London
Our staff representative tells us that the staff magazine will be issued more frequently in future and there is no truth in the report that one issue was so delayed that it showed a member of the staff in the `Welcome, marriages, births and retirements'! There is great truth in this report. The reason being that the Editor was holding the edition back until he received Branch News from London Office! - Editor.
As this report is being prepared only a few more days remain in London Office for Harold Collins, our Accident Superintendent.
After many years developing the account we congratulate him on his promotion and he takes to Kendal the good wishes of all the staff.
We welcome David Mace and Geoffrey Guy who will now lead the London accident and motor departments.
The arrival of Mr Guy was shortly

followed by the collapse of a large Motor insurer (no connection we are told) and since then he has been hiding behind mountains of new proposals. We have, however, appreciated his timely and witty communiques of the `State of the motor department'.
Cupid's arrow has been working overtime and Inspectors Michael Abbs and Cliff Rosier have recently married.
Our friends in Scotland will be surprised (?) and delighted to know Lindsay Muir has married as also has Mervyn Burby another member of the fire department. Our Motor Engineer, Brian Mason and Tony Storey have also taken the plunge, and Jo Bennett, one of our popular receptionists, has changed her name to Potter by marriage. They have all received our Best Wishes for their future happiness, some of which was expressed in a joyful manner in our `City Office'.

Birmingham
Our social activities got off to a good start with a Barge Trip in Spring (commonly referred to as a `Booze Cruise'). It consisted of 4 hours of lively entertainment on the Stratford Canal and the 50 people who attended all had a thoroughly enjoyable time.
The Midsummer outing consisted of a trip to one of Birmingham's largest night clubs `La Dolce Vita' where the cabaret was the very popular Grumbleweeds. Those that attended

were so impressed that a further night club outing has been planned for the Autumn.
On the sporting side, our cricket had a very successful season despite being without skipper David Oversby who had to undergo a cartilage operation before the season started. We won 9 of our 12 matches thanks to some very fine bowling by Bernard Waring and acrobatic wicket keeping from Steve Terrace. We had, on occasions, to call on friends to help out and we thank them and also our lovely lasses for helping with the refreshments.
We now have a thriving netball team and the score to date is: played 9, won 5 and drawn 1. Goals: for 142, against 114. Bruises: for 306, against 310. Anybody who thinks that netball is a gentle game should see the way it is played down here. Some of the tackles would do credit to England cricketer John Snow!

Bolton
In May those members of our junior staff who felt sufficiently capable of walking 20 miles, participated in the local Round Table Walk and raised £96.23 by their commendable exertions. Our photograph shows Susan Marshall our head typist with Duke, her Dobermann Pinscher out training for the sponsored walk - part of a project to raise funds for a special coach to carry disabled people and their wheelchairs. (This photograph appeared in the Bolton Evening News).