London 1924, continued

Pages For this Section

England 1921 - A summer holiday at Staines

Germany 1921

London 1922

London 1923

London 1923, continued

London 1924

London 1924, continued

London 1924

I arrived back from Berlin by the Harwich-Hook ferry early one morning and went to my parent's house off Oxford Street for a second breakfast. My visit had been unexpectedly successful and I had some important news for my chief, which I knew he would like to have prior to a board meeting that he was to attend that morning. So I decided to visit my chief at his home in Hampstead, for which my father kindly lent me his car. I went up Harley Street, and into the Inner Circle of Regents Park and as there was no one about, I "trod" on it. No one, that is except a policeman, who took all details and told me that I would be reported for speeding in the Royal Parks.

In due course I received the summons to appear at Marylebone police court. My father bet me a level ten shillings that I would be fined three pounds. I sat through all the morning cases and every motoring case similar to mine ended with a three pound fine. On hearing these gloomy tidings at lunch, my father very sportingly increased the odds to four to one. At two p.m. I was back in court and was the first case to be called, and pleaded guilty. The magistrate, who had lunched very well, asked the fat old constable what I said when he stopped me. He thumbed through his note book and replied, "The accused said, Sir "Please make it snappy, officer, I am going to work." The magistrate turned to me and peered over his glasses, "Do you mean to tell me that you permitted yourself to do 45 miles per hour in the Royal Parks, where twenty miles per hour is the limit?" I replied in the affirmative and he continued, "And you were going to work?" Again I replied in the affirmative. Then he exploded "45 miles per hour in the Royal Parks, where there is a limit of twenty miles per hour and you were going to work!!! My boy, you are in the wrong court - you should be before the Commissioners of Lunacy. You will be fined ten shillings."

I should have tried to swing my fine on to my expenses sheet, but as my father paid up two pounds, I did not have the nerve.

London 1924

My boss gave me the job of researching into a chemical process and particularly to find out what information existed on the lines he was developing. This led me to N.M. Patent Office in Chancery Lane and delving into dusty old tomes - which I hated. By chance I found a reference to some work carried out in Austria before the First World war. I asked for the bound volumes of Austrian patents for the years 1910 to 1913 and started my boring search.

I cannot remember now in which volume it was - I believe 1912 - I came across a patent called "Vehicle for Destroying Trenches" - "Schutzengrabenvernichtungsautomobil". On the back page there was a perfectly clear diagram of a British Mark 1 tank, as first used at the Battle of Cambrai in 1916. It was shaped like a squashed diamond, had caterpillar tracks and a traversing barbette on either side, carrying optionally machine guns or five pounders. Certain people in this country were awarded enormous sums of money in later years for this original discovery or invention. About 25 years later I was passing along Holborn and popped into the Patent Office and called for those volumes to be brought up from the dungeons, but I could not find it in the cursory glance I had time to spare. I presumed that someone had naturally cut it out. All the patents are marked with a serial number and if you were to find the one that was missing and send two Austrian Schillings to the Patent Office in Vienna for a photostat copy of it, you might have a lot of fun or start a lucrative blackmail business.