Reflections

56 Plus Years Ago

I must confess that I am an inveterate hoarder - somewhat to my wife's irritation. In particular I have hoarded letters that contain some significant information. And on 4th September 1958, I received the following letter from The British Petroleum Company in London:

"... we now write to offer you an engagement as a Student Apprentice in Commerce in the Training Division of our Personnel Department with effect from the 14th September, 1958 subject to the following conditions ... the Company will, so long as you are able to perform and actually do perform the duties required under your engagement, pay you salary at the rate of ₤315 per annum, payable monthly in arrears."

₤315 per annum comes down to a little over ₤6 per week, hardly a living wage, even in 1958.

But there was an upside to this. The idea behind the Commercial Apprenticeship was that we would spend six months of the year in a department of the company in London, the other six months studying. Moreover, that study would be away from London, in this case at what was then known as the Portsmouth College of Technology (now Portsmouth University) some 75 miles south-west of London.

The advantage was that the company paid all board and lodging, tuition and books. On the other hand, this involved nine eighteen year old herberts living in close proximity, away from home for the first time (most of us) in what was very much a naval city.

I'll have more to say about all this later, but in retrospect, it was remarkable that there were no calamities, catastrophes - or unwanted pregnancies