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No sign of Chicken Maryland? Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Stan Walker |
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Before any speeches, pep talks, announcements, there were liqueurs and
cigars and in my first year, I was taken to task when, as a confirmed
non-smoker, I declined a cigar. Others could have smoked it so I behaved
myself in subsequent years.Similar tactics were used when hotel staff came to
collect the part-empty bottles. They were told that they had been passed down
the table, put under the table would have been more honest but our system
allowed me to help Lewis Watson in the softening of a bottle of Drambuie one
year. The occasion of Mr. Lee’s retirement came along and a presentation was
to be made after the Dinner. Don Barnie and I were playing on the
“right-wing” and were instructed, on signal, to go out through the single
door, turn left and go along the corridor to the double doors, which would
have been left unlocked, where we would find the present under a cover. The
doors were to be opened and the present pushed into the Dining Room. |
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Alun J Hughes –Manager, Lewis’s Bank Leicester Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Roy
France |
Left to Right: Lewis Watson, Assistant Manager Lewis’s Bank Manchester,
Jim Baigent, Lewis’s Bank Liverpool. Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Roy
France |
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The present was there but, of course, the doors were locked and the
pressie would not go through the single door so we had to wait for the double
doors to be opened. I thought that it added to the fun of the occasion but of
course Mr. Lee didn’t see it that way. He did call into Selfridges Branch
quite often and I understood from Roy France that Mr. Lee had mentioned a
particular clock as the desired present, so I was surprised when Don and I
got to the item under the cover. From its size, it could have given Big Ben a good run for his money
had it been a clock. I believe that the covered item was later exchanged for
the desired clock. After the formalities, the evening usually descended to a
card game but Roy was particularly dexterous in card manipulation so didn’t’
join in and I and one or two others usually joined him. Conversation was
pleasant and on a fine night, a walk round the centre of Liverpool could help
the effects of anything drunk to wear off. |
Left to Right: Mr Eric Roscoe, Manager Lewis’s Bank Birmingham, and Mr Hatton, Manager of Lewis’s Bank Manchester Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Roy France |
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There was the famous “exceedingly bare” statue by Epstein to be seen
over the main door of Lewis’s store and the nearest of Liverpool’s two
Cathedrals, it “has one to spare” (happy memories of The Spinners). So far as
I am aware, none of the other late-night delights of Liverpool was ever
indulged in…} |
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Mr GAM Lee General Manager, Lewis’s Bank Limited, and (right) Mr J H Keswick Chairman Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Roy France |
Propping each other up – a group photo from the “drinking” part of the evening Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Roy France |
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