5x12 pentomino tiling
«

History in my Study

»

I've been having a bit of a Spring clean/life laundry blitz over the last couple of weeks and this morning, while shredding old documents, I came across this, my first Nat West bank statement which is almost thirty years old:

My first Nat West bank statement - October 1980

This wasn't my first bank, I'd had an account with Midland (now HSBC) before but after a data protection breach1 I opened an account with Nat West and this is my first statement from them.

Things which amuse me looking at it now:

  • All the text printed by the computer is upper case, I'd be willing to bet that the printer didn't do lower case: that was pretty standard then for high speed printers.
  • I'm referred to as "PAUL KENNETH OLDHAM ESQ" - I can't remember the last time anyone used the "esquire" suffix rather than "Mr" prefix.
  • My grant, I was on a full grant, was £500.50 per term ... which was more than enough to get by on.
  • Most of what are clearly cash withdrawals are by cheque, only one is by cash dispenser. And look at how small the amounts are each time. It looks like I spent around £75 in a month (and bear in mind I probably didn't have a credit card then so that was my total spend in the month).
  1. They told my mother, also P. Oldham, my balance when she asked them for the balance on her account which was held at the same branch.

Written 18/04/10


Previous comments about this article:

On 18/04/10 at 1:02pm Derek Law wrote:

In those days Natwest insisted on something in your name to determine your gender - presumably to avoid the very problem you had at the Midland. Wendy and I had a meeting with the manager to find out why she had to be "Mrs Wendy Law" on our joint account whereas I was "Derek Law Esq", and that was the explanation they gave.

On 18/04/10 at 2:40pm Graham Denison wrote:

Chances are it came off an IBM 1403 chain printer, but I'm just geeky... and older than you. Quick thought, if they were an ICL user, it would have been a LP1500, we had them at BSC, you could almost park a mini inside them!

Comment on this article

« »
I am currently reading:

A History of Women in 101 Objects by Annabelle Hirsch Game On by Janet Evanovich

(?)
Word of the Day:
tölva