales promotion agency, Don Marketing, that devised spectacularly successful forecourt promotions for Shell on an international basis. Many involved budgets of several million dollars. A mutually beneficial relationship lasted for over a decade.
This was followed by two decades of acrimony involving six High Court actions, a County Court case and proceedings via the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
At one stage Shell displayed posters at the Shell Centre in London defaming John Donovan and his late father Alfred. The Donovan’s sued Shell for libel. One of two libel actions they brought against Shell. Both were settled out of court, as were all of the other court actions. Shell also lost the case decided by the WIPO.
On a number of occasions, Shell resorted to cloak and dagger activity and was cornered into admitting in writing the activities of one undercover agent. This was at a time when the Donovan’s were besieged by sinister activity involving threats against them and when a series of burglaries were carried out at the homes of their main witness, their solicitor and at their own home.
Unbeknown to the Donovan’s, titled Shell directors were the spymasters, directors and major shareholders of a corporate intelligence spy firm Hakluyt & Co which had Shell as a client, and still does.
For more than a decade, John has operated a Shell focussed non-profit website which operates under the domain name royaldutchshellplc.com, which Shell unsuccessfully attempted to seize.
A TV documentary feature about John Donovan and his website, which has cost Shell billions of dollars, as widely reported, has been broadcast in many countries, with a related news article published in ten languages.
477 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission website etc. all contain references to John’s websites or to him or his father. Includes magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, and 64 books.
John. What on earth has this rigmarole to do with Mayfield school?
The facility for just this sort of input does exist on Mayfield Memories in ‘Mailbox – Life After Mayfield’. Unfortunately, John wrote the item as a comment on his own post of his photograph. I did contemplate moving it to Mailbox but could not justify the time and effort involved.
Ok Tony. After I posted I did wonder if Johns post was a note of past ego trips, but on second thoughts it all may be a big problem still playing on his mind and might have been a sort of cry for help. He must be roughly the same age as me and retired. Are you ok John?
Hello Tony & Tony. I thought some of the friends I had at Mayfield might be interested in my life after Mayfield as some of them knew that my family was in petrol retailing in the area. Mr Cutting, my teacher in class 4A, used to be a regular customer at one of our petrol stations in Seven Kings in his black Rover car. I am sorry I posted such information in the wrong place. Just got fed up of looking at a blank space and plonked the information there without giving it sufficient thought. There is no cry for help and no need for the men in white coats. The websites I operate are all non-subscription and I have never accepted donations. I am a long term shareholder in Royal Dutch Shell Plc and my efforts to persuade the company to operate within its own claimed ethical code continue. Fortunately, no one is forced to read my ramblings on my own sites or here. Tony Gocke, please feel free to delete if it is too out of place.
There is absolutely no reason for it to be deleted, John – Tony Gocke
Leave a Reply
HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
I was a pupil at Mayfield from 1957 to 1962. In 1979 I was a co-founder of a sales promotion agency, Don Marketing, that devised spectacularly successful forecourt promotions for Shell on an international basis. Many involved budgets of several million dollars. A mutually beneficial relationship lasted for over a decade.
This was followed by two decades of acrimony involving six High Court actions, a County Court case and proceedings via the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
At one stage Shell displayed posters at the Shell Centre in London defaming John Donovan and his late father Alfred. The Donovan’s sued Shell for libel. One of two libel actions they brought against Shell. Both were settled out of court, as were all of the other court actions. Shell also lost the case decided by the WIPO.
On a number of occasions, Shell resorted to cloak and dagger activity and was cornered into admitting in writing the activities of one undercover agent. This was at a time when the Donovan’s were besieged by sinister activity involving threats against them and when a series of burglaries were carried out at the homes of their main witness, their solicitor and at their own home.
Unbeknown to the Donovan’s, titled Shell directors were the spymasters, directors and major shareholders of a corporate intelligence spy firm Hakluyt & Co which had Shell as a client, and still does.
For more than a decade, John has operated a Shell focussed non-profit website which operates under the domain name royaldutchshellplc.com, which Shell unsuccessfully attempted to seize.
A TV documentary feature about John Donovan and his website, which has cost Shell billions of dollars, as widely reported, has been broadcast in many countries, with a related news article published in ten languages.
477 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission website etc. all contain references to John’s websites or to him or his father. Includes magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, and 64 books.
John. What on earth has this rigmarole to do with Mayfield school?
The facility for just this sort of input does exist on Mayfield Memories in ‘Mailbox – Life After Mayfield’. Unfortunately, John wrote the item as a comment on his own post of his photograph. I did contemplate moving it to Mailbox but could not justify the time and effort involved.
Ok Tony. After I posted I did wonder if Johns post was a note of past ego trips, but on second thoughts it all may be a big problem still playing on his mind and might have been a sort of cry for help. He must be roughly the same age as me and retired. Are you ok John?
Hello Tony & Tony. I thought some of the friends I had at Mayfield might be interested in my life after Mayfield as some of them knew that my family was in petrol retailing in the area. Mr Cutting, my teacher in class 4A, used to be a regular customer at one of our petrol stations in Seven Kings in his black Rover car. I am sorry I posted such information in the wrong place. Just got fed up of looking at a blank space and plonked the information there without giving it sufficient thought. There is no cry for help and no need for the men in white coats. The websites I operate are all non-subscription and I have never accepted donations. I am a long term shareholder in Royal Dutch Shell Plc and my efforts to persuade the company to operate within its own claimed ethical code continue. Fortunately, no one is forced to read my ramblings on my own sites or here. Tony Gocke, please feel free to delete if it is too out of place.
There is absolutely no reason for it to be deleted, John – Tony Gocke