Memories of Douglas Number 11

LARN YERSEL GEORDIE

My late husband Douglas worked in the Head office of an Insurance Company in Holborn, London. He lived in Kent and did the daily commute. In 1973 he was promoted to a post in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

He had a house to sell in Kent and until it was sold he lived in Newcastle - in The County Hotel near the railway station, and went back to Kent at the weekends. The company paid all expenses. As his house took over 6 months to sell he got quite well known in the hotel.

While living in the hotel he took the opportunity, after the working day, to get to know Newcastle and the surrounding area. However he was glad when he was able to buy a house in the North East so he could have all his things around him and not have the hassle of the weekend trips back to Kent.

During his time at The County Hotel he was involved in an evacuation. The headline in the local newspaper ( which of course Douglas has kept a copy of ) reads " The Great Escape - 105 flee City fire " On the night of the fire the guests had to quickly get out of their rooms and muster in the street in their night clothes. The fire apparently started in the dining room at 2.30am so it must have been quite frightening to hear the fire alarm the middle of the night.

17 fire appliances attended and brought the blaze under control.

No - one was hurt and most of the guests, including Douglas, were able to spend the rest of the night at the nearby Royal Station Hotel. Others were taken to different hotels around the town.They were allowed back in to The County Hotel the next day and the damage was confined the dining room and nearby areas.

My blip today shows a book which was left on Douglas's desk for him to find on his first day working in the Newcastle office. Someone's idea of a joke .......... maybe a bit of a barbed joke as he was an "outsider ", a "Southerner " who had got the promotion and others already working in the office who had applied had lost out.

I was working in the same building but not in the same department as Douglas at that time. A few years later I was transferred to his department and the rest, as they say, is history.