Hi
WHBM,
As one whose career was indirectly affected by the creation of BUIA, in that I was transferred to it from Mortons willy-nilly by letter from the aforementioned Mr Bristow**, I can confirm much of your post. Just a few minor points...
Interesting you say that the former Jersey Airlines operation, which retained the JY flight numbers, continued from 1962 under an AOC with "Jersey Airlines" still written on it, but the company certainly traded under the name of BUA (CI) Ltd until it was closed down in 1968. I think the erasure of the Jersey Airlines livery on all the a/c spoke for itself. (The staff, of course, mainly continued to refer to it as Jersey Airlines.)
Yes, Freddie Laker (founder of the Air Charter constituent of BUA) seems to have been well-respected, and I think he was also responsible for ordering the Type 1103 VC10s (combi-standards, with "super" wings), the first of which entered BUA service (October 1964) a year or so before the One-Elevens.
Alan Bristow was not a benign boss, but to be fair he was deliberately placed in the job as a hatchet-man to try and return the BUA group to profitability. Whether it was his original idea to end BALPA's role in negotiating pilots' terms and conditions with each of the companies, and to force all of us to sign personal contracts, is unclear. The mainline pilots were first to declare a strike, IIRC, but not before the company had descended to dirty tactics - such as phoning the homes of refusenik-pilots down the route to warn wives that their husbands were about to be sacked. His imposition of personal contracts was subsequently challenged in court, and declared illegal.
** My reply, pointing out that my acceptance of any change in my place or contract of employment was not to be taken for granted, surprisingly elicited a personally-signed admission that his letter might be regarded as "peremptory." (I suspect his secretary may have caught him off-guard.)
Chris