RHH and PWB obviously in good form, with Sue Gibson refereeing the competition. Ron retired from management of the firm’s accounts, ten years later in 2000 after about 50 years with the firm. He had followed his dad into UD&L. All part of the ‘small family firm’ tradition. Peter Brock had joined UDL in 1988 as part of the UDL-Burnside merger. Peter’s claim to fame was a reputation for doing the Times crossword, routinely, in about 10 minutes. This photo is a window into that changing world of 25 years ago. MFW had retired as Senior Partner of UDL (the first after the founders, Bill Dykes and Peter Lord) in 1987 and had handed over to DGG at a dinner at the Devonshire hotel just off Oxford Street.
So this is at the Swallow Hotel, Peterborough 1990, three years later. The tenth anniversary for UDL Peterborough, which had begun in March 1980 (only two years after Peter Lord retired) at our home in South Luffenham, Rutland. And 1980 was only twenty-three years since the Oxford 1957 centenary of the family removals firm, Archer Cowley & Co, at the Cadena restaurant in Cornmarket Street, Oxford. Click here to go to that page. Looking back, the 1990 Swallow Hotel celebration symbolised the reason why the Archer family’s young people (unlike RHH!) had gone elsewhere to pursue their careers. And then Archer Cowley & Co had been sold in 1970, about ten years after it became clear that the existing management was unlikely to be replaced from within the Archer family. Sadly, UDL Peterborough likewise closed about ten years after Phil left it in 2002, and for almost exactly the same reason: an inability to find ongoing management for the office from within the firm or indeed from within the profession. How history repeats itself.
The Swallow event was splendidly organised (from Leeds) by Elizabeth Harrison, sister-in-law of Michael Harrison (MRH), and was much enjoyed by all concerned. The most memorable aspect of it all now is the album of photographs taken by (or anyway captioned-on-post-it-notes-by) MFW himself - witness the above. One member of the firm unforgettably entered into the enjoyment of the libations too heartily with somewhat sad results for his own physiognomy and for the continuance of the music from the disco. But such things will happen in the best-regulated of firms (and families!).