On leaving school he obtained his first job in the offices of the ‘Home and Overseas Insurance Company’ in Fenchurch Street in the City of London. During his first week in this job, and being the ambitious and enterprising young fellow that he was, he had some business cards printed for himself with the intent of sharing his insurance expertise with the undoubtedly grateful members of the general public. His tenure with this organisation was fairly brief which may have been to the relief of the company and the benefit of an unknowing public. The ‘Home and Overseas’ disappeared not too many years later but it would be a little far-fetched and undoubtedly unfair for anyone to speculate that his involvement with them had anything to do with hastening their departure from the scene.
Vic was a very bright and quite audacious young lad who may possibly have felt that as many enterprises as possible should have the opportunity to measure his skills and, indeed, he theirs. In no particular order because there is probably now, and possibly never was, anyone able to identify all the establishments with which he was involved, here are a few.
Fortnum & Mason of Piccadilly were honoured with his presence, but only briefly. During his fleeting visit the company would have been able to assess that what they had to offer would never be able to measure up to his expectations. However, it is interesting to speculate on what might have been. One assumes that he started in the backroom, perhaps filling out orders or stacking shelves, rather than in the shop. From there, in one of their smart electric vans, he might have graduated to making deliveries. Or, and this may be a little too fanciful for some tastes, being elevated to the shop floor where, beautifully attired in the frock coat and striped trousers of morning dress, he would greet and aid the rich and the aristocratic as they entered those portals. Certainly he had sufficient charm to melt the meanest spirit but it is very difficult to imagine him kowtowing to certain people for whom he would have had little respect. Therefore, as Vic did, we shall move on to other things.
Perhaps not the next one but certainly a challenge was Vic’s life with London Transport. Despite his desire to drive he worked as a conductor and had Brian Whittmore as his driver. This must have been a combination to put many a mind in turmoil. It was certainly a time when the presence of two members of the London Transport staff at 1 Farmstead proved to be one too many and so Vic took up residence with the then fairly newly weds at Courtlands Avenue, Lee.
Lu and George had a maisonette which whilst only having two bedrooms had one which was unoccupied during the first three childless years of their marriage. During that period it had guests from time to time, the first one from Germany in 1963-4, therefore, it must have been sometime around 1965 that Vic came to stay.
The entrance door to the maisonette was on the ground floor with the reception rooms on the first floor and the bedrooms on the second floor. Usually, except for weekends, both Lu and George were out of the maisonette for the whole of the day, however, on one occasion George was sitting quietly at home when he was almost shaken out of his chair by an almighty pounding on the entrance door. This battering, which continued as George charged down to the entrance, sounded as if someone was endeavouring to knock the door from its hinges. On opening it he found himself facing a small man who informed him that he was Brian Whittmore, but not before George informed him of what he thought he was. He was given a good ticking off for causing such a hullabaloo after which he explained that that was the only way he could ensure that Vic would wake up and get to work on time; the door bell which rang at the top of the first staircase was totally unable to achieve this job.
At some time during his London Transport venture, or perhaps adventure would be more appropriate, Vic decided that he much preferred the role of driver to that of conductor. One imagines that this view was not shared with those in authority who may have felt that he should stay at the back where he could improve his bell ringing technique so that his driver would be able to pull away just before a prospective passenger reached the bus platform. Possibly Vic, believing in the old adage that rules are for the guidance of wise men and the observance of fools, decided to adopt an independent point of view and took matters into his own hands; he borrowed a bus.
Buses are large and considered dangerous in the hands of the inexperienced and unqualified driver, therefore, although perhaps unreasonably, London Transport preferred to allow only those who had taken and, preferably passed, their special driving test to drive their buses and, perhaps some might think this a little pedantic, only with their permission. Further, the Metropolitan Police have their doubts about the efficacy of a system which would allow anyone to just turn up and drive away a bus as the fancy takes them. Therefore, one may assume that London Transport or the Police or possibly both parties remonstrated with Vic. However, as his driving was limited to moving the bus around the bus depot his punishment was restricted to dismissal.
He was a bookkeeper for a butcher and also worked as a greengrocer. This was possibly one of Vic’s strangest jobs since he didn’t at all like vegetables. However, in one of those strange tricks of fate it was whilst he was employed there that he met Sandra who was helping out a friend by standing in for her at her weekend job.
Another of his jobs was acting as a middleman between the cow and the consumer of milk. This job usually required that the employee should be at the depot to load up the float at a very early hour. Vic was one who usually preferred the streets to be well aired before he would venture on to them and a little conflict of opinion may have developed between him and his employer as to the best time to commence. Be that as it may, he would have made his deliveries with much bonhomie whilst consuming large quantities of tea; his socializing with the customers would have done little to compensate for his late starts.
It was during the time that Vic was a milkman that he married Sandra. From time to time both Sandra and Ken helped Vic with his round, but, it was Ken who got up early to ensure that Vic was finished in time for his wedding.
The following is taken from a preserved newspaper cutting:
“Vic married Sandra Spencer at St Martin’s Church, Chelsfield on 3rd June 1967. Sandra, who carried a bouquet of cream roses, green carnations, lilies of the valley and white freesias, had as her bridesmaids her sister Susan, Ros Jones (now Ray), Julie Watson (Dovey), Janice Watson (Godfrey) and Sheila Jones (O’Shea). Susan was wearing a green Empire-line dress while the other bridesmaids wore lemon Empire-line dresses and all were carrying posies of mixed sweet peas. Brian Whittmore, who was Vic’s driver on London Transport buses, was the Best man.” [Vic was no longer employed on the buses by this time.]
No doubt and in due course, discussion would have arisen between Vic and the management over possible incompatibilities between them over whose priorities should be paramount, the manager’s, the customers’ or Vic’s. Unlike football which allows for a draw, a winner of this clash would have been needed and one likes to think that Vic, in order to save the face of management, departed voluntarily. Or, perhaps, his perspicacity revealed the future shopping trends that were coming with the growth of supermarkets and he departed before the job itself disappeared.
At one stage Vic and Sandra lived at Dulwich and whilst there Sandra was in hospital for a while. During her time away from home Vic planted little messages all over the flat and within cupboards and drawers to greet and surprise her on her return home.
Feeling that a change of pace and of location would be a good idea, Sandra and Vic working in tandem, at Kentish Town, managed a newsagent and tobacconist shop. On the day they transplanted from Dulwich to Kentish Town Ken hired a van and assisted Vic with the removal. All went well until Ken twisted his foot. By the time of their arrival at Kentish Town the foot was hurting at which point Ken removed his shoe to enable better observation of the offending appendage. Unfortunately once the shoe was off, because of the swelling there was no way that it could fit back on again. Fortunately it had been arranged that Ken should stay the night. By the next day there was sufficient improvement to allow for travel.
This, surely, must have been a period when being at work on time should have been a very simple task; they occupied a flat immediately over the shop. However, unlike some shops which open their doors no earlier than 9am, often just as or slightly in advance of the arrival of the staff, a Newsagent will normally have his newspapers delivered to him as early as 4am or 5am.
Many people start work early and like to pop into their local shop to collect their daily paper and would, in those years still, buy 20 cigarettes, one of which would have been lit up immediately to much coughing and aahing signifying their pleasure at their first ‘fag’ of the day. Therefore, it is necessary for the newsagent or perhaps his wife to open the shop at an hour which will accommodate their customers on the way to work rather than on their way home. Finding that their talents were under used they retired from the shop and Vic moved onto the next challenge.
Sometime during the late1980s Vic gravitated to what would prove to be his final fully paid job when he joined a wholesale plumbing merchant by the name of McGuire & Murray; he was responsible for their books. When Lu and George at Weigall Road had a water problem, caused by lead pipes, they were able to benefit from Vic’s employment to obtain, at cost, all the copper piping necessary for the job of modernising their plumbing.
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