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MARTINS
BANK LIMITED Staff Manager’s Department Water Street LIVERPOOL February 1944 |
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To the Staff Ladies and Gentlemen Once
again it is my pleasure to write
to you on domestic and personal affairs. The winter months have witnessed no
further demands Ministry of Labour on our clerical and managerial strength,
though what the future may hold is not known. I am confident, however, that
if there are to be yet more claims they will be answered in a
victory spirit. You would be very pleased to see the name of Mr Furniss in the list of New Year Honours.
I am sure every member of the staff
desired to be associated with the congratulations offered to him upon the honour
of Commander of the Order of the British Empire conferred upon him. The
beginning of the year was also notable for Mr Furniss in that during the
month of January he completed fifty years in the service of the Bank. It is a proud record and we all tender our
respectful congratulations. The
name of A H. Birse
of London Foreign appeared in the New Years Honours and felicitations are
offered to him on the award of C.B.E. As you may be aware, Birse is on the staff
of H.M. Embassy in Moscow. He took part as an interpreter in the Teheran
conference, and his photograph appeared in the “Times” of 7th
December last with those of the leaders of the United Nations
on the occasion of the dinner party, given there to celebrate Mr
Churchill’s sixty-ninth birthday. At
the Annual General Meeting of the Bank held on the 25th January
1944 a shareholder paid a tribute to the members of the Staff who have joined
the forced or who are on National Service, and conveyed the thanks of the
shareholders to those of the Staff still remaining. When thanking the
shareholders for the resolution, the Chairman of the Bank, Mr F.A. Bates M.C.,
A.F.C., D.L., said:- “We
naturally think on a day like this of all the staff that are away, and
perhaps in sending them this resolution of thanks, it would be fitting also
to send them a message that we are looking forward very earnestly to their
return and are getting ready to make use of their services when they come
back”. I
am sorry that owing to the shortage of paper and for other reasons, it will
not be possible to send a copy of the above quotation to all who are away on
Service. I should be grateful therefore, if members when they have read this
letter would very kindly forward it to one of their friends on
Service. From time to time I receive word from colleagues
overseas in which they mention with evident satisfaction that they have seen
one or other of these letters and telling me how they have passed it on to
any Martins Bank men serving in their neighbourhood. Congratulations
are due to H. Ryder of Burnley (now with H.M. Forces) who passed second in
the whole list of candidates in the 1943 Institute of Bankers
Examinations. He obtained distinction in Banking and Foreign Exchange, and also gained the Whitehead prize for Foreign
Exchange. Incidentally he further received the prize of £5. 5/- which the
Director and Chief General Manager gives annually to the member of our
staff who achieves the highest place amongst our candidates. It is
to the credit Burnley Branch that no fewer than three of our colleague who
passed Part 2 have been at that Branch. It recent months is has been a pleasure to have had calls from
serving colleagues. A number of them
have looked in to say “au revoir” whilst on embarkation leave. Others home from abroad have dropped
in. Included in their number were
C.N.C. Windle of Cheltenham who had been serving as the only English officer
on a Polish destroyer, K.W.Williams
of Head Office who told of his experiences whilst on a frigate in the North
Atlantic and Mediterranean and P. Huddleston of Head Office now recovering
from wounds received in the
attack on the Mareth Line Many have written from far afield
and it is always a pleasure to hear of the movements and
experiences of such colleagues. T. B. Swift of Waterloo now with
M.E.F. wrote recently to say he had been "on leave by the seaside,
plenty of fruit, grapes, peaches, plums, bananas and chocolates and sweets in
plenty". K.C. Batten of Oxford has had a variety of experiences with the
Royal Navy included in which have been participation in the invasions of
Sicily and Italy. He is now in charge ,of his own craft "somewhere in
the Mediterranean". E.S. Doughty of Manchester Office, has written his
impression of the naval action which resulted in the sinking of the
Scharnhorst. He was serving in H.M.S. Jamaica and when the German battleship
had been crippled. Jamaica was ordered to "go in and finish her
off". She closed in until about
1½ miles away and as Doughty puts it "the Scharnhorst took our full
broadside with terrible effect. Torpedoes were released, two tremendous
underwater explosions were heard and felt and when we looked round the
Scharnhorst could not be seen." A letter from Raymond Usher of North Eastern District Office was
received recently in which he stated he had met Martins men on several
occasions during his three years in the Middle East. D.M.P. Hulbert
of London District Office is serving as a Torpedo Officer in H.M. Submarine
Tuna. A month or two ago the Press announced the return of the Tuna to home
waters after four patrols in the Mediterranean during which she sank three U
boats. E.O. Browne of Miles Platting
writes from Italy in cheerful strain though he permits himself the complaint
that sunny Italy is not living up to
its reputation. G.E. Vaughan of Eastham is
pleasantly surprised to find himself comfortably placed in Kenya Colony. P.L. Verity of Manchester
Foreign has written from his prison camp in Germany.
He mentioned that recently a few former prisoners from Italian
camps had joined them. He also referred to the fact that his baseball team
had played a French Canadian team in a recent match. Others
from whom I have heard include F.H. Mathias of Taunton now
in India, J.C. Greenhalgh of Ashton writing from a coconut grove near
Columbo and J.E. Cooper of Ambleside who stated that he had been staying in
the Sultan's Old Palace at Tunis, 'the Officers' Mess’ being situated in the
harem. He suggested the wives must have been doing war work as he never saw
any of them! H.
Boothman of Gatley has written cheerfully from India where he says he has
opportunity of exchanging Views with several banking men. J.H. Gummerson of
St Lukes now in the Middle East, reported having run across
Ian Clark of Ormskirk in an Officers Club in the wilds. A.C. Byrne of Carnforth
Is camp building in the East and describes a trip he had had through a
mountainous part of Assam, set in magnificent scenery. W. Howarth of Manchester
District Office writing from Bombay referred to the great privilege he had
enjoyed in being a guest H.E. the Governor at dinner in Government House. D. McNair of London District
Office is also in Bombay and speaks of having met L.E.V. Hall of Kingsway and J.W. Greengrass of Fenchurch Street.
He also mentioned that he had met G.C. Lawrenson of Hendon and J. Russell Brown of Baker
Street and that Lawrenson had dropped across E.H. Jackson of Newcastle City
Office. F. Highley of Manchester District Office has arrived in India
and says the "high spot of the journey was our call at South Africa
where we were treated like lords, and the people could not do enough for us”.
I would add that many of our colleagues have spoken in similar strain of the
generous hospitality of the South African people M.
Holloway
of Market Place, Huddersfield, now in India, W.C. Frost of Great Crosby in
Southern Rhodesia and C.L. Sorenson of Heathfield have all written recently. A.N. Smith
of Holmfirth refers to perpetual sunshine and the blue Mediterranean being
all very well but says
“give me a good old English fog and a sight of the Manchester Ship Canal and
even a few more balances and I would be quite content”. I have to report with
great regret that since I last wrote the following serving members have lost their
lives:- W.V. Steed of Cocks Biddulph, killed in action in. Italy
December, 1943, J.B. Barrett
of Dartford, previously reported
missing, formal notice of death received
in December,1943. He was buried near Neuwied in Germany. D.H.C. Ure of Birkenhead Killed in a flying
accident in November, 1943. L.R. Clark of Lombard Street, killed whilst
driving a staff car in Sicily. D.S. Evans
of Lombard Street, killed
in a flying
accident in October.1943. C.A. Bell of Stockport previously reported missing from bombing operations now officially assumed
to have died. : W.H. Evans
of Head Office Messenger Staff, killed in
action, in the Central Mediterranean in September,
1943 The
sympathy of all is warmly extended to the relatives of these colleagues. The list of those missing
is a lengthening one and since I last wrote to you the following
names nave to be added:- E.S. Cowell of Newbiggin since December 1943
on naval operations, A.H. Duringer
D.F.C. D.F.M of Birmingham since January 1944 on operational flight over Germany. In November last
Duringer was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. It will be remembered that he was decorated
with the D.F.M. in August 1942. The
citation covering his latest award states
Flight-Lieutenant Duringer has always displayed the greatest enthusiasm for operational
duties. The crew of which he is a
member' has been engaged on several occasions by enemy fighters. In June 1943
in a combat with enemy fighters, his aircraft
was very severely damaged, but Flight-Lieutenant Duringe displayed a high degree of skill and initiative and a complete disregard
for danger, calmly
continuing to perform his Duties and rendering valuable aid to both the
captain and
navigator. This officer has shown great courage
and resourcefulness throughout
both his tours of operational duty”. J.J. Martin
of Kendal since January,1944, on operational flight over Germany, Eric Bardsley
of Gatley since January,1944 on operational flight over Germany. Your
thoughts will be with the relatives of these members in their
anxiety and I earnestly trust
news
of their safety may be received. D, Waud of Houghton-le-Spring from whom
nothing, had been heard for a long time
is now reported a
prisoner in Japanese hands. A, Whitworth of the messenger staff at Blackpool is also
reported a prisoner in the hands of the Japanese. Whilst
it is gratifying to know of their safety recent revelations as to the treatment of prisoners
of war in the far east increases our concern for those of our
colleagues in captivity there. C.D. Stevens
of Westgate who as reported in my last letter was in hospital in the Middle
East after his exchange from a prison camp
in Italy is now back here in hospital near Hexham. A week
or two ago I was very pleased to learn that
J.W. Moore of North Eastern District Office
had escaped from a prisoner of war camp and safely reached the
British lines. In addition to the further award made to A.H.
Duringer mentioned earlier in this letter I
learn with pleasure that P. Huddleston
of Head Office has won the Military Cross. As yet I have no details but hope
to let you know more about this in a subsequent
letter. I am also very pleased to announce that J.L.W.
Wagland of London Foreign has been
awarded a bar to the D.F.C. he won in 1940.
The official citation reads- This Officer has
undertaken a large number of sorties and his
navigational ability throughout has been outstanding. On two occasions in September Squadron
Leader Wagland participated in sorties which
demanded skill and determination of a high order. In addition to his good work in the air, Squadron
Leader Wagland has rendered excellent service
in the training of aircraft crew." The following is an extract
from The London- Gazette of 14th January. 1944:- "The King has been graciously pleased to give orders for the publication of the names of the following
personnel who have been mentioned in despatches by Air Officers Commanding-in-Chief".
Included in
the names is that of H. Neville Thomas of Castle Street, Liverpool, and it is a pleasure to be able to report
this distinction. The thoughts of those at home will be more than ever with members
away on Service in the coming
days in which tremendous
events seem destined to
take place. In your name I wish them the best of luck and a safe arid speedy return. In conclusion may I offer a welcome to those
of you who have come into the Bank in a temporary
capacity since I last wrote. Yours Faithfully
Staff Manager |
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