Mum worked for 20 years for Midland Bank starting at her home town branch in Melton Mowbray on leaving school at 16, then as relief cover for the Eastern region, then as the manager's secretary in Cambridge (where she quickly got his respect by tearing up a piece of work he said she'd done wrong, suggesting he do it himself!)  It was the relief cover though that she talked about most - working in a different branch each week when another member of staff was on holiday or off sick (in some smaller towns opening up the bank as the only member of staff).  Sometimes early morning on the bus, but often in a hotel, which she enjoyed, with its weekly allowance of 2 shillings and sixpence often spent at the cinema (she liked a good James Bond, though it had to be Sean Connery).  Enjoyed that is apart from at Uppingham where the church clock chimed every hour throughout the night.

Working in a different town each week, mum made a wide circle of friends and throughout the 1950's travelled extensively round the UK and Europe, all documented in her photo albums and the stamps in her passport.  Today it's a short flight, but when mum went to Barcelona in1957 it was 2 days each way on a bus, and when they got there it rained so hard that the streets turned to rivers - somewhat different from the over touristed city of today.