40s and 50s Memories
35
not successful. While the continuous voice
communication between London and New
York remained excellent, the necessary total
reliability of data transfer was not achievable
at that time. The bank participated in the
development of computers now becoming
essential to overcome time differences in world-
wide financial transfers.
At this time I was involved in the development
of the bank's presence and its business in 11
European countries. As individual European
banking systems had long histories, having
been developed over centuries in sovereign
countries and under many different regimes,
great differences existed between them and
those operating in the federal system of the
USA. In addition, in the USA there was the
question of the large time difference between
the East and West coast banks.
With the war in Vietnam ending in 1973 and
Singapore developing its off-shore Asian
Currency Unit Market based on the Euro-dollar
market in London, I was asked to head up a
new region comprising Hong Kong, Thailand,
Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia
and New Zealand, and to develop there
our presence and our Euro-dollar business,
working in conjunction with our Tokyo branch. In
particular, we assisted Indonesia and Malaysia
in financing major developments in the oil
industry and in their own investment vehicles.
After spending time in the region, I took up
residence in Singapore on the day the price of
oil quadrupled.
In 1976 I was asked to assist in the bank's
expansion in the Middle East where activities
had already started in Iran, Saudi Arabia (where
we had an advisor in place), Lebanon, Egypt,
Bahrain and Dubai. In addition, the bank had
been awarded a management contract for a
major bank in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Muscat, and
here I was involved in on the spot examinations.
On return to London I was involved with relations
with, and examinations of, many foreign banks
which had opened in the City. Then, acting as
an advisor to a South American bank took me
through to retirement in 1983.
I spent much time racing yachts and becoming involved in the organization of racing. It had been
in 1932 that I had made my first trip to Brooklands,
and this led to my sitting on the committee that
recommended the establishment, realized in
1987, of the Brooklands Museum Trust Ltd. It
also led to my writing and publishing the history
of Alvis-Vickers plc.
J. J. Evans
Meynell 1951
John Evans spent four years at King's where
he became a House Prefect in Meynell. He was
a member of the 1st VIII shooting for which he
gained School and House Colours.
I joined the New Zealand Shipping Co. as an
apprentice while still at school in 1951. This
was a big disappointment to my Housemaster
who had always presumed I would go, as he
did, to Cambridge to study Physics. I actually
joined the Company during my last year at
school because, as a straight- to- sea boy, the
General Manager thought I should start as soon
as possible.
Against the wishes of my housemaster who was
concerned that I might attain poor examination
results, I did go back to school to take my 'A'
Levels. I had worked hard for four years in order
to gain these qualifications which in fact proved
very useful in my subsequent career.
My life after King's:
There were two reasons for going to sea. In
the first place I did not want to go to university
to study physics and, second, having had no
guidance on career prospects, I rather liked the
idea of following in the footsteps of my father
who was the Captain of one of the Company's
passenger/cargo vessels and seemed to have
had a good life notwithstanding the fact that he
had been sunk twice in WWII and once in the
Great War.
The New Zealand Shipping Co was a wholly
owned subsidiary of P&O and had a fleet of
cargo and cargo/passenger liners employed
on regular scheduled routes from the UK to NZ
or Australia carrying cargoes of steel, tinplate,
railway iron, locomotives, newsprint, glass,