40s and 50s Memories
clerk and he suggested the Police Service.
"They need some bright people and there's a
big pay rise coming", he said, so I joined Surrey
Constabulary on £10 a week.
After four years on the beat, on a motorcycle
and then on the patrol cars I was eligible to
take the promotion exam to Sergeant, and
simultaneously the Police service started a fast
track year-long "Special Course" at Bramshill
Police College for officers who were deemed
to have "potential". I was selected and at the
end of the year a second scheme was available
to me - to go to university on full pay for
three years with promotion to Inspector upon
graduation. Again I got selected and it was off
to UCL to read law.
Policemen have an inbuilt belief that solicitors
and barristers are really rather clever people on
a much higher level than they. There were five
policemen on Bramshill scholarships at UCL
that year and we were amazed when the first
mid-year exam results showed all five in the top
ten out of just over a hundred other students.
Perhaps we really did have "potential"!
At this stage I would take issue with the wisdom
of Nathaniel Woodard whose picture and words
hung outside the Carpenter prefects' study at
King's. I think he said something like "Never
play the hero; seek to pass through life without
attracting the eyes of men….." I'm sorry,
but after all my experiences I lean towards a
different credo: "Nice guys finish last - the meek
really don't inherit in the real world".
Returning to my Force with a degree I discovered
that despite the Home Office's introduction of
this fast-track scheme my own Chief Constable
would have nothing to do with it, and every new
idea I tried to introduce got rebuffed. After a
year of what St Paul would have called "kicking
against the pricks" a very senior officer gave
me a friendly bit of advice: "I can see what you
are doing Jim, but they aren't ready for you, so
I think you're going to have to put up and shut
up, or find a different job!"
Spotting a job advert in the Sunday Times for
an Human Resources Adviser, I applied to
the world's biggest company, Esso, and was
accepted on a starting salary of £2304 pa at the
age of 30. It was a huge change of culture. I read an article at that time in Fortune magazine
in which the CEO of Standard Oil New Jersey
(Esso - now ExxonMobil) was asked about
the company's management development
strategy. He said "We assess all our people
every year, and we keep the top 10% promoted
and the bottom 10% eliminated." How would
I survive? Actually I lasted 25 years in a
wonderful international career which took me
into the Sahara Desert, up into the Arctic Circle,
up Table Mountain, travel on a huge oil tanker
in the South Atlantic, flying on Concorde across
the pond, three years in Wales on a massive
construction project, four on the shipping side
of the company and four year handling Libya
which included organising an evacuation of
all our company's wives and children from
Benghazi, two years in New York and four years
in Stavanger, Norway. Then it was back to the
UK where I headed up Graduate Recruitment
and Staff Development for my remaining years.
I had the privilege of working closely with hugely
successful managers and directors and I loved
every minute.
Here I should pay tribute to a King's master "Gus"
Cooper who taught me maths. Unlike most of
the other masters, he expected - no, demanded
- a ludicrous amount of work out of us; he would
set us preps that took up all the evening's study
time, and we did it all- we simply didn't do our
french or english assignments! I sailed through
my 'O' Level maths and additional maths and
have always felt comfortable with numbers. In
a company like Esso which is almost totally
run by engineers an Human Resources man
who can't supply accurate numbers to support
whatever case he is arguing would be torn
apart. Thank you, Gus!
Before talking about my post-Esso career it's
time for some home news. I got married at 24
and have three wonderful and very successful
children. My eldest went to King's in the 6th
Form but got expelled for breaking lots of rules
consistently. The other two went to Clayesmore
and Bryanston for their 6th form years. All are
married and we have nine super grandchildren
- three of whom are already 6 feet tall. I am sure
that having a father who was an expatriate has
had an influence on my children, although one
has stayed in Kent. My daughter spent five years
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