We are delighted to begin serialising the memoirs of Richard Michaud, who joined Martins in 1950. His observations on his banking life, from being a junior member of staff to seeing the bank taken over by Barclays give an interesting, often amusing insight into Martins, that is bound to bring back happy memories for many Martins Staff. In this first extract – “Refer to Drawer” we see just how involved and painstaking the work of a junior clerk used to be, and it is a sobering thought that most if not all of the tasks he describes are now no longer performed, and that this explains the empty looking banking halls of today…	WHY NOT ALSO VISIT THESE PAGES
My first working branch of Martins Bank was in Whitehall, and was known as Cocks Biddulph Branch where, prior to circa 1919 Messrs Cocks and Lord Biddulph had looked after the finances of the Rich and Famous. Next-door to the Whitehall Theatre, where Brian Rix was losing his trousers nightly it was, for me, the perfect place to start my career in banking. At that time Martins was expanding, taking on staff they might not otherwise have engaged. I rather think that my main qualification was a long forgotten certificate from Pitman's College, for Book-keeping. I entered the front door at 9am on that November Monday morning, after identifying myself to the Bank Messenger who answered, and directly in front of me was the counter with two serious-looking cashiers, unloading cash boxes into drawers, and I was taken behind the scenes to meet the Chief Clerk, Mr Clarke. I don't know what I was expecting, frock-coats, cravats, anything but a pleasant gentleman in a grey suit who immediately put me at my ease. He took me to meet the Manager, Mr Clemow, another very pleasant gentleman and then I was shown the kind of work I was expected to do as a beginner - filing away cheques, credit-slips and dividend vouchers, not to mention piles of internal vouchers issued and initialled by the various departmental heads. With many rich and famous families on the books there was bound to be some confusion but nothing had ever prepared me for the many Family Trustee accounts, where often the only indication as to which account they might apply was the order of the names on a dividend voucher. Thus: "A..., B.... C.... & D..." would be a reasonable title but, the next voucher might have "A. . . , B. . . , D. . . , & C. . . " , a different account entirely and if, for some reason a trustee's name was changed, filing could get very complicated. Bank Customer statements followed, with items like dividend vouchers being carefully marked off against their entries in the ledgers, a sometimes irritating business as they were often mis-filed and I soon learned the value of being precise in this matter as any late-night work, in those days, got a payment entitlement of ^‘Tea-money' . This amounted to just a few shillings and was rarely paid out for most of the year, junior staff being ejected early. Once I had got the hang of the filing I found myself embroiled in the 'Remittances' . This was the listing, in Bank order, of cheques paid in by customers during the day. These were sent off each day to the 'Clearing House', (somewhere in the City), where they would be swapped for Martins cheques. I therefore had to become familiar with the adding machine, which had many uses, one of which was quite new to me. It was called a Swing Carriage and, by moving a lever could list and total a column of figures and at the same time the serial number of the cheque would also be listed without adding it to the total. At this time, all branches of clearing banks in the British Isles had code numbers, of four or more digits. Non-clearing banks had six digits which mostly began with a seven. Non-clearing banks had accounts with the Clearing Banks and their cheques took longer, via the Clearing System, to reach their destination. Clearing Bank cheques would arrive at the branch on which they were drawn within three days, Non-Clearing Bank cheques a couple of days later. Having got the hang of these systems I was then introduced to the ledgers, (the Bank’s copy of customers’ statements) and the payment of the clearing - the huge piles of customer's cheques which came from the Clearing House every day. At first, the cheques would be listed, single column, on the adding machine, then the amounts of the cheques, in words were read off; This would provide for the return of any cheque on which the words and figures differed. This required vigilance as there were customers who might do this deliberately. Dates would then be checked and any more than three months old also returned, but there were never very many in this category, except in early February of each New Year. Customers always took great care to put the New Year date in for the whole of January but, on the first of Feb, OH dear! After that, no further trouble. Next came the payee's name and the appropriate endorsement on the reverse of the cheque and finally, as if that were not enough, the cancellation of the signature, in red ink, confirming that it had been examined by the Clerk and found to be genuine. After that, overdrawn accounts, with the day's clearing items to be referred to the Managers and, if there was no satisfactory explanation from the customer, the cheque would be bounced. This might happen because, cheques paid in either yesterday, or today, had not yet had time to reach their destination bank and the entry at the head of the cheque might read, "Effects not Cleared, Please Represent". Sometimes a customer might decide that he was not satisfied as to the transaction for which the cheque had been issued and he might instruct us and the heading would read "Orders Not to Pay". By far the worst heading was, of course, "Refer to Drawer". One problem soon became apparent at this stage; Having now got a Bank Account for the first time in my life, I had chosen a particular signature which I considered easy to recognise and, the better written, more difficult to forge. Clever me! Unfortunately, a new customer had opened an account, the newly-appointed head-master of a quite famous school no less, and his signature was so identical to mine that, at first glance it was indistinguishable. As a result errors began to accumulate and, worse still, statements had to be re-typed. This could not be allowed to continue, ‘bread and butter’ is there to be looked after and, alas for my clever signature, it had to be changed, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Accuracy in all things was very important to the daily routine. Errors had to be found no matter how long it took. This was very much underlined by our new Assistant Manager, Mr Norman Birkbeck Butterworth, who's question "Are you sure?" whilst most irritating, probably brought greater care to my daily routine. I wonder what he would make of today's work? Things have changed since those days; Computers I suppose…
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