ISSUE 9 Spring/Summer 2020 www.martinsbank.co.uk Testing times… As 2020 unfolds, and the World struggles to both fight and come to terms with the effects of an invisible enemy, the generation that lived through or grew up during the Second World War have been reminded of the steadfastness and personal sacrifice required to keep everyone safe – across the land, 8 MAY 2020 was celebrated in style by people of ALL ages, as a respectful marker of the joy and relief felt seventy-five years earlier when Victory in Europe was declared. Tapping into modern day reserves of what many see as the British traits of resolve and fortitude, our Nation was not going to let anything get in the way of remembering Home Guard outside Kirkby-in-Furness sub branch (Lancashire), 1941. the sacrifices made by millions in order to achieve peace. Image © Martins Bank Archive Collection – Brian Brown War is over! Our first newsletter of 2020 is devoted to the role played by Martins Bank and its Staff in both the First and Second World Wars. We briefly meet two of the staff of Morecambe Branch who have made the local newspapers with their exploits in the First World War – one receives a Commissioned Rank, the other is wounded but safe in a French Hospital at the end of hostilities. We also read a poignant letter of condolence sent by Martin’s Private Bank London, to the father of a young member of staff who died serving his Country. From records of the Second World War, we look again at the key role played by the Bank in looking after some of Britain’s reserves of gold, and we look at two patriotic advertisements for the Bank, aimed at Martins Bank at 5 Bedford Street Exeter – Destroyed 1942 Image: Martins Bank Archive Collection/Exeter Online re-starting trade with the rest of the world. We take a trip to the Lake District where a very special building is equipped as a kind of “haven” for staff who need a break from the horrors of war – the Ambleside Rest House, an asset prized by Staff and their families. Using information held within the Martins Bank Staff Database, we examine the Bank’s decision to employ a large number of its female staff to be Managers (in all but name) of Branches whilst the male staff were away fighting for King and Country. We look at the Branches which were damaged, or destroyed by enemy action (The picture above shows the devastation at Exeter – a branch that had only been open for three years – after the infamous Baedecker Air Raids of April 1942). We meet a polymath with a top-secret role, glimpse the Bank’s preparations for “business as usual”, and pause to reflect on the efforts of some who worked for, or fought and died to create, a better future for us all. The war to end war… The First World War was originally seen as something that would be over quickly, and the idea of going off to fight appealed greatly to the thousands of men who signed up to fight. It turned out of course, to be one of the most shocking and saddening conflicts the World had seen, with millions of young lives lost in the most desperately harrowing and difficult of conditions. For those who returned, life would be never be the same, blighted by injury and/or physical and mental disability the largest part of which was what we know today as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Many of the staff of the Bank of Liverpool and of Martin’s Private Bank resumed their careers. The Bank of Liverpool’s Branch at Morecambe moved to sumptuous new premises in 1900. Towards the end of World War One, the Lancaster Guardian recorded details of two members of the Morecambe staff who had been fighting in the conflict: March 1917 COMMISSIONS FOR WELL KNOWN LANCASTRIANS – 5th King’s Own “Commissions have this week been granted in the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment to W. Pinch, H. Chapman, W H Metcalfe, and H Parker. The first three are well known members of the teaching profession in Lancaster, and enthusiastic Rugby footballer, and the last named was engaged in the Bank of Liverpool, Morecambe. They joined the 5th King’s Own at the outbreak of the war, and received their officer training in the Bristol Officer Cadet Batallion. Second Lieutenant William Henry Metcalfe, a native of Ulverston who received his education at Ulverston Grammar School, is the only son of Mr T Parker, Manager of the Bank of Liverpool , Morecambe. He was on the bank staff when he joined the fifth King’s Own in September 1914”. November 1918 WOUNDED “Pte. Ronald Ritchie (19). Royal Sussex Regt., eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Ritchie 94b, West Greaves, Lancaster, lies in the 10th General Hospital, France, with serious wounds in the back and shoulder, received on November 5th. Before joining up he was a clerk at the Bank of Liverpool at. Morecambe and Appleby. He was also an old boy of the Lancaster Royal Grammar School”. Cuttings: Lancaster Guardian Images © Johnstone Press. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD Images reproduced with kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive An expression of sympathy… The First World War is still one of the worst losses of life through conflict that our World has known, with individual family tragedies running into the millions. We were indebted to Lynette Mann, for allowing us to display what is a rare relic from the days of Martin’s Private Bank, a sad and poignant reminder of the horrors of the War, and of course, a very personal family memory. The letter shown here was written in 1917, a year before the merger of Martin’s Private Bank and the Bank of Liverpool. The recipient was Lynette’s husband’s grandfather, and the letter expresses the condolences of the Manager and Staff at 68 Lombard Street on hearing of the death in action of his son, who has been previously highly commended for gallantry. The Imperial War Museum’s “Lives of the First World War” project was charged with the task of piecing together the details of what happened to the men who returned from the conflict and resumed ordinary civilian life. Martins Bank Archive was able to help by sharing with the project the details we hold about the Staff of Martin’s Private Bank, the Bank of Liverpool and the Lancashire and Yorkshire bank who re-commenced their banking careers. Many were able to work up to normal retirement age. Sadly, some found that either the mental or physical scars of war were too much to bear, and retired early or resigned, and some did not live for more than a couple of years after resuming their careers… Bullion in the basement… As we move now to the Second World War, we find that even after eighty years or so, this is a story that still fascinates. The idea that the Bank of England considered the safe at Martins Bank’s Head Office to be good enough to safely store the country’s gold reserves has a certain romance to it, and it is of course something of which the City of Liverpool should always be proud. Not for the first time in its life, Head Office is used as a film set, this time in 1993, when a fictional account of this wartime escapade - “The Bullion Boys” - is made by the BBC. In the gloom of the blackout, towards midnight on an evening in May, 1940, a small group of bank officials gathered on the platform of Lime Street Station, Liverpool, to render a national service which the tragic collapse of France had made a regrettable necessity. For the Bank of England, too, had its Dunkirk, and the heavily laden train which drew up alongside the waiting officials was the first of three special trains bearing a part of the gold reserve of the Bank to a place which seemed less vulnerable to the threat of air attack and possible invasion. That place was the strongroom of our new Head Office building. Built upon rock, with walls and ceilings nearly a yard thick, made of concrete reinforced by interlaced steel bars, equipped with doors each weighing nine tons, our strongroom accommodation was adjudged by the Bank of England bullion officials admirable for storing a considerable portion of the gold reserve. Accordingly, preparations were made with as much secrecy as could be observed by vacating our Treasury and Branch Security sections and crowding the contents into the Bond and Custody rooms. The problem of getting the heavy loads down to the basement had to be solved as our bullion lift could not cope with a job of this magnitude, and moreover, trucking would have been required from the only entrance on a street level. An examination was made of the escape hatches opening from the air-raid shelters, and by good fortune the only one operating to the street in a manner suited to our purpose was found to give access to a large room convenient to the strongroom corridor. We then borrowed from a customer a long wooden chute used for warehousing butter and cheeses, and fixed it to the hatch with its lower end anchored on a strong steel cupboard. When the first train arrived on the night of May 22nd the boxes of gold were loaded on to lorries and brought through the streets under police protection to the bank.