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After a very fulfilling career with the Post Office (ending up in the position of Chief Executive Officer) Sydney Partridge, born in London in 1922, tells us of his retirement days with wife, Marjorie in Southbourne, Bournemouth.
'We purchased our new home in an area where I was not familiar with planning developments, etc., so I was able to keep my mind occupied with these matters in the period immediately after retirement. Thus avoiding the feeling of 'uselessness' that comes to some people who have nothing to do after a lifetime of mental occupation.
After we had settled into our new home, and finished making all the changes that we wanted, I found a job for the summer months of 1980, working in the Trustee Savings Bank in Boscombe. Here I learned something about banking procedures which I had not previously known, and which I would be able to make use of, in my investment activities in the years of retirement ahead.
In the years of retirement since then, I've spent some time studying various types of investment and their treatment under our Tax system. I get much satisfaction from planning several years ahead and refining my investments, so as to get as close as possible below the various tax thresholds from year to year, as each Budget brings changes and as interest rates rise and fall.
I have come to regard the trimming of my taxable income, or capital gains, as something of a game between myself and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to get as close as possible to the threshold for Higher Rate Tax even when he moves the goal posts!
I have helped a number of friends and relations with financial matters (if sometimes, only on such mundane details as getting the best abatement on their phone, gas, electricity bills, etc.). I had one long drawn-out battle with the liquidators of the Barlow Clowes affair and achieved a successful result, which was accepted by the Inland Revenue, to the benefit of several of my friends and myself. This gave me much satisfaction.
The results of my investments have been very satisfactory but, of course, one cannot talk about them to friends who are not in a similar financial position to oneself, and, even if one could, it would seem like boasting, which is abhorrent to most of my generation and up-bringing.
So, at risk of seeming like 'the King in his counting house', I keep my own counsel and when I've finished my financial exercises I join The Queen in the parlour, and trust that there's some 'bread and honey' left for me!
I have developed an interest in growing cacti (flowering varieties). I have been successful in propagating quite a large number of varieties, and bringing them into flower, to the satisfying sound of cries of amazement and pleasure from friends and neighbours, to whom I have passed on various specimens for them to keep and enjoy in future. It gives me much satisfaction that such lovely blooms come from such unattractive objects as those prickly cactus plants - there is hope for us all!
Growing old, medical problems restrict the amount of travelling that can be done, but one gets used to limiting one's horizons, and I count myself very fortunate to be living in Southbourne, with the sea and the rivers Stour and Avon within less than a mile's walking distance, and a very pleasant neighbourhood to walk through. I can look back on all the travelling that I have done and the places that I have visited, in the UK and abroad, which most other people have not had the opportunity to visit.
These places include Stone Henge, The Forum in Rome, and The Acropolis in Athens. I have climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid, to the top of the domes of St. Peter's in Rome and St. Paul's in London. I have climbed up the ever-narrowing spiral staircase on the outside of the spire of Our Saviour's Church in Copenhagen.
This was on one December morning, when, the frozen dew on the copper steps had not melted - except on the southern side - and it was quite a thrill to climb to the very top, clinging hand-over-hand to the safety rail. I've been to the top of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and also to the top of the beautiful Sacre Coeur Church and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
I've conquered the 'Aiguille du Midi' 13000 ft. above Chamonix in the French Alps, one March, in a temperature of minus 25 degrees centigrade (they said). I've been up the Corcovado (the 'Hunchback') mountain to the foot of the huge statue of 'Christ the Redeemer', overlooking the city and bay of Rio de Janeiro and to the top of the Sugar Loaf mountain in the Bay of Rio.
I've paddled on the beach of Copacabana (carrying my shoes to prevent them being stolen!); been to the top of the Empire State Building in New York and up the inside of the Statue of Liberty and looked out of the windows at the top of its helmet. I've made my way to the top of Mount Victoria in Hong Kong. I've been across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and also walked (both ways) across Sydney Harbour Bridge in
Australia.
I've been to the Sydney Opera House and to La Scala, Milan, to L'Opera in Paris and the Lincoln Centre in New York. I've had dinner in the 'Rainbow Room' restaurant at the top of the RCA building at the Rockafeller Centre, New York, and I've had lunch with my niece, Diana in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Post Office Tower (now BT Tower) in London. I've toured the Palaces of Versailles and Fontainebleu, near Paris and the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna.
I've been within arm's reach of Winston Churchill, Field Marshall Lord Slim of Burma, President Gnonu of Turkey, President Makarios of Cyprus and Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia (at Ventnor, while in banishment). Also, of Lloyd George and, at the Royal Processions of 1935 and 1937, within a coronet's throw of all the crowned heads of Europe and their 'Royal hangers-on'. As Kipling recommended to Mrs. Kipling, I've kept the common touch!
I've flown the length of Europe and Asia from London to Tokyo, via Moscow and around part of the Arctic Circle across Siberia. I've sailed all the way round the continent of Africa. I've flown across all the Oceans of the World and visited all the Continents (except Antarctica). I've flown all the way around the World several times, east about and west about.
I've been to so many places and seen so many things in my life, and now I'm content to spend my remaining years in this quiet backwater in Dorset. I have my wife, my home and my garden, my walks to Christchurch (to the east) and to Boscombe (to the west) and, within reasonable driving distance, all the people whom I care about. And I am content.
I have a lifetime of memories, which seem to get clearer as the years go by. Some of them I have tried to share with you, dear reader - I hope you have found some interest in them.'
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