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Breaking the Glass
Ceiling…x Whilst there does seem to have
been to be a certain futility attached to women “getting on” in the bank,
success IS achievable for the hard-working girl. We can’t stress enough that in Martins’
time, women accepting their lot is not the same as some kind of open
oppression. The opportunities are
there, and all the evidence points to Martins Bank recognising and growing
the careers of those women who take those opportunities. The major sacrifice when compared to
today’s world is the stark choice between career OR family. Not usually both. Take this example from
Martins Bank Magazine’s visit to IPSWICH
in 1950: |
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Going places? Miss M L Perks in her typing and cashiering days at Ipswich |
“The only girl at the Branch is miss M.L.
Perks who entered the service in July 1940 at Ipswich, thus having completed
nearly ten years at the Branch. She has passed all her Bankers’
examinations and acts as typist and cashier”… Times are different, and perhaps
Martins Bank Magazine thinks Miss Perks is at first happy with her lot, but
to have studied so hard for the Institute of Bankers’ Examinations (considered to be the “crown jewels” of male banking upward mobility)
to end up typing and cashiering for ten years, may not seem that
rewarding. |
Getting there! Margaret as a Trust Controller for
Martins Trust Company – |
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In this case Miss Perks thinks
so too, and her hard work and studies pay off when she bucks the trend by
becoming the first appointed woman in Martins Bank’s Trust Company. There,
she is given a “Pro Manager” signing authority. We must of course bear in
mind that in these times women are contractually obliged to leave the bank
upon marriage, and that therefore investment in someone who could suddenly
leave and have a baby is seen as inappropriate. Miss Perks however breaks clean through the
“glass ceiling” becomes a Trust controller at the Martins Bank Trust Company
offices in London’s West End and goes on to play a major role in both Martins
and Barclays. It was therefore, with great sadness that we learned of the
death - just before Christmas 2012 - of Margaret Perks. Then something extraordinary happened,
which allowed us to learn much more about the life of this gifted woman…
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That’s the way to do it! Fate
is indeed a very strange thing. When
this scrapbook, featuring Mr Punch, and bearing the words “1955 to 64 so far”
appeared on an internet auction site in 2013, we were drawn by the sales
blurb promising “items of interest regarding 1960s banks and news
stories”. Having bid successfully for
the book, we were amazed to find that it had actually belonged to Margaret
Perks and had, quite sadly, ended up at a sale of house clearance items on
the south coast following her death. The book is a fascinating insight into
Margaret’s own world and explains a lot about her success. We can only bring
you a small selection from this collections of stories from right across the
national newspaper spectrum which are (mostly) about women and how they could
rise to power in the workplace. Margaret kept two full page features on Hilda
Harding, Barclays’ first woman manager in 1958. There is also the sad story
of Mr F Burdon who managed Ipswich branch when Margaret worked there. |
Hilda Harding becomes Barclays’ First woman bank manager Image © Daily Sketch and successors, May 1958 |
Eileen Muckle and Margaret Perks
appointed trust controllers by Martins Bank Image © Daily Sketch and successors, July 1967 |
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Whilst
working at Newcastle Gosforth Branch he is reported as going for lunch on a
Thursday afternoon and then disappearing, leaving all his belongings behind
him in the hotel where he had been living for a year.It was believed that Mr
Burdon was extremely close to his brother, who had recently been admitted to
a care home suffering from shell-shock incurred during the Second World
War. On a lighter note, the book is
full of cuttings concerning Margaret’s passions – royalty, Young
Conservatives, horse riding and film stars, but also great thinkers and
people of the 50s and 60s who were going places. The book ends with several
cuttings from Spread Eagle showing what, for Margaret, must have been a very
satisfactory conclusion to the “merger” process – the acceptance by Barclays
of Martins Bank Trust Company as the superior entity. There is a picture of the first meeting of
the newly renamed Barclays Bank Trust Company at Juxon House, St Paul’s
Churchyard, in London. Earlier in time
there is a newspaper feature about Eileen Muckle and Margaret Perks being
Martins’ first appointed female Trust Controllers. |
The only known image of Martins Bank
Ipswich Buttermarket, this steel frame is erected in 1956. Image © East Anglian Daily Times and
successors. |
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A succession of stories from the former newspaper The Daily Sketch – which
chimes exactly with Margaret’s Conservative Views spills the beans on royalty
at home and abroad, and tell stories of brave animals who have managed to
help their owners – a horse helps out in a snow drift, a dog is awarded a
medal for bravery, and so on. Many of
the clippings relate to Margaret’s friends and relatives, and we have chosen
not to use them here. Poignantly, the
book stops with several blank pages to go, but with still a small collection
of clippings waiting to be stuck in.
Margaret is another example of a member of Martins’ Staff who does not
only go to extremes to be helpful, but is also driven with the purpose to
succeed, and to take inspiration from those who have already made it. |
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