Chapter 5.3
Accountancy Training
Featuring life-long friends and high achievers, Joe Oliver and Tony Shaw
On leaving school I immediately signed up, on 12 September 1955, as an “Articled Clerk” to a Chartered Accountant, (In this case my father).
Normally you would have had to pay a premium of around £150 (Present Day Equivalent (PDE) =£4000) for the right to enter articles.
This amount would be repaid to you as wages over a 5 year spell. So, the good news was that no premium was to be paid.
On the other hand the weekly salary was five shillings (25p). Admittedly you could buy fish and chips for around 3p. The current equivalent of 25p (2020) is about £5. But then there were no digs or food to pay for.
A postal correspondence course and text books and exam entry fees were also included.
From the week I started my Articles I signed up for a Tutored correspondence course with a firm called Foulkes Lynch (FL). I had to purchase about a dozen text books on the various accountancy topics.
FL sent me a study programme for each 10 day period. This included an exam paper on what I had learnt. This was then marked and returned to me.
I was quite strict in allocating 4 full evenings each week to this course. (See results chart)
Observations from starting work with my Father
“Noel Wiseman” FCA had started in business (for the second time) in 1951. The original 1950/1 Cash Book is still held and a copy of the first page is shown.
The business operated from a very small two room office on the third or fourth floor of 25 Queen St Blackpool. Dad had one office to himself where he worked and interviewed clients.
The other room was shared by Mr Miles, an elderly retired Insurance Clerk, a Secretary and myself. The only equipment was a kettle and mugs, an old typewriter, telephone, pen, ink, blotting paper and a vacuum.
There was no calculator, either manual or battery powered.
Turnover was around £1k pa. (2020 equivalent £25k).
Much of my early work was sorting clients records into manageable order, analysing their invoices, listing out the results, and doing pages and pages of additions.
Two exams were required to be passed, the Intermediate and the Finals. Each exam had a number of completely separate exam papers, such as Company Law, Taxation, Commercial Law, Financial Accounts.
You not only had to pass every portion of the exam but you also had to attain a certain minimum overall score. If you failed a paper or passed them all but failed with the overall total then you took the exam again 6 months later.
In a small place like Blackpool you would never learn, by experience alone, all the topics and information needed to cover all aspects of Accountancy. This is why a correspondence course was vital.
Many years later in 2021, the 21st January saw my son, David, and myself at 57 St Lukes, sorting out some of my brother, Donald's, possessions, as he had died in December and his funeral was just last week.
We checked the loft and found just one box of items. It was the last 12 months Foulks Lynch papers and, amazingly, my 21st Birthday Cards. My final exam had been in September 1960, with my 21st being on 11 July 1960.
The time that we went into the loft was only hours away from being the 21st second of the 21st minute of the 21st hour of the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century.
What a day to unearth my 60 year old 21st birthday cards!!
There were about 20 cards including ones from my Parents, Grandma Hartley, many neighbours, and one to Akela, signed by about 15 of the 23rd Blackpool Cubs.
By coincidence in writing this, last night it was 22.22 on 2.2.22.
I've always liked numbers!
Friends from Blackpool Tech would feature in future adventures... and two, throughout our lives
When I was about 17 I started to attend a day release course at Blackpool Technical College near the then Palatine School.
The Course was “Accountancy” and the Tutor was Mr Alf Thompson.
About 15 years later I was to make him a presentation, on his retirement.
The course was extremely useful. It started with the basics of Double Entry book-keeping and progressed to the difficult Consolidated Accounts.
It was a fairly small class of around 8, and we all became really good friends.
In this class I first met Tony Shaw, Brian Downs, Jo Oliver, Colin Wilson and Brian Bibby. Three of these became my best friends over the next 10 years or so, and two remain so writing this in 2021.
First was Tony Shaw: He introduced me to Scouting and my Wife!
Tony Shaw was studying Cost Accountancy and worked for The Blackpool Tower Company. He was to go on to be Chief Exec of the local newspaper The Blackpool Gazette.
We started meeting up to play tennis and go on cycle rides, with me having tea at his, and vice versa. At this time he was running the Cub Pack (23rd Blackpool) St Marys, South Shore, where he had originally gone to help his girlfriend Marjorie Milton (later to become my wife!).
After a short while he asked me what I did with my spare time, and invited me down to St Marys to see if I enjoyed helping with the Cubs. I visited and I loved it.
Before 6 months was up Tony suggested that I should take over. He was travelling from North Shore every week, and did not fancy me in the way he fancied Marjorie.
I was a bit nervous as I knew nothing of “Semaphore” and nothing of “Knots”. I didn't know the National Anthem or the Cub Promise etc etc.
Tony assured me that it “was not Rocket Science” as, after all, I would only be dealing with 8-11 year olds.
From around 1956 Tony was one of my best friends. I would be around 17.
I little knew then what an impact Scouting would have on my life. I would spend thousands of hours organising evening and weekend activities and, best of all, I would end up with a fantastic wife in the process.
I would also become Chairman of Blackpool and District, and a County Campsites Committee Member etc whilst Marjorie would become County Commissioner for Cubs.
In 2019 Marjorie and I attended Tony's 80th birthday party.
Second was Brian Downs, who I went hitch hiking with across Europe
Brian lived at 82 Highfield Rd where his father ran a Butchers business.
Like Tony he became a best friend from around 1956.
In 1958 Brian and I, (now aged 19), decided to go on a 2/3 week hitch hiking holiday to Europe, making Switzerland our aim. There were strict limits to the cash you could take abroad, and a definite limit on the cash we actually had.
Brian's father arranged an overnight Lorry Lift from Blackpool to Slough, whereupon we were then on our own.
Taking a tube across London we hitched to Hastings and to the small aerodrome at Lydd. From here we flew to Le Touquet, then hit the French roads, heading for Paris.
Over the whole trip we had over 30 lifts, sometimes with very long waits. We had farmers, a Lighthouse Keeper, Nuclear Worker, Black American Soldier etc.
Many lifts were in the tin-can Renault that most French locals possessed. Some of these were full even before we got in!
In one French village we were “taken into custody” by the local Gendarme. They were suspicious of two tramps hitch-hiking in a remote village after dark. There was a national problem with terrorists coming to France from Tunisia, and we looked suspicious.
After an hour being interrogated, at the local Police Station, and having produced UK Passports and told our story, we were finally off the hook.
One policeman then looked us in the face, pointed, and said “You are English?” We thought that we had cleared this point up. Then he pointed at himself and said “I am English!” This was getting silly.
“No” we said “You are French”.
“None” he replied, “You are English, I am English, They are English”.
It was then that we twigged he was trying to practice his English and wanted to know if he had his Grammar right!
It was rather late at night and we were directed to a small, family, B+B. Time for US to practice our French. We asked for food and they asked us what we would like.
Using our French Dictionary we tried a few things like “Steak” “Sausage” to no avail. Finally we tried for Ham & Eggs. “vous avez deuze ouef et Jambon” “Oui” came the reply. So that was supper “Deuze Oeuf et beaucoup de jambon”.
We had similar issues for breakfast and ended up, once again, with “deuze oeuf et beaucoup de jambon”. Wonderful.
Miraculously, eventually, we made Switzerland, and visited the Trummelbach Falls near Lucerne. These were the world's only underground glacial waterfall accessible by lifts, tunnels etc. 20,000 litres of water per second thunders past.
From here we took a mountain path to the summit of the Kleine Scheidegg Pass where we were treated to spectacular views of the Eiger, Monch and the Jungfraujoch.
There was a mountain railway from here that took you through the mountain, in a rock tunnel, to the summit, but we could not afford this.Grindelwald was next and nights were spent in Youth Hostels.
The Swiss had a more liberal approach to hostelling than in England. Dormitories were “mixed” with some of the beds being about 10ft wide and housing numerous bodies. On another occasion we slept on the stairs.
The following year, 1959, we purchased a car together. It was a Morris Box and was certainly box shaped with large gangster style running boards.
It cost us £5 each and after a couple of years we sold it for a good profit, for £15.Brian's father had been a Truck Driver at some time and knew all about engines, tappets etc, and, under his supervision, we slowly brought the car into running order.
We stripped the thick polythene from one of the cattle carcass, in the butchers shop freezer, and glued this to the car roof, then painted it with black tar to make it double waterproof.
I learned to drive when we holidayed in Scotland, taking in Loch Lomond, (see photo of tent) Ballachulish Ferry, Skye Ferry etc.There were no road bridges at Ballachulish or Skye in those days.Most of the roads were single track and on Skye even the “A” roads had grass growing down the middle. We walked in the Quiraing, Skye, and climbed Ben MacDhui.We had borrowed a large “Icelandic” Tent from the Scouts.
We came home via Braemar and on one steep hill the car would not make it, so we had to drive up it backwards, as reverse is, apparently, a lower gear.
Apart from slightly denting an RAC Rescue Call Box, my learner driving went well. The headlamps were on stalks, not very effective, and tended to judder from side to side.
Maximum speed was around 45, and when lorries passed us we tried to keep up with them for the benefit of the lights on their tailgate.
Brian, years later became Chairman of the important Zambian Grain Marketing Board.
Third was Joe (Joseph) Oliver- a life-long friend who is now considered family.... by myself and all my children... who, in their 40s and 50s refer to him always as Uncle Joe.
As with Tony Shaw, my involvement with Joe was to last until the present day, when we are both in our 80's. (Joe centre. Colin Wilson to right.)
By now, I had qualified. Joe, however, was about a year behind me, the reason being that, around 1960, Jo had organised a road trip around the Isle of Man (in someone else's car!).
I was invited, but declined because of work/football/scouting commitments. Unfortunately Joe's party were involved in a fatal car accident which resulted in one of the party being killed.
Joe himself received a forehead scar for life and a new set of teeth. It was perhaps fortunate for me, and for my offspring, that I had declined, as my own story may have ended there and then!
HolidaysMy other main holidays around this time were Scout Camps and Cub Camp but, most years also included a week at Fallbarrow Caravan Site at Bowness.
This was, by now, a regular holiday break for the Wisemans. There was an occasional return to Newfield where I also had a few holidays with Les Kelso.
Virtually all my spare time was taken up with Scouting, Football and Fell Walking.My foremost and most intense concentration was saved for my evening study papers, as qualifying as an Accountant was the Holy Grail!!
Over the years I was to become a specialist in tax for the self-employed and I have numerous funny stories about taking on the Tax Inspectors in other Chapters of the Book.
So many stories in fact, that I created a presentation called 'The Funny Side of Income Tax' that I delivered to various groups, such as Poulton Probus Group and a St Mary's Church Group.
One day, at the Tech, Joe approached me. “You have a car” he stated. “You can read a map and climb mountains” he continued. “I want to climb a mountain in Scotland and for that I would need you and your car.”
Always blunt and to the point was Joe.
As he continued, I warmed to the plan because he had offered to pay for my petrol and for my accommodation.
“What's the highest mountain, because that's where I want to start” was his next statement. Starting at the top was always his philosophy.
Another classmate, Brian Bibby, joined us, and we duly accomplished our mission to Ben Nevis. During this brief encounter, a friendship was forged. After this, we decided to holiday in Austria, or, more accurately, Bavaria.
There were plenty of big hills here, and Joe fancied visiting “The Eagles Nest”, Hitlers hideaway.
Joe always did fancy war torn and Iron Curtain countries. Colin Wilson, another Tech student came with us.
We flew to Munich to coincide with the famous Munich Beer Festival and were soon to be found at the Hofbrauhaus. This several storied building was a centre for Bavarian culture where Folk Music and Litres of Lager went hand in hand.
Once in Bavaria I think that we climbed a mountain called Watzman, the third highest peak in Germany, whilst visiting the Berchtesgarden area.
Joe, Colin and myself were to return the next year to visit the Austrian Tyrol.
However it wasn't until just after we finished at Tech, in 1961, that we really got together. Joe, in, fact finished his Accountancy Articles with my father as his principal. He went on to be awarded the O.B.E.
