Barclays Bank Manager Edward Wright
remembered by his son David

Dad was a Town Councillor for a time and I know he was heavily involved with all aspects of the community in his capacity as Bank Manager. He was treasurer of the Golf Club and of the Southwold Branch of the British Legion and participated in the initial setting up of both organisations.

The British Legion Southwold shortly after its foundation

A rare interior view of the Southwold Home Guard manning the gun emplacement under Gun Hill. (Both pictures courtesy of David Wright)

During the War he was Captain in the Home Guard and, over the years, he was also called on to help out with many other organisations. He also helped to start the Rifle Club which used to be over the store of Adnams Brewery behind the Crown Hotel opposite the bank. In those days it was very much the ‘in-thing’ to be a member of a rifle club and banks used to run inter-bank branch competitions. One time Dad was ordered by Head Office to put a team together from the staff and to do a shoot and then submit their cards. So one Monday he got the staff together at 08.30am to do the shoot and ended up opening the bank at 09.30 much to the annoyance of some customers waiting outside in the rain. He then received a letter from the Regional Office in Ipswich, pointing out there had been a complaint and inviting him to justify the late opening. His reply, as always, was meticulously diplomatic and polite, explaining that the order had been from Head Office and that, in consequence, it had seemed only right to do the shoot in banking hours rather than inconvenience the staff and their families. He further pointed out that he could not be held responsible for the rain although he was distressed that one of his customers had got wet. He promised to make amends with a box of chocolates when he next met her. Well, as always, he got away with it, as he did on many similar occasions.

Once, just after Barclays had suffered its first ever bank raid, the branch was equipped with knee-activated alarms for the tellers. Dad always liked to get in early to open the post and lay it out ready for processing by the staff. He always sat at the tellers’ position as this gave him more room. At that early hour he used to let his cocker spaniel, ‘Cider’ have free run of the house and office. Cider loved to dash around and, on more than one occasion, hit the push bar and set the alarm off. The Police were quick to respond on the first few occasions but, after a while, they used to ring first to get confirmation that it was the dog before sending a puffed-out local officer on his push bike. All was accepted in good humour. How life has changed!