The man from the bank !
On release from the RAF I needed to do some soul searching as to what I wanted to do with my life. I was subject to a certain amount of parental pressure to go into a socially acceptable job after my service life and, at their suggestion and with no real plans, I applied to join the Midland bank. Midland bank at that time was one of the 'big 5' banks although it eventually became a part of HSBC in later years.
After going through the interview process I was offered a job but, as I had applied in North Wales, it would be at an English branch. To work in Wales one had to be able to speak Welch, a not unreasonable premise ! The reason for applying in Wales was that by now the family home was on Anglesey, where dad was serving as a search and rescue helicopter pilot.
Training for new bank employees was at Southport in Lancashire, a seaside resort town north of Liverpool. The bank training school was located there and so I ended up spending 4 weeks acquiring the basic skills to work in a bank branch. On completion of training I was posted to Wellington in Shropshire, a quiet backwater sort of town with little to recommend it . The main memory I have of the town was the ever pervading smell of the brewery located near the town centre.
Notwithstanding the initial training at Southport I was quickly made to realise that I was the lowest level of life in the branch and would not be allowed to front up with the customers until I had proved myself capable. On the job training was minimal and the working day comprised of balancing up payments in and out over the front counter. The tellers on the front counter took in and paid out money and the paperwork generated was passed over to the backroom staff, of whom I was one. The working week was five and a half working days with a suit being the mandatory dress code with a sports jacket allowed on Saturday morning.
It didn't take long to realise that a career in banking was not what I was destined for ! I found it mind numbingly boring, week in and out with no job satisfaction and the slow dawning realisation that I had to get out soonest. However that, again, raised the question 'what do you want from life' ? The answer that came up increasingly was that I wanted an interesting job and to see the world.
How to see the world ? Simple, become a Seafarer !
Given that I was an experienced radio and electronics operator with a fair amount of theoretical knowledge I started to investigate what it would take to go to sea as a Radio Officer. I wrote to a number of Technical Colleges and Nautical schools to see if I could gain any credit for past experience and training to allow me to short circuit some of the 18 months or so of training. The usual response was that my training would help me get through the course but I had to do the whole syllabus. However, one establishment said that they were willing to let me try, albeit at my own risk. This was the Radio College located at Colwyn Bay in North Wales so without any delay I resigned from the Midland Bank and enrolled for the training and that was the end of my Banking career, all 5 months of it !