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Our visit to Llandudno on January 18th
was like going back home. We played on its
sands in our young days, camped in the valley behind in our twenties and
climbed in its mountainous hinterland in our thirties. |
In Service: 1938 until present day – still open as a branch of Barclays
Branch
Images © Barclays Ref 0300-1702 |
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To complete the feeling of homeliness,
at the branch itself we were already on the friendliest of terms with two members
of the staff, A. N. E. Hughes, whose photographic work will shortly be
appearing in our pages, and W. G. Williams, an old colleague of Heywoods
branch. (The number of people, and distinguished people at that, we come
across who have had service at Heywoods branch is quite remarkable, but that
is a story in itself!) We picked a perfect day for our visit, with our usual
good luck; bright sunshine, a calm sea, and an invigorating tang in the air. We received a very friendly welcome from
the staff who went to a lot of trouble to ensure that the one redeeming
feature of the photograph we publish was presented to us in the most
favourable light! Olwen Mostyn may be a Welsh name, but she's a Manchester
girl who entered the Bank at Manchester Office in 1941. She has been at
Llandudno since 1945, and despite the teasing she gets she has the situation
well under control, and all are agreed that she can make a nice cup of
tea! W. G. Williams's special
qualification for being second man is that he speaks Welsh. We were on the
Journals together at Heywoods in 1923 and the combination of Ellis and
Williams, two of the most garrulous juniors ever employed by the Bank, may
have been a contributory factor in the premature retirement of more than one
member of the Heywoods staff of that day. At any rate, the Bank decided to
break the partnership, and “W.G.W.” went to Waterloo, H.O. Relief, Walton and
then to Llandudno when the branch was first opened. He served with H.M.
Forces from 1941-1946 and we were reunited on January 18th after being parted
for twenty years. Mr. Hughes tells me that “W.G.W.” can still hold his own
with the natives!
At lunch time we walked along the
deserted front, sparkling in the winter sunshine, to Mr. Hughes's home, where
Mrs. Hughes had prepared a repast fit for a king. Mrs. Hughes is a trained
nurse, but it didn't take us long to discover that she is talented in other
directions also and we spent a very pleasant hour in their home. Mr. Hughes's
son is at Liverpool University and his daughter is a teacher. A walk in the streets of Llandudno with Mr.
Hughes is quite an ordeal; he seems to know everybody and one is kept raising
one's hat every few yards. Sometimes
his greeting is in Welsh; sometimes in English, and everyone seems glad to
see him. He is an old L. and Y.
man, and entered the bank in 1919 at Woodside. He transferred to the Cattle
Trade Bank the following year and was Clerk-in-Charge of the Cattle Market
branches at Wakefield, York and Manchester. It was a strenuous life, quite
unlike ordinary banking, and the article we published in an earlier issue by
E. F. Matthews gave a good idea of the rough and tumble of this business. He
became Manager at Llandudno when the branch was opened in 1938. During the
first World War he served on the Western Front, on the Somme, at Ypres, and
at Arras where he was wounded.
Mr R T M
Williams, on his way to fame…
… and to
gathering some “gongs” - OBE,
MC, TD, AND B B
C (?)
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