A Memorial Page To My Grandad Who Inspired Me.
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Major Arthur Lewis Ball.Manager of Lloyds Bank, Pall Mall, London.Chairman of Central & District Property Company Ltd.My late grandfather Arthur, from my mother's side of the family, who was a great inspiration to me all through my childhood. Arthur was a very professional man, who had served in the British Army, from when he started as an Army motorcycle dispatch rider in the Royal Engineers, training on Sailsbury Heath, serving in the liberation of Jerusalem, and the Lawrence of Arabia period. He left with his silver medals , one nicknamed " Pipsqueak & Wilfred. "Having become manager of Lloyds Bank, Pall Mall, London, which was the Head Office of Lloyds Bank of it's day, dealing with clients from all over the World, and administering all the Services pay, Navy , Army & Airforce. There were huge amounts of staff at Pall Mall, Cox & Kings Branch, just dealing with all the Services pay alone. many of his clients were based all over the World, in places such as Hong Kong, Monaco, Switzerland, India, Ceylon, Australia and in the USA and more....Some of his clients were extremely famous people, and he was financial adviser & banker to our great statesman Sir Winston Churchill, who he would often visit at Chartwell, on his way up to the bank. Arthur would drive from his home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent to Westerham to see Sir Winnie. On visits he would always be offered a cigar, and one to take with him, and nearly always Sir Winnie did his business affairs from his bedroom. Other famous people in my grandfather's financial care were Red Butler, many famous celebrities and heads of state, Charlie Chaplin, and as a child we always saw his latest films at my grandfather's flat on Mt Ephraim on his 8mm projector, which was actually the previous residence of the Duke of Wellington.When Arthur was asked to put up the first £ Million for Pinewood Studios, this was the first big sum of money he had been asked for, and this was for the first of the Carry On films, which as we know went ahead, and are a famous series of films known all around the World. This brought the actor, the late Sid James to repay this debt later on in Arthur's career, when he was chairman of Central & District Property Company Ltd, who built Centrepoint in London, and many Arndale Shopping centres across the Country, Sid James would come along with his wife and do the opening ceremony of the shopping centre. Arthur was photographed as Chairman of C&DPC Ltd holding an original piece of the Trans Atlantic core cable, he also blew up a building or two from his London office. On 27th August 1970.He met the yatchsman Sir Alec Rose, who sailed single handed Around the World , who was opening a C&DPC Ltd building in Southsea called Rose Tower.On growing up I was shown the huge amounts of signed photos my grandfather had collected over the years ( unfortunately now all sold by my late parents ), one of the most famous ones I saw was of Sir Winston Churchill, Franklin D.Roosevelt, Stalin and ( Ike ) Dwight D. Eisenhower in that great famous photograph in the North Atlantic, but underneath all these famous people were all their signatures. As a family, we held copies of all Churchill's four books that were personally signed to us, along with a rare photograph of Sir Winnie on horseback in a lane near Chartwell. All this memorabilia unfortunately went to auction some years ago. There were many many special items with " To Arthur " personally written on them. more to follow............
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