|
 Martins Bank Archive is
incredibly lucky – we have not only the wealth of images from the 96 issues
of Martins Bank Magazine, there are also countless pictures donated by
Barclays, former Martins Bank Staff and other friends of the Archive that
help us to illustrate the amazing story of the Bank and the social history of
its staff. However, Barclays’ generous
contribution of its stock of Martins Branch images would not have been possible
without the work of the man featured on this page. To many he was just Bill Robson of
Birkenhead, but to all who look with nostalgia at images of Martins from the
1940s to 60s, he will always be known as the Man behind the Camera….
|
|
  If you have taken part in an
inter-District sports match or worked at a new or modernised branch, almost certainly you will have come face to face with this man and his camera. For twenty years
Bill Robson has worked for Martins Bank, not on the payroll, but commissioned
to take photographs—photographs
for publicity or record purposes of staff at work and at play, of branches
inside and out, and of innumerable people and places and things. You name it:
he's shot it. A typical itinerary might
be a trip to the North East where three new or rebuilt branches need
photographing; back through Yorkshire where there may be an agricultural
scene suitable for the cover of the next edition of Finance for Farmers and Growers; across to the Craven District
to photograph the staff at a branch to be featured in the magazine; and home
to Birkenhead via Manchester where an inter-District hockey match is being
played. Stocky, sandy-haired Bill Robson
looks younger than his fifty-four years. He has the ruddy complexion of the
industrial photographer, out in all weathers, photographing from air, land
and sea. Our cover picture shows a sample of his colour work for a wide
variety of clients who include Liverpool Corporation, Shell, and the Mersey
Docks & Harbour Board. At the Mersey
Docks & Harbour Board Bill Robson had his first job—but not as a photographer. He left school at
sixteen and joined the staff of the Board's timekeeper's office. The chance
to work on the site as a clerk and messenger while Bidston Dock was being
built gave him the open-air life he wanted, but once the dock was complete
and he had to return to office work he became restless.
 Even
before he left school, aeroplanes were his passion. He made model planes—and photographed them with a box camera
obtained with coupons cut from John
Bull. So in 1933, dissatisfied with his desk job, he answered the call
of an advertisement in The Aeroplane
to 'join the Royal Air Force'. Once in the
Service, and working in Lincolnshire in various ground jobs including
fireman, he made it his ambition to be selected for photographic training. At
that time the RAF had an extensive two-and-a-half year course in photography
that gave a man skill in every aspect of the art. Two years after joining
the Service Bill Robson achieved his ambition and packed his kit-bag for
Farnborough. By the time his course finished
aeroplane design was being made to fit into a definite scheme of warfare.
Soon he and his cameras were in the air with Fighter Command, Bomber Command
and Coastal Command. A good deal of his time he spent in research as there
was a vital need to improve cameras and photographic techniques. When the war ended, W/O Robson chose to return to
civilian life. He joined a
well-known Liverpool firm of industrial photographers and was soon making his
name. His work featured in the 'twelve best pictures for 1950' reproduced in
the Institute of British Photographers' annual; he was elected an Associate
of the Institute; and he gained the 'Colour in Industry' award for 1954-55.
From the day in 1948 that he was sent on his first
job for Martins Bill Robson began to deal with most of the Bank's
commissions. When, in 1960, he and Gerald Baxter decided to set up their own
photographic enterprise, Robson & Baxter Limited, it seemed logical that
the man who had shown such understanding of the Bank's varied needs should
carry on with the job. Twenty years' work
for the Bank has produced its amusing incidents.
 Bill
Robson's favourite story is the memorable occasion when he was taking the
opportunity, while the building opposite was being rebuilt, to photograph
the frontage of our office in London's narrow Lombard Street. Two policemen,
spotting him climbing over the rubble in search of a suitable vantage point,
wanted to know the reason why. Satisfied with his explanation and sympathetic
to the difficulty of taking the shot while so much traffic was in the street,
the law offered its assistance.
Stepping into the road the constables
halted the traffic, leaving a view of our office without a vehicle in sight.
At a whistle from the invisible photographer they waved on the stream of
mystified motorists, held up for no apparent reason. At his home in his native Birkenhead Bill Robson and his
wife are bringing up what they call their 'second family'—three boys at school, the youngest aged nine.
Three girls, all in their twenties, comprise their 'first' family;
one—Sandra—is on the Bank's staff working in London on branch computerisation. Away from his work Bill Robson devotes a good deal of his
spare time to his job of secretary to a local cricket club. While in the RAF
he played cricket and hockey so he brings both a camera and a practised eye
to the Bank's cricket festival and hockey matches. And you golfers at the Directors' Challenge Cup finals:
don't be put off by that chap with the camera who is studying your five-yard
putt at the sixteenth. He's only there to take photographs even if he is a
seasoned golfer too!
 M
|
