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The following are memories recalled by Denis Ridge, as recorded by Hanover Housing Association in their book 'Tale of the Century' published in 1999.
My expertise was as a designer of cement factories and carrying out techno-economic surveys of developing countries, to determine the viability of such an enterprise.
We were engaged to visit and explore Qatar for such an undertaking and in consequence, over a span of some ten years, visited and surveyed Qatar top to bottom.
Eventually our company, W.S.Atkins & Partners, was engaged to design and oversee the construction of their first cement plant with its own township, including sports clubs, cinema, shops, fire station, water and power plants costing in excess of £100m (about £300 million at today's value).
 The plant, owned by the Qatar Government, was one of the special interests of the Ruler of Qatar, His Highness, Sheikh Khalifah. He held a Margilis Court every week in a large room in one of his palaces. The local people who attended had complaints, mainly concerning neighbours stealing goats, and the Ruler's role was to decide who was guilty, or what the consequence would be.
I had been summoned to the Ruler's Margilis several times. He decided the eventual location of the factory and township, and following a severe breakdown of the sea water distillation system in the capital city Dolia, decreed we had to pipe our water some 70 kms from wells to the project when we were adjacent to the sea.
I was on holiday in Majorca when the summons came and one had no option but to leave my wife and two young children to finish their holiday without their father.
Arriving at Qatar, I discovered from our resident representative that the urgency prompting the Ruler to call me had been our choice of the main contractor. A competitive worldwide tender and expert comparison of tenders had resulted in our selecting an Italian company. German, French, Danish and British companies had also bid.
 Dressed in my best, I went to the Ruler's evening margilis and waited my turn, sat crossed legged amongst locals with tethered goats, falcons, chickens etc -- the smell of air conditioning was indescribable. When my turn came I went forward and sat in a chair directly in front of the Ruler.
After greetings and Arabic coffee I was told via an interpreter, 'The Ruler is unhappy with your choice of the Italians -- you know they are very poor fighters -- I prefer the Germans or even the British.'
I tried to explain the technical and cost merits of the Italian bid, but the Ruler with a gleam of inspiration suddenly said, 'The Fiat is a poor car, the Mercedes is a much better car -- I prefer them. And who will take the blame if all goes wrong?'
I thought for a moment and said, 'Your Highness, you should have no fear, you have a Rolls-Royce British Consultant!' The Ruler reluctantly gave in with the parting shot -- 'Be it on your head!'
The next day, as a gesture of reconciliation, I received an invitation from the Ruler to make immediate use of his luxury yacht -- again an invitation one couldn't refuse. The yacht, with a British skipper and crew of several dozen, was mine for a solitary trip around the entire Qatar coastline.
The Ruler had just returned from a visit to Iran where he had been presented with a gift of gazelle. They had been given a free reign on the yacht and it hadn't been cleaned since returning from Iran. Still, it was better than having my head chopped off!
The cement factory I designed was eventually featured on a Qatar postage stamp.
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