At one time it was suggested that I could have a job with the “Anglo South American Bank”, where an Uncle on my Mother’s side was Manager. It would have meant going to work in Santiago in Chile. However, luckily for me the Bank went bust and Uncle came home!
It was not easy to get employment in 1930/31, and the only way with The City was through influence, and my interview with Mr Simms, Manager of the “Union Insurance Society of Canton” in Cornhill, came about because Grandpa Harries was at one time the London Manager, and taught Mr Simms about the Business. The interview did not produce a job but another meeting, with a Mr H. O. Bruell, another old friend of Grandpa’s. Mr Bruell was the Contract Director at “C.E. Heath & Co Ltd.”, the (then) leading Insurance Brokers and Underwriters, in not only The City but the World! Mr Bruell took Dad and me to lunch in the Captain’s Room at”Lloyds” (of London, Underwriters). Afterwards I was taken to meet Lord de Vesci, Office Manager at Heath & Co, and I was put on the Waiting List for a job.
Nine months later I was working in The City in the Postal Department at Heath’s in Cornhill. It was now March 1931. I was two months off my Eighteenth Birthday. During the waiting period I, of course, remained at school and rather enjoyed my Football and Cricket, and got my First XI Colours in both. School work did not worry me too much because I knew I had a job lined up.
The Postal department was in the Basement. My work was taking mail round the various departments, collecting mail for dispatch from “Out” trays, addressing envelopes, putting the right amount of stamps on – remember mail was being dispatched Worldwide – and each morning, delivering “By Hands” round The City. Our hours were from 8.30am ’till 8.00pm. We did not go home until all the mail was dispatched; the final mail being taken to St. Martins Le Grand – the main City Post Office by St. Paul’s Cathedral to be posted as “Late Fees” by 8.00pm. This was all for £60 a year! Lord de Vesci used to come round on the last Thursday of the month and hand out a cheque for £5.00, which in the Lunch Hour we changed for Cash at Lloyd’s Bank in Leadenhall Street. We were all very well dressed. I wore a pin-stripe suit and vest, a bowler hat and carried an umbrella; sometimes I wore spats.
We were a rather select lot in the Postal Department. It consisted of a permanent staff of four, who really knew their stuff. The Manager kept the accounts. The other three “pigeon-holed” mail until they knew they had the lot for the day, and kept the large, small and medium envelopes already addressed, and passed them to us for weighing etc. etc. The rest of us “new boys” did the post and waited patiently for “Promotion Upstairs”. In my day there were chaps from Harrow, Charterhouse, Sedbury, Rugby and Owen’s (that’s me). A particular friend of mine was John Heseltine. His Father was a Cartoonist for “The Daily Sketch”, I think. He came to work in a Chauffeur Driven White Rolls Royce. He and I used to sneak off sometimes to “Pimms” opposite “The Royal Exchange” for a real cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit. Another one of the “stamp lickers” was John Charles Pole Gell (Yep! Spelling is spot on this time Dad!). I met John again in “London District”. He was a Colonel in one of the Guards Regiments and I was “RTO London District”, but that was 22 years later!
Soon after joining “Heath & Co” the Firm moved to “Bankside House” in Leadenhall Street. It was a new building; six floors, lifts that worked, and had the “latest thing” in The City; a mezzanine floor. Cuthbert Heath bought the whole building and let it out except for the Fifth and Sixth which were occupied by the “Heath & Co” workforce; and the Second Floor, which was turned into a Table Tennis Club. Marvellous! Five Tables, and it became part of the “Erycinus Sports Club”, incidentally the Greek word for Heath (the Erycinus Sports Club was later renamed C E Heath, and was one of the clubs at one time involved in the Leigh & Westcliffe Lawn Tennis Association – formed to provide a competitive league in South East Essex – amazing what a “google” name check can turn up!). We played matches against the City Banks at the “Lombard Lounge Club” in Lombard Street, commercial houses like “Harrods”, “Selfridges”. I played several times against Victor Barna, the Czechoslovak World Table Tennis Champion (actually Dad, he was Hungarian born (1911-1972) but later played for Britain. He won 22 World Titles inc. 5 Singles and one of the World’s greatest Table Tennis Players ever! You don’t mention who won those matches Dad!)
After about 6 months I was promoted. My move was to the Renewals Department. In all I stayed at “Heath & Co”until 30 November 1936 and worked in “All Risks”, “Fire”, “Marine”, “Enquiries”, but the job I liked best was “Underwriting Accounts” This job was on the Sixth Floor of the “Lloyds Building” and the work covered our Underwriting Syndicate, i.e. “Heath & Co 620”, “Heath & Others 624”, “Montague Evans 625” and “H J Parsons 629” (can somebody explain to me what that means?). My job entailed visiting Insurance Brokers, and agreeing their accounts with our syndicates. I had sixty Insurance Brokerage firms to look after – not bad for a Youngster! There were four of us who worked outside. Sometimes two of us would help each other if the account was a large one like “Price Forbes”, “Matthew Leslie and Goodwin”, “Wrightson”, etc. We used to meet up with others in the same game, so we had “coffee parties” and played dominoes some mornings. We would take our ledgers back to the office on the Sixth Flor of “Lloyds” and the office staff sent out the Quarterly Accounts. Believe it or not, Underwriting Accounts are probably the most complicated, with their “short debits” and “under credits”, and the business of changing Sterling into Foreign Currencies and vice versa. Claire (Mum) knows something about these accounts, as she worked in the Accounts Department of “Price Forbes” (“Google” “Underwriting Accounts” if you want to know more). Our Manager was Charlie Michaels who had an office at the end of the room. He was so short, he could not be seen when he sat down! Sometimes we could see the round bald patch on the top of his head. I remember another short girl in the Enquiry Office in Birchen Lane. The chaps there used to stand her on her desk and bounce her up and down until her knickers fell down round her ankles! Got to have a laugh sometimes (very PC not, Dad!)………
Insurance work is really interesting, especially in a leading Broker’s like “Cuthbert Heath” (there is plenty on “the Web” about CE heath, etc – some good, some bad (misconduct in 1998), and an interesting (short) article about the man himself on Lloyds Website. Follow my Blogroll Link if you are interested)
The Erycinus Sport’s Club had other activities – our Sports Ground was at Raynes Park near Wimbledon. It was after a football match against “Commercial Union” at Grove Park that I met my future Wife on London Bridge Station. She had been playing hockey for her firm, “Price Forbes Insurance Brokers”, whose offices were near The Monument. It was 1934. She was 18 and very, very good looking! She was with a friend and I was with Stan Brown. We followed them down The Tube at London Bridge and flirted with them all the way to Clapham Common where one of them got off, followed by Stan; and I stayed on and followed the other one to Trinity Road. I chatted her up but she was in a hurry, she had a date that night. So we agreed to meet again and we’ve been together ever since.
Our Swimming Club was in full swing. We used the Paddington Baths on one night a week. I won my first prize there – a cut glass bowl, which Angela still has – one hundred yards breast-stroke. The Club played Polo, and Temme – who was the first chap to swim “The Channel” both ways – played for “Commercial Union”. Incidentally they put up £300 Sponsor Money for the swim. (Edward Harry Temme: He swam from France to England on 5 August 1927 (14h 29m) and from England to France on 18 August 1934 (15h 34m – Ed) However he was a very dirty polo player! Water-polo is notoriously dirty; so many fouls are made underwater and are not normally seen.
We had some fun in those early days. We used to go to quite a lot of parties – five of us usually: Stan Brown, Robert Yeldham Unwyn (I think! – Ed), me and two others. Parties at “Moorfields Eye Hospital” and “North Middlesex Hospital”. Donald Soper used to organise parties for young people. He was a famous Methodist Preacher – became a Lord (Check out “Baron Soper” on Wikipedia if you are interested – Ed) . Robert always carried a camera; he made money out of it. One day he took a picture of a man who jumped from our building and landed on a bus. He rushed it up to Fleet Street and got £10 for it… I could go on for ever!
In my first years at work Dad still locked up at 10 o’clock. We were supposed to be home by then, but I found it a bit irksome at times. Anyway I had a Girlfriend and thought I should have a bit of latitude. I don’t know whether Dad knew I was still out or not. I had my own Bedroom, so Mother used to make sure the Lavatory Window was open, so I could climb up a drainpipe and so to bed! This was while we still lived at Southgate. When we moved to Epsom I was allowed a key – a good job(!) because with all the parties going on we were a gang of “late birds”! There were times when I had to wait until about seven o’clock in the morning, and creep in when Dad was shaving! He must have known but he never said anything.
In 1932 the Family moved to Epsom. I had a £10 raise in January and at Christmas 1932 we all got a £10 bonus, so my salary was £70 per year. I was “bloody hard up” despite the fact that I only gave Mother 10/- (Shillings) a month which she usually gave me back a few days after getting it! Dad paid my fares and bought most of my clothes.
Life was pretty good though. I was playing football for “Broomfield” in the “Nemean League”. We played clubs similar to those in the Southern Amateur League, like Hastings, Ipswich, Moor Green, Wood Green, etc., and in Hospital Charity Cup matches I usually got a 10/- note in my shoe after the match (there are a couple of Broomfield FCs around today – with a web presence – but the one Dad played for can be found by clicking on the “BroomfieldFC1911” link on my Blogroll – Ed). Cricket was a must and I played for “Southgate Adelaide”. We were a First Class Amateur Club, and I met and played with people like Tom Pearce who captained Essex; Teddy Carris who played for Finchley and Middlesex; Benka, for Neasden and many others….don’t keep “name dropping” Harries! (Southgate Adelaide are still going strong and “on the WWW” – follow the Blogroll link. Now on Facebook, they have played on the Walker Ground in North London ever since they were founded in 1870 – Ed)
Holidays were good family affairs and we were now going to “Pineapple Farm” at Manorbier near Tenby in Wales. Pembrokeshire. The “Little England Beyond Wales” was a lovely place. Of course The Harries Family have many connections with that part of the World.
Meanwhile I had joined “The Territorials”. A friend of mine who lived in our road at Southgate was a member already. He worked in a Brokers in “B….ter (Help!-Ed) Square, and we travelled up together, Bowler Hats, Umbrellas and all. It was May 1931 and I was “Gunner Harries” in “159 (Lloyds) AA Battery (TA) 53 Brigade”. 98 Officers and Men, all Insurance Chaps. There were 3 Batterys in the Brigade, a Bank’s Battery (157), Lloyds (159) Battery, and a Commercial Battery (158) (from “the web”, these Batterys made up the 53rd (City of London) Anti-Aircraft Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) – London District HQ, 157th, 159th (Lloyds), 158th (City of London) Btys: War Office Dept, White City Road W 12 – Ed). Uncle Leonard, my Father’s young Brother, who worked for the Eastern Telegraph Company in Moorgate, in the same office as Dad, was in the 158 Bty. I saw him one day riding on the seat of a 3 inch AA Gun (the only AA Gun we had in those days). He was coming down Cornhill in The Lord Mayor of London’s Show. I was also in it later on. There was great competition to get into Lloyds Battery, so few were needed. There were some famous names there too, including one Bill Fussell, a great friend of mine who married Claire and I at Epsom Registry Office in August 1937. He was famous for that very reason! Our Best man, John Robertson (again, I think!-Ed) was also a Gunner. He later became Medical Officer of Heath’s for Surrey. Training was every Monday night at Lytton Grove, Putney. We studied German aircraft, knowing they were to be our enemy.
At one time I got fed up with office work, I don’t know which department I was in, but I went up to “Scotland Yard” to try for the Metropolitan Police. No hope! They were interviewing 200 a day from all over the World! When I stood in front of about six Doctors, naked, on two pieces of paper, with legs apart, they said “Go back for the other half!” I was 9 stone 10lbs in those days (under 62kgs). Then after my first Camp, I told Dad I wanted to join the Army. He took me for a walk one Sunday morning and talked me out of it. he said “Don’t do it Josh. They can do anything they like to you in the Army, except put you in the ‘Family Way’ “. So I stayed at “Heath’s”.
TA Camp was two weeks a year and because we were “Lloyds” it did not count against our annual entitlement. 1931 at Watchet – Doniford Range; 1932 at Blackdown, one week only. Ramsay MacDonald and the Labour Party were in; Disarmament was the Policy, and there was no money for training; no ammunition. So we trained with a Mountain Pack Battery. Have you ever heard of a mule TRAF?! (can someone please let me know what this acronym stands for? Military/Artillery/?- Ed) (There is an interesting article by Christopher Trevelyan on the ‘Web’ – at least I think so(!) – on the Indian Army Mountain Artillery, which gives a good idea of what Dad got up to on that Training Camp – Blackdown (Surrey) though is not nearly so exotic as the North West Frontier, in the time of the British Raj. Follow my Blogroll link-Ed). I was at Blackdown, near Frimley in Surrey, again in 1940. Claire came down and we stayed at The White Hart, near Frimley for a weekend. I was on Embarkation Leave for Finland and had reached the rank of full Sergeant.
However, 1933 and back to Watchet; lovely Camp there! The Regular Battery, “5 AA Bty” from Portsmouth, was acting as basic “work boys”. They tried to kill their Sgt. Major by bundling bales of hay round his bell tent and setting fire to them! Their punishment was to be sent to Aden. Aden was the Gunner’s Punishment Station in those days. (Aden was formerly part of British India and then a British Colony and then a South Arabian Federated State, and in 1967 became the People’s Republic of South Yemen-Ed). That year we stood in the rain for hours waiting to be inspected by the “boss Gunner”, Brigadier General Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd. What a memory! (loads about ‘Archie’ on the ‘Web’-Ed)
I was Number 5 on the Gun that year. I received the Round from number 6 who catered it. I rammed it home in the Semi-Automatic Breech, which came up and pushed my hand in the air, which I then brought down on the Firing Handle on the left-hand-side of the Breech to fire the Round. What happened? A misfire! Wait one minute; fire again. No good! So Number 6 opens the Breech by hand. I receive the Round which slides out, not separated thank goodness! Examine the Primer. Oh Dear! It’s been struck! The Drill is to “double” it away (military speak for bl**dy quickly!-Ed) to a place of safety, which is supposed to be at least twenty yards in front of the Gun. What did I do with it? I “doubled away” with it, and placed it at the feet of Col. Barratt (the Chairman of Lloyds Bank) who was the Brigade Commander, and who was standing safely in the sandbagged Command Post, with the Mayor and the crews of the Vickers Predictor and the UB2 (Universal Base 2 Metres) (one of the first fully automated anti-aircraft fire-control systems, the predictor was an electromechanical analog computer. It could aim a gun at an aircraft based on simple inputs like the observed speed and the angle to the target and was intended to be used against high-altitude bombers-Wikipedia-Ed)
There was Hell to Pay! I had retreated back to my Gun by now. I had to “double back” to the Command Post and pick up the Shell and “double away” with it to a place of safety in front of the Gun!
We had some fun though. We had competitions in the Battery to see how many rounds we could fire in one crossing of the target; the target being a “sleeve” towed by an aircraft. The old 3″ AA Gun was used for all sorts of things: Air Defence on ships; mounted on Vehicles; or on the Ground. It was made for the ’14/’18 War in Belgium (made in, but of course used in as well!-Ed). The Shell was fixed ammunition, and the Projectile had a powder fuse and weighed 28lbs (approx 13 kg-Ed) with a ceiling of 20-25 feet. There was also a Shrapnel Round with a 2 to 4 second fuse that exploded forward at about 2000-4000 feet (approx 600-1200 metres-Ed). The normal Shell had up to a 30 second fuse. We had bearings which we should not fire outside, but one day we did not hear the “cease fire” and went on firing. The Mayor of Watchet complained that Shell pieces had fallen on his harbour!
By the way, I had my first beer at Watchet. It was the custom of the Section Commander, Lt Gibson, to take his Section to the NAAFI Canteen for a drink, and I had my first Light Ale in September 1931. It was a good Canteen and one could go there in the evening to eat and drink and play “Housey Housey” (Bingo) . Watchet was a good spot and most of the time we drank Stickleton Stout (Somerset Cider) (I can’t find this name on the ‘Web’ – can anyone throw some light?-Ed) in the local Pub. It was potent stuff! The locals drank it and it was thick and opaque!
Watchet again in 1934. Same sort of routine; same old guns; same old crowd. Mother and Dad drove down in the 97hp Hudson Essex (a US car makers formed originally in 1909) car and stayed at the Somerset Arms Hotel. Not a bad drive for Dad – all the way from Epsom where we now lived.
In 1936 King George V died, and the five best chaps at Rifle Drill were selected for lining the route. I was one of those selected and we practiced under a Warrant Officer from the Welsh Guards for several nights. The big day dawned and I was standing in the gutter in Sussex Gardens. The cortege passed on the way to Paddington Station – the Coffin was going to Windsor for burial. It rained all day and we were soaked. Still it was an event to be proud to be chosen for!
In 1935 and 1936, we went to Weybourne near Sheringham in Norfolk, and met, for the first time, a good AA Gun; the 3.7″ Mobile Gun. It was a marvellous gun; equivalent to the German’s 88 millimetre. The projectiles weighed 56 lbs (over 25kgs), and one could fire an airburst to explode at 19,400 yards at 50ft (nearly 19km at 15metres) – jolly good for HE (High Explosive) at concentrations of enemy troops! It was also used as an Anti Tank weapon, and also built for static sites and fixed in Concrete (see Blogroll link if you are interested in the facts and figures).
Dad let me take the car to Camp in 1935 but it broke down at Potter Heigham in Norfolk, so I had to leave it at “Sidney Grape’s Garage” for a welding job, which cost £5; and I went to Camp in Bill Fussell’s car. He took me back a week later to collect the old Hudson Essex (in checking out Sid Grape’s Garage, I have discovered that he was a leading and interesting Norfolk literary figure – the Norfolk Humorist. Take a few minutes out to check him out by following my Blogroll link – where you will also find a photo of the “famous” garage!-Ed)
I only did six years with Lloyds Battery. I would have done more but Claire and I decided that we would like to get married, so I resigned from the TA to spend more time with her.