I returned home to London from Greece. Just two weeks previously I had answered an advert in the Evening Standard and had taken a place in a large house in Clapham. It was a fabulous place with big rooms 3 bathrooms one of them with dimming lights and and a huge conservatory. There was nine of us from memory 5 boys and 4 girls. One of the girls Caro? was a superb cook and a real boss. She kept the boys in order so the house was always clean and we often ate together in the evenings. To me I felt ‘grown up’ for the first time in my life. James was old Etonian and worked in the advertising industry. Dominic was a human delight and was in oil, Gordon in shipping, Careena (who eventually teamed up for a while with Gordon was a nurse. Evening meals were civilised we had a drink of wine but we were sensible and the food and current affairs and each other’s lives were the main topics of conversation. Not only was I starting a new chapter of my working career but I was living in this fantastic house with great people and my holiday had resulted in me meeting some one who had really given me a jolt. I was smitten by her and yet very afraid, for a huge number of reasons that back in London it just would not be the same.
Liz had been warned by the chalet girls, ‘who had met many like me’, that holiday romances are fun but seldom do they work out. To make things worse Liz had booked into the villa for a further two weeks. I was pining, worrying. She might meet someone else, she would not find me so much fun as she thought when she came back home. After ten days of worry a letter arrived on the matt which was from Liz. No internet or mobile phones then, a letter with a stamp, a Greek stamp. Liz outlined how much she had enjoyed my company. She was quite clear that we may not have a future but she would like very much to find out. She gave me her flight details and ended with something like, ‘dont worry if you are not there I will totally understand”.
Now the truth was I was skint. I had paid off my overdraft and my new position at work had given me a rise but that was very recently. I agonised on what to wear and as I did not have a car even just what she might think of me. Nigel Burnford dressed me in one of his polar neck sweaters and lent me a duffle coat. It was October by now and I may have been a tad overdressed my new friend in Elms Crescent Clapham assured me I look good. I went to Hertz to rent a car for the weekend. As it happened they only had one car available. It was a Ford Granada in a bright green. It was just hideous and from a boy who used to drive Lotus Elan the very reserve of cool. My calculation was I know not but I set out for Heathrow airport in a state of utter anxiety. I need not have worried. we settled immediately back into our routine. Laughter, fun, kindness and mutual support. Liz laughed at the car. I took her to see my house and the few who were there that day welcomed Liz and were very nice to her. I took her to her flat in Chalk Farm and met her two flatmates who were both very nice and welcoming. two days later I concluded the doubters were wrong this was not a holiday romance I had met someone special and she was well worth every effort I could make to see if things would develop. At the time Liz was working in Collindale. She had a degree in micro biology and was employed in one of the world’s leading research teams who were looking at all things related to gut cancer and gut health. To this day some of the work Liz did will be referenced in learned papers. The stuff she told me then still makes the news today as if it is new. Liz eventually gained a PHD based around her thesis of metabolism of gut bacteria by amino acid. I had not only met a stunning woman but she had real brains and best of a sense of humour that when released was right up my street.
I was now a jobber on the floor of the stock exchange. I worked originally with a typical East End city type Mike Rogers. We were one of three firms making a market in shipping and transport shares. He believed in teaching by insult and criticism. Thankfully as well as Mike another man who worked alongside us ,Mike Reader, became another of my life’s coaches. An ex guardsmen he was suave and intelligent. He loved rugby so I had much to chat with him about. He was patient with me and behind Mike Rogers school of hard knocks was a patient caring hand. Over time I began to get the hang of things and urged on by Mike Reader I set my own course. In an earlier piece I referred to my original boss’s methodology of learning every thing he could about the companies he was interested in. I did the same. i cut things out in the paper I studied charts and did what ever I could to understand what was happening in the 40 or so companies I was trading in. Put very simply we had a some of money, around 1 million pounds and we were charged with buying and selling shares via the prices we bid and offered. The key element of our profit and loss was the day to day turnover. In PandO there might be a hundred or more transactions. In European Ferries maybe a thousand deals as 300 shares gave any holder a discount across the channel. The broker would approach us and ask for a price in any one of our stocks. ‘European ferries please and what size’ would be a typical enquiry. 130 to 131 in 25 we might respond. This meant we would stand by the price we had made offering to buy at 130 and sell at 131 in 25thousand shares. Brokers would choose the most favourable price available via the 3 firms and then make their transaction. If we started buy-in too many shares we would move our price down and vice versa. In normal conditions the price movements were limited but when the market became volatile it became a game of self preservation and wit. I can not tell you just how stressful it was when a major company announced its figures. The company brokers ould give us a sheet of paper with the results on them at exactly the same time as the screens around the floor would flash and the bells rang to announce P&0’s annual results. From nowhere perhaps 500 people would designed on our ‘pitch’ with their walkie talkies held to their ears. ‘What are they’? they would bay. Somehow we had to calm our nerves evaluate the figures, hoping they were in range of expectations and then make a price. The crowd would rush away and another crowd would appear armed with one of our rival’s prices. After 5 minutes or so the new level would be established and life would go on and my heart return to a normal rate. The thing was at the end of each day we were left with residual positions. Overtime I learned how to finesse the process and choose and shape the portions we ended up with. Mike Rogers was something of a gambler and our metjodologies were not aligned but he was the boss. Make no bones about it this was serious tuff and as the week wore on the stress levels would rise. To add to the stress the partner who was overall in charge of the team I worked with which covered various overseas trading companies, plantation and tea shares was a man who, although hugely able and intelligent was a serious alcoholic who was given to outbreaks of rage. I was in truth his blue eyed boy and rater like George Robinson he took an interest in me. Bizzarly he would take me to a special office we had in the dungeons of the Stock Exchange. I had been interviewed there but what else it was for I know not. Any way he would take me there and as I drank cup of coffee he would sluice down his first two or three sweet sherries of the day. He would then teach me about all sorts of odd things. He taught me to French Polish and was delighted when I started buying old furniture form junk shops an renovating them. He had no children of his own and maybe like George I was the sort of person he could see as his son. I normally avoided his wrath which would often appear late in the day but the whole set up was not a little uncomfortable.
I will skip a lot of time here and jump ahead. After 18 months or so when Mike Rogers was on holiday and I was in sole charge I put my methodology to the test and I did very well making a lot of money for the ‘account period’. I did so without interference but it was very hard work and took extreme concentration. At the end of the period before Mike Roger’s return, Mike Reader took the boss Colin fairbairn out for drink (god help us). They returned about three hours later and I was told from that time onward I was to be promoted and would be in sole charge of the book. I was given a junior to work with me and my career took off. I was extremely diligent but I was always anxious and often I felt like being sick in the mornings especially if some major company figures were expected. After 3 years or so I was taken aside by the firms senior partner and I was congratulated with the news I was to be sent in front of The Stock Exchange Counsil to seek approval for membership. It was a moving day and Roger Wellesley Smith was kind enough to propose me to the committee. It was of course a formality but sat before 20 or so influential senior people was quite an ordeal. I remember calling my mother and she was so proud of me. I got a silver badge and the following day i walked on to the floor of the house with my head held high.
Tales of a Life Well Lived 