Biography of Malcolm Archbald SMITH
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Having been accepted by interview with George Wimpey, Malcolm started work as a trainee Quantity Surveyor in the Central Estimating department of their head office in Hammersmith on 5 January 1959 at a salary of £6 per week. A letter from the Personnel Office welcomed him to the company. The work comprised taking measurements from drawings to produce a Bill of Quantities to enable a price to be estimated. This involved working to The Standard Method of Measurement laid out for such work by the Institute of Quantity Surveyors.
The academic course for the Institute of Quantity Surveyors commenced in September so, until then, Malcolm attended Guildford Technical College to study Building Construction. In September, he started his full studies at Hammersmith College of Art and Building, by co-incidence the same building that had formerly been Lime Grove film studios where his grandfather, Sydney Folker, had worked.
Malcolm took lodgings in Beverley Gardens in Barnes. It was a very small second floor bedsit and on the floor below were a Swiss couple who used to argue loudly during the early evening then go out to the pub to reconcile. Malcolm's mother drove him to the lodging initially so that he could bring his belongings but thereafter he would cycle home each Friday then back again on Sunday evening, about 35 miles each way. He took clothes for washing home then brought back clean clothes and food provisions.
Malcolm's manager, George Vickery, ran his office like a Dickensian institution. Suits had to be worn and jackets could not be removed unless a desk was vacant in which case a jacket was to be hung on the chair to make it look as if it was occupied. Beards were not permitted. Smoking however was permitted, so Malcolm could now do so without having to hide the fact as he did at school. Discipline extended to staff being instructed how much to donate to service staff at Christmas or being instructed to attend certain out-of-work activities. An example of the latter was a cricket match but one of the lads knew the groundsman's daughter so we spent our time in the lodge enjoying sandwiches and beer.
A colleague called Hamish Thew was allocated to keep an eye on Malcolm when he first arrived in order to show him the ropes. The two became good friends both at work and leisure. In fact, in later years they became godfather to each others son. Hamish was talented at drawing and between them he, Malcolm and one Ken Groves started a light-hearted in-house magazine. Malcolm also made a sketch of the view from his office window.
In June 1959 he received the first increase in his salary which amounted to £38 per annum then in December he was notified of a further £25.
Malcolm had problems with his Institute of Quantity Surveyors exams at intermediate level, failing Maths and Accountancy. Fortunately, one could resit if no more that two subjects were failed and he passed the second time. Malcolm's father had arranged for one of his colleagues to give him some tuition in accountancy but more attention was given to a bottle of whisky than the subject in hand. Malcolm, as with many of the other trainees had tended to skip evening classes but problems came at the end of the academic year when the reports came in the the manager. Each trainee was called in to see Mr Vickery for a dressing down.
For some reason, Mr.Vickery selected Malcolm and one other trainee to attend the Business Efficiency exhibition at nearby Olympia with a brief to find ways to improve office procedures. To his surprise, he was asked to design a new filing system to track the progress of work that passed through the office and it was actually implemented.
Malcolm did not enjoy the office work too much and was pleased when he was transferred to Department 2 as part of his training to experience practical work, With experienced staff he would visit sites that had just been purchased and measure the site clearance work. One such site was in Witham, Essex. He also started to undertake the monthly valuation at a site in Hertfordshire. Having no car, he undertook the journey by bus and coach. In the office one of his tasks was to assist in the preparation of schedules of materials for purchasing.
Malcolm returned to the Central Estimating department but he could see that his studies were floundering. The practical work appealed to Malcolm and he was pleased to be transferred again into Department 18 which operated in the home counties. He soon applied to be transferred permanently and was accepted. At this stage he returned to living with his parents in Camberley.
One of the early sites that Malcolm visited was at Isleworth. Whilst there he witnessed the filming of Charade with Sophia Loren and Gregory Peck. The site was also close to Syon House where his grandfather had made some of his silent movies.
Malcolm was allocated to a site of luxury housing at St.Mary Abbotts in Kensington during which time he either cycled or took the Aldershot & District coach. In 1962 he took on a series of building sites in Reading. He was based at Woodley but also visited Coley Park and Oxford Road. To get to Reading he travelled on the Thames Valley bus from Park Street, Camberley. In spring 1963 the country was gripped by several months of ice and snow and all building work came to a standstill although Malcolm had to attend site each day.
He next worked in the Harmanswater area of Bracknell, to which he cycled. Wimpey were building new houses for the Bracknell Development Corporation. He walked the journey one morning in an attempt to train for a sponsored team walk from London to Brighton on behalf of the company, and arrived at work three hours late. The team for the walk never materialised.
After that he was then on site at Dedworth Manor in Windsor near the racecourse and this journey involved a series of bus connections. Besides the monthly valuations he also did the weekly cost amd bonus measurements. This required a certain amount of skill to keep the bonus leves even throughout the life of the contract. He seems to have been successful in this as at the end of the job at Windsor he was given the title of 'Honorary Paddy' by the gang of Irish labourers at a session at the Windsor Lad pub. From Windsor, Malcolm also visited a site in Sunbury, using the Site Agents company car.
Malcolm was transferred to the Buying Department in Gunnersbury House, Chiswick. It was a small team and the manager, although not an unpleasant man, was really irritating. Malcolm had told his fiancée about him which led to a near embarrasing moment. By co-incidence, the manager's wife went to the salon where Malcolm's fiancée Brenda was a hairdresser. The two were talking one day and from the conversation they found that their respective men worked together. Brenda was about to mention the annoying manager when she realised that this was his wife. Malcolm briefly also worked in Flyover House which was just around the corner on the Great West Road overlooking Chiswick flyover.
In 1965, Malcolm had bought a cottage at Verwood in Dorset as a home for his forthcoming marriage. He had expected to resign from his job in London and find new employment, however, a colleague suggested he apply for a transfer to the Southampton office in Winchester Road. This he did and it went through successfully. As the cottage was not fit to live in initially, Malcolm lodged with his fiancee's sister at Mudefod Quay near Christchurch and for transport he bought a Ford 12 cwt van costing £15 from someone in nearby Somerford. The van was a wreck but proved useful later for carrying building materials for the cottage.
The first job to which he was assigned was for Plessey in Broadstone and he travelled to and from Verwood by bus. That could be tricky as the bus only ran once each day. One of his duties was to accompany the wages clerk into Poole each week to collect money for the wages from the bank. Having collected the money, they would leave it under the passenger seat and pop into a pub for a couple of pints. When travelling to the office from home, he arranged a lift with a colleague, Hugh Glover, who had an A35 van. Sometimes Malcolm would cycle to and from Southampton. There were eight desks crammed into his office but there were nine members of staff so it depended on at least one person being out on site at any one time. There was a really good atmosphere amongst colleagues both in the office and socially. Lunchtime usually involved a trip to a pub and/or a game of cards.
After Malcolm married in 1967, if his wife's car was available he would borrow it to get to work. One notable winters day he had to abandon the car in deep snow and walk the last mile then be revived upon arrival by concerned colleagues. Going home, after reaching the car it took him 4 hours to cover the next mile.
The company was cramped for space and decided to build new office in West End and Malcolm was involved in preparing the estimates for the work. The company paid staff a travelling allowance toward the extra distance to the new premises. By this time, Malcolm had bought himself a car and used to pick up several colleagues on the way in return for which they gave him their allowance.
The Southampton office was requested to provide some staff to carry out some work at Hammersmith head office and Malcolm was one of the three nominated. The work was to assist in clearing a backlog of work in his old department. He had not been married long but Dave Veal, who also went, had been married only a short time and Dave Johnson was only just back off his honeymoon. The three spent four weeks on expenses living in the Milestone Hotel in Kensington and made frequent trips to the West End.
Malcolm was allocated to a site in Poulner in Ringwood which was nice and close to home but he still had to travel in to Southampton quite regularly. He also did some work on a new site in Ferndown before he left the company.
Malcolm found that he was getting stagnant at Wimpeys and looked for another job elsewhere. He applied to City of New Sarum District Coumncil for which he was called to interview. In order not to raise suspicion at Wimpeys, he went by car during the daytime as if he were going to site. He stopped in a lay-by to change into suitable clothes on the way to Salisbury. He was successful in his application.
At the time of his leaving Wimpeys, Malcolm was presented with a golf trolley by his colleagues and a set of glasses with a jug from the departmental manager.
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