I had just finished evening surgery in
Ropley (Drs Happel, Biss and Sargent)
when the offer came from my uncle of an
exciting new challenge with our family
company that I could not resist. Everyone
deserves a life-changing opportunity now
and then.
So it was that I arrived for my first board
meeting at Exeter Bank. We always had
an informal dinner before in the Forte Crest
Hotel, and as P h i l l y climbed into bed
beside me (she who now says a night in a
hotel is a night wasted) we marvelled at
the TV at our feet, and the clean crisp
sheets. It didn't last long. At 3am the youth
of Exeter routinely walked past the hotel
shouting “Wake up you rich ba*****ds”.
And who could blame them?
I was of course the Family Rep on the
board, as the bank was a subsidiary of
Provincial Insurance founded by my great
grandfather. Underneath my cuff I had
written in Biro on my wrist "Debtors …
People who owe us, Creditors … People
we owe.” So you can see I was a natural.
The highlight of the meeting was when the
lugubrious and laconic Loans Manager
read out in lurid detail the list of defaulters,
fraudsters and plain optimists to whom we
seemed to have lent improbable sums of
money.
When the bank decided to buy a chain of
estate agents that bought and sold pubs,
even I wondered at the sense of this
decision. Most of the pubs were in Wales
with Welsh publicans who were not overfond of their English landlords. There were
many frank and meaningful discussions.
In the end, having bought the chain for
many millions, I had the ignominious task
of selling it back to the very