The Bank held two dinners in 1969, in the Assembly Room at its Broad Street Head Office, to commemorate its Golden Jubilee. A formal
dinner for various dignitaries (with the Birmingham MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer - Roy Jenkins - as the main speaker) on September
3rd; and a staff dinner on September 8th.
As part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations, the then General Manager (Mr S A Guy) asked
certain long serving staff and some retired employees to record their memories of the Bank's earliest days, by writing to them as
follows:
You will appreciate that, as 1969 is the Bank's Jubilee Year, there has been much reminiscence among the older membersof the Staff with the intent of bringing home to the somewhat younger members and, in fact, to the present Bank Committee as a whole,
some of the problems and 'growing pains' which were our lot in the early years.
The Chairman, Councillor A D Martineau, in particular
is most interested in all such reminiscences and has suggested that, for the benefit of posterity, some long serving and also someretired members of the Staff might be invited to 'ransack' their memories and place on record all incidents, whether serious or humourous
which might be of interest to those who follow in the years to come.
May I, therefore, ask if you will contribute by committing
to paper any happening still in your memory which could enlighten the pangs and the pages of some future Bank historian!
March
31st 1969
Those memories are reproduced in this website,
and are by the following authors:
Mr Guy also wrote an item for
the staff magazine, CONTACT, in the Autumn 1969 edition:
The culminating event of the 1969 Jubilee was the formal Dinner on Wednesday,
the 3rd September, at which some 180 persons were the guests of the Committee of Management. The guest of honour and principal speaker
was the Chancellor of the Exchequer,the Rt. Hon. Roy H. Jenkins, M.P. In the chair was Councillor A. D. Martineau, Chairman
of the Bank Committee and the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress were present, the Lord Mayor proposing the toast of H.M. Ministers.
The
guests included members of the Chamberlain family, the Mayors and Mayoresses of all the adjoining Boroughs, the Chairmen and their
ladies of the adjoining Councils of Meriden and Bromsgrove, the President, Chairman and Secretary of the Savings Banks Institute,
many of the Birmingham Members of Parliament and representatives of the City Council and Chief Officers of Corporation Departments.
The Treasury and the National Debt Office and Department of National Savings were represented, as were the Joint Stock Banks, Thomas
Cook & Son Ltd., the Bank's Valuers, the Municipal Officers Guild and the Staff Association.
Retired Officers, formerly on the
Staff of the Corporation Savings Bank formed a link of continuity with Senior Staff of the present Bank and the 'Hilton' family was
represented as also was the oldest depositor.
This was altogether a memorable occasion - the after dinner speeches were extremely
good and the evening was brought to a very happy conclusion by the Roman Catholic Archbishop (The Most Rev. G. P. Dwyer) who wittilyresponded to the toast of 'The Queen'.
The Staff Dinner which followed on 8th September was, to me, no less enjoyable. Less formal,
of course, but, as the Chairman said in his speech, indicative of the family atmosphere which is one of the most cherished features
of this wonderful organisation.
Many photographs recorded these two dinners,
and some of them are reproduced under the
following
headings: