|
|
A
‘gold’ – but not in Mexico
  Our congratulations
go to Lynda Preston of Colne Branch, who has just attained the Duke of
Edinburgh Gold Award. Her success
follows two years’ effort which involved her in practical experience of
nursing, farming and Girls’ Brigade leadership, and writing theses on
design and fashion.
So
rewarding did she find assisting with the hydro-therapy classes for children
with physical disabilities at Colne baths that Lynda intends to help again
next year. The award will be
presented to her at Buckingham Palace by the Duke of Edinburgh.
For our second story, we visit the branch in
1963 and join the retirement party for Mr Kinder who has not simply managed
Colne branch for the last nine years, his career spans an incredible
forty-four years including opening a branch that could not be further away
from Colne, at EXETER. The destruction of Exeter Branch by enemy
bombing in 1942 is featured in our MARTINS AT WAR section…
|
Restored Image ©
Martins Bank Archive Collections
|
|
  To
mark the occasion of the
retirement of Mr T. H. Kinder, Manager of Colne branch for the past nine years,
friends and colleagues gathered at the Hendley Hotel, Colne, on the evening
of June 28th. After an excellent buffet tea, Mr K. W. Baxter,
second man at the branch, opened the formal part of the proceedings, welcoming
Mr I. Buchanan (Liverpool District General Manager) and all others present
and paying tribute to Mr Kinder on behalf of his staff. 
Mr Buchanan, presenting a
cheque and cigarette lighter, thanked Mr Kinder most sincerely for his 44
years of service to the Bank and mentioned the active life he has led in
Rotary, Masonry and, indeed, ‘Golfery’ as well. He described Mr Kinder as
‘one of nature’s gentlemen’ and this, together with the!thought
that no surname could have been truer to the person, was warmly applauded. In his reply,
Mr Kinder sketched lightly through his career – from his ‘salad days’ as junior at
Clitheroe in 1919, to Keighley and his first tour of duty in Colne in 1927,
through to his managerships at Exeter, which he opened in 1939, Garston,
Settle and, ultimately, Colne.
|
|
|
He supposed that the
reason for the unexpected inclusion of a lighter in his farewell present
was in some way due to the fact that he never seemed to have a light of his
own and, to those of us who have had the pleasure of working with him, this
is just one of those human qualities which endeared him to us all. Finally, in a short but delightful little speech, Miss
Margaret Hall, the senior lady of the Colne staff, wished Mr and Mrs Kinder
well in their retirement and presented a bouquet to Mrs Kinder.
|
|
|
These
images, kindly donated by Alan Pritchard, show the Manager’s Room at Colne
shortly after the merger with Barclays, a specimen cheque from the 1950s
and (above
right) the ornate branch clock.
|
|
Our final story
from Colne looks at Mr Kinder’s long and eventful career, which started with
him filling inkwells and changing blotting pads, took him to France and
Germany during and after the Second World War, all over England and Wales
with the Bank, and finally ended with him as Manager of Colne for the nine
years up to his retirement. In 1964,
he is elected President of Colne Rotary Club, and local paper The Nelson
Leader looks back at Mr Kinder’s life and times…
 
The Nelson Leader – 26 June 1964
Image © Johnstone Press. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY
BOARD
Image and Text reproduced with kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive
{No high drama, no highly spectacular moments have
characterised the career of Colne Rotary Club's new president. Mr T. H.
Kinder. Instead, it has been one of
effort rewarded by steady progress in one of the most important yet too
often least appreciated of the community services—banking. His work took him all over the country.
Yet eventually it brought him to Colne, and ultimately to deserved
retirement midway between that town and his Yorkshire birthplace.
A native of Skipton, though he left the town at an early
age, Mr Kinder was educated at Giggleswick School and became a junior clerk
with Martins Bank In 1919. His subsequent career is proof enough that given
the will to work, success lies within the grasp even of the boy who fills
the inkwells and changes the blotting pads each morning. In 1927 he came to Colne, and in 1936 he
was moved to the Head Office, where he became a member of the staff of the
visiting inspector, calling at branches all over the country.
Then, in 1939, following expansion by the bank which
involved opening branches in the Midlands and the South, he was appointed
to manage the new branch at Exeter. His stay in the West Country, however,
was to be a short one. He held his Exeter post for only a few months. Then, as a member of the Territorial Army,
he became one of the first to be involved in the Second World War.
|
|
1941: Destruction
at Exeter
Mr Kinder’s Branch
is destroyed whilst he is serving with H M Forces
|
On August 29th, 1939, he was called up—and on September 15th
he was in France. Later, as a
signals officer, he was an OCTU instructor at Catterick, and in 1942, with
the rank of major, he became commandant of an OCTU battle camp in the Lake
District. At the end of the war he
went abroad again, this time to Germany, when he was seconded with the
Military Government.
Hostilities over, he returned to banking, this time as manager
at the Garston, Liverpool, branch of Martins. Then came a spell as manager at Settle,
until, in 1954, he returned as manager to Colne, to the branch where he had
served many years before in a much more junior capacity.
Last year he retired, and now lives at an attractive
bungalow home at Fence End, Thornton-in-Craven. Any regrets after a
lifetime in banking, regarded by many as one of the more prosaic ways of
earning a living ? “None” says Mr Kinder “I enjoyed it, and it did well for
me”. As a career, he feels that
banking has much to commend it to a young man with ambition.
|
|
There are increasing opportunities for those who will seek
them and, these days, more jobs than ever before in the executive ranks. “A
most excellent career for anybody who wishes to enter it”, is his verdict.He
has been a member of the Rotary Club lor the last 10 years, taking a keen
and active interest in the affairs of the organisation, and for eight years,
until his retirement from the bank, was the club's treasurer. Apart from Rotary, his other spare tie interests
include golf —he Is a member of Colne Golf Club—and the Royal Lancashire
Lodge of Freemasons, of which he is treasurer. He is also an enthusiastic
gardener, and is now planning a new garden at his home. Mr Kinder succeeds as president Mr R E.
Lund, and is to be installed next week}.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
