Founded 1980
Chair:
Secretary:
Treasurer:
Graham Smith
Jan Thompson
Graham Mumby-Croft
Home
Bob Duncan
Autobiography.
Our friend and former committee member Bob Duncan has spent his time usefully during the Covid Lockdown writing an autobiography, primarily for his grandchildren to enjoy when they become mature enough to be interested in their own family history. The inspiration for this piece of work came from his brother Leonard who pestered him to write and also to show how their Mother, who raised them on her own following the premature passing of their Father and was their inspiration to do well. While his lengthy tome (some 400 pages) contains much about his own formative and educational years there is also a wealth of interesting and prison related content which he has kindly agreed to allow it to be serialised in our Newsletter. Here is the first instalment.
Where it all really began School over and the beginnings of Work
I adored the teaching by the 6th form master of English Literature; he made the subject come alive and also made us read around the subject and more widely than the set books. He was also the careers master, and when it became clear that I was not going into the navy, he stated I should be considering going to university. I explained that I really needed to start work as mother had finically struggled for far too long, he suggested I try then for Executive Grade Competition for the Civil Service; he also stressed that I should get a university place and then request to defer it for a year. He further advised me that another pupil had just applied for the London School of Economics, why not ask him for the details and follow suit. So that is what I did and in due course, I was offered a place without even an interview, and it was deferred for one year.
Having applied to join the Executive Class of the Civil Service and being offered an interview I went to London to attend that. The interview panel looked rather ancient to young me, but they were clearly intelligent. The interview was not too testing and seemed to be going quite well until they asked if I had any
questions. I politely asked if they could give me any more details about the hostels for young people coming to London to work. They all looked at each and clearly did not have a clue and gave the impression that it was below their class level to know about such things, they suggested I enquire elsewhere. Then they announced that they thought ‘my talents’ well suited me for the Exchequer and Audit Department, and what did I think of that. I did have not a blind clue as to what E&A did, but I wanted employment, so I responded that it sounded very interesting. So that was that I just had to await the confirmation letter and joining instructions.
I remained at school until Monday 15th December 1958 as I had been awarded a school prize which was to be presented by the Headmaster, Mr. Pearce on what was termed ‘Speech Day’ and took place at the Winter Gardens Theatre, Margate, with the whole school present. I had chosen a Bible and the novel Dr Zhivago. Both of which I still have.
WORK
I commenced my employment with the Exchequer and Audit Department the next day at 9.30 am, so I assume I travelled up the previous evening. I had made enquiries reference hostel accommodation provided by the Government for those coming to London for the first time. I had been allocated to the one in Cadogan Street, just off Sloane Square, which is just one tube stop from Victoria Station. The area also contained several embassies and 400 yards away Harrods. The building was Victorian but had lost some of its elegance through poor or limited maintenance. There were 7 of us in my room; we had a bed a three-foot mat and a small locker, and one clean sheet a week. As we were all in employment and paying our way, the meals, except for Sunday, were pretty gruesome, but above the levels of a Dickensian workhouse gruel.
One of the occupants in the room was a more mature clerical officer from Leeds. He organized schedules so that we kept our room clean and tidy, with the windows all washed down at the weekend. He also set a spirit of mutual support amongst us all. If anyone was short of money any week (there were quite a few gambling groups amongst other residents in other rooms which anyone could join) he would arrange for us all to chip in to help out. A colleague from school also used the hostel (Smithy) and when a bed became available, we managed to get him allocated to our room. One day one of the group had heard that Bridget Bardot was going to be filming on the embankment at 5 am on a Sunday. I do not think the tube was running that early, so we all got up very early and walked to the embankment to watch. It was a shot of her getting out of a taxi with a load of parcels and walking to an entrance next to the Embankment tube station. Every time she got from the taxi and the ‘take’ was not right, she just dropped all the parcels on the ground for someone else to pick and back to her sitting in the Taxi. So, we saw quite a lot of her and enjoyed our morning. Some years later I saw the film on TV. What had taken over an hour to film early in the morning to avoid the rush hour crowd streaming out of the tube station, only took 2 minutes in the film.
I mentioned that Harrod’s was nearby, I cannot remember why, but I was dared to go there and try to purchase one table tennis ball. So, I entered the portals of the famous store, it was all a bit daunting, but I was not one to back out of a dare, so I approached the sports section and enquired of a rather haughty sales assistant if I was at the right place to purchase table tennis equipment. She confirmed that I was, so I explained I was from the hostel, I doubt she understood or cared; and could I have one table tennis ball, please. I got a rather funny look, but a voice said, ‘If that is what sir wants, I will get you one’. I cannot remember the price, but when she took the coins offered, she gave such a look of disdain as if they were tainted in some way.
It so happened that another school chum from Chatham House also joined the Civil Service as an executive officer and came to reside in the same hostel. There was a branch of Chatham House School ‘Old Boys Association’ which met in London once a month, so we both joined and attended. Through that, we heard about Ted Heath hosting an ‘old boy’s dinner’ at the House of Commons.
The office of the ‘Department of Exchequer and Audit’ I was allocated to was in one of the Nash Terrace Buildings in Regents Park, which was looking a bit shabby and in need of some upgrading. That has now taken place, and they sell for millions. As I type this it has been reported that Bernie Ecclestone's daughter Celestine’s lives there and has just been burgled and robbed of £50 million of jewellery. I doubt my time there qualifies me as having habited what is now millionaire’s row. My starting salary at age 18, including the inner London allowance, was £614 before tax and national insurance. I probably ended up with about £42 a month of which
£20 at least went to the hostel. Within a few months, we were moved out to offices in Gower Street as developers had purchased the property in Hyde Park.
I climbed the wooden, uncarpeted stairs to the 3rd floor and was met by the ’Senior Auditor’ and shown my desk. I asked whom I should turn to for advice on auditing, and his reply was ‘Get a book out of the library or ask your new colleagues.’ When I next left the office room, I noticed a rather elderly gentleman in some kind of uniform sitting on a chair at the top of the stairs. On my return, I enquired as to who he was. It was explained that he was the official messenger for all the offices. He received any delivery of mail or files that had been requested from other departments at the entry door and then he carries them up to the offices on this floor. Having climbed the stairs, he is temporarily exhausted and has to have a half-hour sit down before descending again! In those days Lyon’s ran restaurants and one was near Great Portland Street Tube Station just outside the Regents Park, it served excellent food at a very modest price, and so I could eat there at lunchtime and not have to bother with the hostel food if it was nothing special. I was still missing my mother’s cooking!
When we moved to Gower Street there were 3 colleagues in my office including the one, I was replacing! He was an Australian who had been recruited on a temporary basis at the end of the war as there was a shortage of workers. How effective he was in the job I have no idea as it was clear he had already packed up working and certainly handed no advice or guidance to me. The total E&A staff at that office location was about 24. On my
3rd day at work there he appeared at about 11.30 am an announced ‘Let’s all go’, and everybody abandoned their desks and donned their jackets and coats. I followed the crowd and we ended up in a local drinking club where ‘the Australian’ was a member. I assumed it was either a farewell party or a pre-Christmas celebration, which it could well have been. However, in the next 9 months or so that I worked there, he returned to the office several times at about 11 am, picked up the phone and advised the switchboard that if any phone calls came through to tell them all lines are engaged. Then, as before, he led the whole staff to his club where we all imbibed for the next few hours. At about 2.45 pm it would be announced, it is tea break time at the office, so we had better get back for it!
Brian was the ‘head of the team’ and he sat facing the rest of us. He clearly was the most conscientious of the team and was always concentrating on his work. He was a pleasant man but not very sociable but had good relationships with his less conscientious colleagues. I became fed up with both the cost of the underground, and the fact I had to change lines to get to the office, so I took my ancient bike to London and began cycling to work. There was one other cyclist in the total office group and there was an unspoken rivalry about who could get in first. Looking back, I cannot believe I cycled around Marble Arch twice a day, with traffic pouring around nonstop, and thought little of it.
Everyone had to ‘book in’ on arrival and record the time; you could elect to be an 8.30 or a 9.00 starter, for some reason I had elected for a 9 am start, possibly thinking I might get held up in traffic some days. I was usually in well before 9 am. Eddie who sat in front of me had started work as a telegram delivery boy with the post office and had gradually worked his way up through the civil service. He had seen it all, was outgoing and a great talker and well past worrying about petty regulation. He sidled up to me one morning a few weeks after I joined and asked for a quiet word. He said you are a 9 am starter and I am an 8.30 starter, I accept I am not always a prompt 8.30 arriver, and you arrive ahead of time more often. It does not look good that you are booked in ahead of me when I should be here 30 minutes before you, could you wait to sign in until I have signed. I told him it would be no problem.
Eddie’s routine was to arrive (whatever time he could make it), put the kettle on and make a cup of tea, return to his desk and plug his electric shaver into the light, get out his breakfast sandwich and newspaper and enjoy the first half an hour winding down from his journey to work. However, in his own way, he was very kind and taught me a lot about approaching the ‘big new world of work’. Whilst we are on characters, the other new member in our little office was Smithy, who was a bit mean, and his pride and joy was his vintage car. He booked his summer leave for a fortnight, and we all knew he was driving to Italy and back with his family. A week after he was due back there was no sign of him and no word. It was 2 weeks later that he eventually returned to the office. There had been a mechanical problem with his car, and he refused to get it seen to locally as he claimed the Italians were trying to fleece him. The car still had 1 st and 2nd gear, so he drove all the way back to England at 15-20 miles an hour, hence the long absence.
Exchequer and Audit scrutinized the spending of all the other Government Departments, although they all have their own internal auditors. It can also initiate inquiries on its own. One of the auditors where I was placed was in fact inquiring into whether pharmaceutical firms supply drugs to the National Health Service were working in a cartel and inflating prices. Before the Report was even finalized, several firms suddenly reduced prices as obviously they had wind of what was coming. This was in the late 50s ‘but if the media are correct’ the problem remains with us.
There was in fact ‘training for the job’; it consisted off a half-day a week on Friday afternoon at the City of London College, but it started in September, and as I had started in December, I was unable to commence it for another 9 months.
The system in the office seemed to be that files on an area of concern would arrive from somewhere and were allocated to the appropriate auditor. I could read the entries already recorded but did not have much of a clue what I was supposed to do about it. Our team dealt with The Ministry of Health issues. I would send for the Ministries’ own relevant files. That would buy me some time, and then I would scribble some notes in the file, put in the ‘out tray’ and hope it would not come back.
Most files were handwritten in those days, and all had to have a chronological list of all new entries. The other Departments did not trust E&A as it reported on them directly to the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. So, they played their own games, which included ’file not available as with the Minister’, or they just delayed sending it. When it did arrive the papers, one wished to home in on had been removed but they still remained in the index. When queried, they would make some excuse, such as ‘this is a very active area and we had to retain those papers. Of course, it worked both ways when the Senior Auditor enquired when he would get an update; one had plenty of excuses by blaming the other Ministry.
Exchequer and Audit also did quality checks by small teams visiting regional offices of major departments. On one of these, I was the junior member of a team of four that went to inspect the financial accounts of Northern Island at Stormont House. It was the first time I had flown; Heathrow was much more basic then. We were there for a fortnight, so having savoured the delights of some of the pubs in Belfast; it was agreed we would finish early on Friday and hire a car and do a tour of Northern Ireland. The coastline around Northern Island is incredible and we included the ’Giant’s Causeway’ in the tour. It happened to be the English football Cup Final on the Saturday, so the first pub that said it had a TV and that we could watch the football got our custom for the afternoon; we then drove on and found a hotel for the night. We did a rounded tour so entered the south so that we could come back via mountains of Mourne. Another 2-week audit trip I went on in February
1964 was to Nottingham, Peter; my friend from university had taken a teaching post there, so we linked up. I can remember going to the theatre there which had just been recently refurbished and was looking very good. Peter said we are going down to London at the end of the week in the Morris Minor; we could give you a lift. I cannot remember whether his car had no heater or whether it was broken, but it was a very cold night, and I think I shivered for a good part of the journey. Another trip was to Carmarthen and we were staying in a hotel, we had been to the two local cinemas so that night we had stayed in and were in the lounge playing cards with a kitty. We asked if we could have a pot of tea for four; a young lass arrived with the drinks on a tray, took one look and said in a loud voice ‘Sinful’ and plonked the tray down and left. The government owned the Royal Stud, based at Gillingham in Dorset which was in business to breed highbred horses. It decided to sell it off, but all the accounts had to be formally audited before that could be finalized, and E&A was asked to do it. I for some reason was selected to undertake it. 'Not having a clue as to what was required, I just ticked everything with the authorised E&A green pencil. I never heard another word about it!
One day a paper marked Top Secret appeared amongst others in my in-tray. It was I believe about Strontium
90 in milk. It was pretty boring, and I could not fathom why it was classified. I had no idea what to do with it, so I left it in the out tray. A few days later when I arrived for work, I found I had received a missive from internal security stating that I was in breach of security and they had removed the document and to have the document returned I was required to contact them. As I only wished to get rid of the documents, I did nothing, and that was the end of that!
There was Congregational Church in Tottenham Court Road, 500 yards from the office which held a short mid- day Service, so I started to attend. As I walked in one day to one of these services, the organist was playing the overture to Cavalier Rusticana by Mascagni; I was overwhelmed and over-awed, it has remained one of my favourite pieces of Music. I later saw the complete opera at Covent Garden.
Exchequer had its own rugby club and played against other civil service teams and the police. If you were selected, training was organized at the civil service sports ground in Chiswick every Wednesday afternoon, so why sit in a stuffy office staring at boring figures? I still played wing forward and scored or contributed to several tries. My department had its best season for a while. There was also the summer Sports Day at Chiswick and anyone who wished to go, including the top brass, could spend the day there. There was what was called ‘Divisions’ in Exchequer and Audit that is there 9 different sections concentrating on different aspects of Government spending. Traditionally each Division entered volunteers from their staff in a series of athletic events (running, high jump, long jump, throwing cricket ball and walking etc.) There was a cup for the winning team and a cup (The Victor Ludorum) for the individual who accumulated the most points. These were presented by the Auditor General who also bought a drink for the individual winner. Their name would be inscribed on the cup. As the ‘new boy’ I stood back and let those who wished to volunteer to enter the various athletic events carry on, whatever was left I said I would have a go at. So, I got a feel for the whole event, including how seriously some took it, I thought it was just a fun day.
Although E&A salaries were higher than the standard Executive Officer pay rate, and there were increases for time served and inflation settlement each year, it would take me some time to climb up the ladder. So I had started making enquiries as to what fees and living expenses I would get from the County Council, if I took my place at University and due to our family circumstances, it was remarkably generous. I also knew I could work on the buses in the summer vacation, and all in all, I would be better off. So, I approached the personnel department and advised them of my plans to leave. They recommended that instead of resigning I could ask for 3 years unpaid sabbatical leave; in which case I would have a legal right to return to E&A if I needed to. It appeared I could not lose. So, I prepared myself to go to university. To be continued…………..
