Happenchance

By Rodney Gascoyne

9: Working in Industry:

Rockware Glass made about one third of all the glass containers in the UK from beer bottles to milk and wine bottles and grocery jars and glasses. They had five factories around England where they ran large furnaces that had to be kept fired up and producing glass non-stop. Alongside that were the lines of glass moulding machines and tempering kilns that were used in the glass making process. At Head Office we had one of the factories on the same site but our main job was the accounting records for the complete company. There was a large staff and a computer that maintained the accounts and all the records. In those days the computers were fairly basic. They started using glorified sorting machines that maintained each transaction on a punched card and then sorted and resorted these cards as required. For instance, each invoice was represented by a single card and so sorting and adding up all the cards produced the itemized Accounts Receivable ledger. As invoices were paid another card would be made out for each item and then these would be added then matched with the original card for the invoice. These would be separated, listed and re-added to ensure they matched the receipts properly. This then removed those items from the collection of cards for the invoices that remained unpaid. The programs that were run while I worked there were almost as basic except that most of the card punching, sorting and handling routines had been internalized in the memory of the computer and its data files.

The computer maintained the General Ledger and the Cost Accounting details for each factory, as well as the ledgers and the payrolls. Each month we would run early reports to check for errors, mistakes or omissions and then make corrections before running the final management accounts. As the information needs changed, we needed to request changes to the way the reports were prepared and I had the task of working out the details with the Computer Department and in ensuring the changes were correct before they were made effective. I also had much work designing new systems or procedures to be used in the offices and for designs of new forms to be employed. Before my arrival there had been no formal procedures manuals so I was charged with creating and drafting those and ensuring everyone understood what and how to do the various duties each month. I was also working with the external auditors to make sure their work went well and quickly at the end of the financial year.

I had other duties too of a less regular nature. Problems encountered in other departments sometimes needed our help to find a solution and this certainly happened on many legal issues and clearing announcements the company would issue. If our factory or Head office workers had a problem we would also be part of the resolution such as inventory counts or proper handling of goods that had been returned to the factory. Although I never visited the other factories I spoke to their staff often on the telephone. When we found our own problems I was often the one to sort it out. This happened when the company decided to stop using crates for shipping on which we asked for a deposit till they were returned. It was changed so all bottles would be boxed in future and so we needed to agree with customers what they finally owed for crates not returned. It was a messy area as no real reconciliations had been done before. We had similar disputes with a few major customers and I had to organize to analyze their complete invoicing and payment details going back some years to provide them an itemized list making up what we claimed they owned us. After agreeing all this with them we cleared up their past due amounts owed to us. 

My boss left most of these complicated duties to me and I also tried to get him to make other changes so that such messes would not reoccur in the future, such as not allowing sundry balancing  net entries to be created when in a hurry. These usually fell on deaf ears and he seemed content to have me sort these messes out after they were discovered rather than try to prevent new ones from occurring. I found this rather disconcerting and preferred a more logical and organized approach. This difference of approach and attitude was one of the reasons that I started to consider the long term effects of having to work in this manner. Other than this I enjoyed the staff there and the working environment. I certainly preferred the travel arrangements.

Since returning to London on leaving the sea, I had started to do some community work in my spare time. There was a Boys' Club not too far from home and I started to volunteer there a few evenings a week. It had been set up sixty years before by one of the public schools, as a way to help London kids get some recreation and to provide training opportunities. Many such clubs introduced boxing and other sports and also some training for the workplace like woodwork or metalwork. In the days after the Second World War they also provided a supervised, clean and warm environment for teens to be gainfully occupied in the long winter evenings. They could safely socialize there and away from the streets and other distractions around them. The club I worked at was a new building and it had great facilities including a big gym. The club also ran soccer teams of various ages in the local outdoor leagues each weekend.  

My work was to help collect names and subscriptions and then to supervise the building and the boys' use of the equipment to prevent damage or injuries. Many sports were offered and to this I added a very basic introduction to gymnastics, using the equipment the club already owned. After some months I went on a weekend trip with the leader to a canoeing event on a local river and my first sight of white water canoe slalom racing. There were a number of the older boys that were getting good and who competed in regional contests. When the leader left to move onto a better job about a year later, I picked up his role of running the canoeing section and driving them to events in the club minibus. As they got older and owned their own cars they continued on their own independent of the club. We also had access to a well run Sailing Base facility in north London that offered canoe and sail training. I started to take regular trips each weekend to this open water based facility where the club also stored its owned sailing dinghy. In addition the club owned some canoes that were in need of repair. With help from interested boys we got all this equipment back into working order and continued to maintain it properly. Early training for canoeing and sailing needed to be done using the basic boats at the Sailing Base but after they had passed their first tests, our boys could be taught by me using our own boats.

The sailing and canoeing was popular and became a weekly trip on both Saturdays and Sundays. A few passed their certified sailing exam, a long term and not easy exercise that took more than a year to achieve, and even more passed the canoe tests. This let them move on to bigger and better challenges and we started going to other events away from London. We took our dinghy and raced it on other lakes and even took it for a long weekend away one summer to the Lake District along with four canoes on our trailer, towed by the minibus. We camped that weekend and others during some of these trips. We also started to go to white water events and even entered an organized One Hundred Mile canoe event on the River Severn. Camping holidays in the summer also gave us a chance to take canoes to the River Wye where we could introduce the sport to younger members. Many of the same boys stayed through all this and we also had occasional interest for a few weeks from others who tried it but did not stay at it too long. Added to all this I continued working with the club in general and help running the soccer teams. We also ran other general camps on the country grounds of Stowe School near Buckingham where we had other opportunities like the private 9 hole golf course, a great set of lakes for fishing and a horse riding stables. All these were enjoyed and well used by the boys when we could get away weekends.

The sailing side also got a boost from two other sources. An old boy member from the school set up a trust fund to finance boys on the Sail Training Association's two Topsail Schooners, "Sir Winston Churchill" and "Malcolm Miller". The trust financed two places each year for the boys from the school as well as two places for boys from the club, one from each place sharing the same trip together. It was my job to find those who should take part in this great opportunity, similar to the principles of Outward Bound. We had a steady supply for these places from those I was teaching to sail on the weekends. Additionally, the London Sailing Project, another private trust, owned three ketches in Gosport, near Portsmouth and they ran weekend training trips for members of London's Boys' Clubs and others. Both taught how to sail a large sailing ship and get along with their fellow trainees and see a totally new environment. We sent a few boys there too.  

I went on these same ships and boats myself and became a contact to best utilize whatever funded places were available to the club. As a result, we were offered the privilege of crewing another yacht for a weekend. "Ailanthus" was privately owned by Lord Amory, a past, prominent British cabinet minister, who was also behind the formation of  the London Sailing Project. He was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, a very prestigious club at Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. I selected a group of five friends, not all had sailed with me but all of whom I had known for years. They were all about 17. We drove down in my station wagon and joined the yacht in Gosport on Friday. It was being skippered by Commander Walter Scott, the Director of the London Sailing Project who I had got to know by then. 

The following morning we set sail and crossed Southampton Water, heading for Cowes. The Commander told the boys what needed to be done and I was just one of the crew too. We sailed around in the local waters and even went into the Beaulieu River. Finally we returned to Cowes and moored for the night. Before having supper the Commander was going to cook, he told the boys they could go ashore for a couple of hours. I went with them and tried to keep them together and out of any trouble. For most of them this was their first real time away from inner London. They wanted to go into a pub, a habit I knew they had at home too. I stayed with them to limit their drinking and to get them to return to the yacht by the appointed time. I wanted to let them see that drinking could be a social asset and not just a reason to have a lot.

We were late a bit and this later led to an argument I had with the Commander after the boys turned in for the night. I told him I went with them for definite reasons because I was sure they could have become drunk if I left them alone and then they would have returned far later. I also told him a bit about the boys, their home lives and jobs and why I had chosen them. They were spirited boys who had many friends and older brothers who had been in trouble and they were then near to becoming involved in similar activities. On the other hand I had recognized each of them had far greater potential and could thus benefit most from this opportunity. They were rough at the edges but they were also capable of far more than was usually asked of them. We went to bed with a difference of opinion on the matter.

Sunday morning we were up early and cleaned ship. We then set off up the harbour and hoved to opposite the Royal Yacht Squadron's clubhouse and their launch brought his lordship out to join us. We set off again out of the harbour and spent a great morning and afternoon sailing in a stiff breeze up and down the Solent and Southampton Water. During the trip the boys performed well and each in turn was invited to the cockpit to steer the yacht and chat with the Commander and his lordship while the rest of us stayed on the foredeck. The boys were having a great time and were all in high spirits. Near teatime we sailed back to Cowes and dropped off our passenger to the launch, after being saluted by the Clubhouse, with a canon fired from the water's edge, because their member was aboard. We then set sail back to Gosport. Before leaving, the Commander thanked the boys for their efforts and told me quietly he now understood what I was doing and heartily approved of my choice and my motives. He too thought they all had performed very well and had great potential with just a bit of help along the way. We drove back to London and the boys were talking non stop about the adventure. My faith in those boys was still holding true when I last saw each of them about a year later. One of them had managed to get a job with a solicitor as a clerk and was really enthusiastic about his future.

A lot of this activity took place at weekends or on holidays in the summer while I was working in the City for AYMM or when in Greenford with Rockware. In the summer of 1972 the club decided to appoint an assistant leader, a new full time job, and I put in for the post. My work with the club over the last five years and my convictions of what could be achieved made me consider doing this fulltime. For some four years I had been on the Management Committee and for the last two had served as its Honorary Treasurer, saving it some large funds because of errors in the past over employment taxes that were in fact recoverable. I had ideas about how the club should also help the older members progress in the future. The leader was more interested in working with the younger members who were easier to handle, and had formed a close friendship with another volunteer who also put in for the job. He was awarded the opening. I understood this and knew it could happen but in offering myself I knew I had made a general decision and not just a specific one for this situation. I therefore set about following other opportunities that would let me work in this field fulltime. I knew I had my qualifications in hand and could always return to accountancy later if things did not continue the way I wanted.

This meant leaving the club and the groups of boys I had taught to sail and canoe and maybe leaving London and the connections I had forged there. For the previous year I had also been volunteering with another youth club locally that we joined with for the 100 mile canoe expedition. This was a mixed club and I saw the added advantages of the social education members could get from these surrounding as against the boys only club approach I had met to date. This had widened my views and I saw that many of the same advantages could be used by teen girls too.