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Branches,
Branches Everywhere…
Just what IS it about the Wirral Peninsula? Could it be the spectacular sea views, or
perhaps that it is situated so close to major towns and cities of the North
West? Maybe it is simply the
reassurance that wherever you go on the Wirral, you are never more than a
mile or two away from from the bank that goes to extremes to be helpful!
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In Service: 1898 until 18 August 1978
Branch images © Barclays Ref 0030-0923
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In Birkenhead, (which is also home to Martins Bank’s
brand new state of the art STATIONERY DEPARTMENT)
you can hardly move for Martins Bank’s Branches, and at Wallasey things are
just the same – branches everywhere. Headed
by fine premises at 297 Wallasey Village, Wallasey boasts a further six
branches and sub branches, down the years.
Not to be confused with the town of the same name in Cumberland, Egremont
is an area of Wallasey. The towns of Wallasey and Birkenhead are in fact
divided into “suburbs” which are remembered for such famous places as New
Brighton and Rock Ferry. Martins’
Branch at Egremont is a self accounting sub office to LISCARD.
Like many of the Bank’s prime site offices, it occupies a prominent corner
position, the branding visible from two directions. September 1965 sees a
large gathering of staff getting ready to wish another Martins Manager a long
and happy retirment, after a lifetime devoted to the Bank. Mr Foster has clocked up a very impressive
41 years’ service, and therefore deserves a good send off…
  some 80 friends were present at a
party held at Egremont branch on September 24 to say farewell to Mr Arthur
Foster, manager for the past seventeen years. As Mr Foster had requested that there be no speeches the
District General Manager, on handing him a cheque on behalf of subscribers,
asked all present to drink to a long and happy retirement. 'Mac' Foster is a popular and well-known figure in
cricket circles, latterly having been organiser of the Cricket Festival in which
he has played or umpired since its inception. Few people can
claim to have entered the service and retired at the same branch but Mr
Foster can do just this, for he entered at Egremont in 1921 and thereafter
worked at Merseyside branches becoming Clerk-in-Charge at St Hilary in 1938.
From 1942 he served with the Indian Army, returning to St Hilary branch in
1944 and being appointed Manager at Egremont in 1948.
Miss Doreen W Wedgwood
  Doreen Wedgwood is the daughter of Mr C W Wedgwood (Head
Office Relief Staff) and since 1947 she has been on the Staff of the Bank at
Egremont Branch. She has recently left
us to take up a scholarship awarded to her by the Wallasey Education
Committee to the Royal Academy of Music, Manchester. Doreen is a singer of no ordinary
quality. She first attracted attention
by her singing of “Hear my Prayer” at Oldershaw High School Wallasey, on
Speech Day. She has also done solo work at Claremont Methodist Church,
Wallasey. Dr Caleb Jarvis, organist at St Andrews Church, West Kirby, and
chorus master of the Welsh Choral Society and of the Philharmonic Choir,
considered her powerful soprano voice of such promise, that an introduction
was obtained to Sir Malcolm Sargent.
He was so impressed that he arranged for isobel Baillie to hear her,
and the opinion of this well-known singer was that with proper training and
application, she might develop into one of the outstanding singers of the
future. And so she has left us to seek
fame and, we hope, fortune in the world of music. We shall follow her career with great
interest and we feel sure that the day will come when we shall be able to
point out with pride that she started her career in Martins Bank Limited…
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