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1930 is quite a busy year for |
In Service: 17 December
1930 until 21 July 1962
Extract from Martins
Bank Limited Annual Report and Accounts for 1930 © Barclays
Image © BT 1932
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It is something of a coup for
the Bank to have set up shop at No.213 Baker Street London, only a few doors
down from a certain Mr Sherlock Holmes!
We would be most obliged if a modern-day
detective were able unearth a picture of this branch. There are no visits to Baker Street by
Martins Bank Magazine, and no records of any staff retirements from this
Branch. However, as a special treat we offer below “Sherlock Holmes and the
Bankers” written by Harold Blundell (of Manchester City office pictured below
right), who in the 1950s and 60s wrote many successful novels under the name
of George Bellairs. In 1954 he writes
an article for Martins Bank Magazine in which he examines several references
to Banks and Bank Managers within Arthur Conan Doyle’s series of Sherlock
Holmes Adventures, and points out – of course – the proximity of Martins
Bank’s Baker Street Branch to the home of the great detective himself…
Before getting down to brass
tacks, however, I would like to say that I have done my best to keep the flag
of our bank
This strange client was a banker,
Mr. Alexander Holder, of the firm of Holder & Stevenson, of Threadneedle
Street, the second largest private banking concern in the City. He was a typical
comic-opera banker, " a man of about 50, tall, portly, and imposing,
with a massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was dressed
in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining hat, neat brown
gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers." Yet, when Mr. Holder arrived
in the Baker Street chambers, he tore his hair and beat his head against the
wall with such force that Holmes and Watson had to rush upon him and bear him
to the centre of the room where he could do himself no harm. The trouble was that Mr. Holder
had lost some security in the shape of a beryl coronet, in a transaction
which rings more of a pawnshop than a bank. " One of the highest,
noblest, most exalted names in England" had come to borrow Ł50,000, and
left as security "one of the most precious public possessions of the
Empire."
In the middle of all the
excitement, " this fellow Merry weather," as Holmes calls the
banker, keeps complaining about missing his game of cards. "It is the
first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I have not had my
rubber." He is " a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a very shiny hat
(as usual) and oppressively respectable frock-coat." Whilst the
melancholy director is bothering about his card-game, John Clay, the
cracksman, is tunnelling under the street into the strongroom of the City
& Suburban, which has accumulated reserves of gold from France to
strengthen its resources. They do not seem to have been very meticulous about
the floors of their treasury at Mr. Merry-weather's bank, for in due course a
stone is raised from beneath and the head of the burglar appears in the hole.
It speaks well for Mr. Merryweather that he remains unperturbed, even when
the emerging crook spots him and says he'll swing for him. " I do not
know how the Bank can thank you or repay you," says Merryweather as the
curtain falls. " I have been at some small expense over this matter
which I shall expect the bank to refund," replies Holmes in a very
matter-of-fact way, and somewhere in the archives of whoever took over the
City & Suburban in the amalgamation scramble, there must be an
interesting entry in General Expenses. That is as far as we go in
full-blown bank cases in which Holmes operated. There is an interesting
episode in Black Peter which deals in part with the failure of the West
Country bankers, Dawson & Neligan, who went smash for a million and
ruined half the county families of Cornwall. Mr. Dawson having retired, Mr.
Neligan was responsible. In his belief that if he were given time in which to
realise all the securities every creditor would be paid in full, Mr. Neligan,
for some unearthly reason, set off alone in his yacht for Norway carrying all
the bank's investments in a bag! On the way, yacht and banker vanished. Then,
to the amazement of all concerned, the vanished securities began to be
peddled in the London market. ... I can recommend the story to you.
Lloyds Bank seems to have all the
luck! When they absorbed Cox & Co. in 1923 they also presumably absorbed,
as well, " a travel-worn and battered tin dispatch-box with my name,
John H. Watson, M.D., late Indian Army, painted upon the lid. It is crammed
with papers, nearly all of which are records of cases to illustrate the
curious problems which Mr. Sherlock Holmes had at various times to
examine." Watson is quick to assure us that " the discretion and
high sense of professional honour," which distinguished him and his
eminent friend, " are still at work in the choice of memoirs, and no
confidence will be abused," He goes on to say, however, " I
deprecate in the strongest way the attempts which have been made lately to
get at and to destroy these papers. The source of these outrages is known,
and if they are repeated, I have Mr. Holmes's authority for saying that the
whole story concerning the politician, the lighthouse and the trained
cormorant will be given to the public. There is at least one reader who will
understand." The awful thought enters one's mind that the second Mrs.
Watson, whom Holmes disliked, and who doubtless resented the time her husband
spent at 22Ib, might, on the death of Dr. Watson, have got at the papers from
Cox's and made a bonfire of them. This is a disaster too awful to
contemplate. Should the documents eventually become available, there might be
a resulting commotion among the politicians and lighthouses of Liverpool, for
the trained Cormorant is none other than the Liver Bird which figures in the
Coat of Arms of Martins Bank! In closing, and wishing Sherlock Holmes many
happy returns, 1 also make an appeal to Lloyds Bank to investigate the case
of the missing records and let us know the truth about them without delay.
Should they still be in existence, what a scoop for our contemporary, "
The Dark Horse "!}
HAROLD BLUNDELL Manager,
Manchester City Office, (and George Bellairs to a wider public)
We also have images of
several of the staff who work at Baker Street up to the point at which the
business is transferred to Castrol House, Marylebone Road in 1962, and these
can be seen in the staff gallery below. It must be possible that there are
former staff with memories of this branch who might be able to tell us what
it was like being positioned so close to one of the world’s most famous
addresses! If you can help, please do
get in touch at the usual address – martinsbankarchive@btinternet.com.
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Martins Bank which opens a total of six
new Branches – four of which are in the South of England, three of those
being established in the Capital itself. 
