1902 P.G. Wodehouse - from bank clerk to writer

by Kris Smets, chairman

London,  29 november 2002

Mr. Dalton,

Sir Edward,

David,

Drones,

I usually start my speeches with the words ‘Friends This is A Historic Moment…’

This says a lot about the nature of activities generally deployed by The Drones Club of Belgium, but reveals even more my megalomania.  But today, as all of you will agree with me, is indeed a historic day.  It started rather early, at 2,45 AM we Drones set course from the center of Belgium to Calais.  We found the boat waiting and we steamed to Dover coast.  During the cruise we not only felt a certain morning fatique, but also the burden of the enormous responsabities attached to our mission.  We suddenly realized that we would be received by the most exquisite board member of one of the worlds leading financial groups.  A few months ago, when preparing this initiative and writing my letter to Sir John Bond, the Group Chairman, I proposed that the exchange of the commemoration plaque was a thing which hade to be done between a delegation of the Board of the HSBC and a delegation of the Board of the Drones Club of Belgium, all gentlemen representing both very respectfull institutions.  This morning, in the middle of the North Sea, the thought struck my mind that the dimensions of  the HSBC and The Drones Club are from a slightly different scale.  Nevertheless, as reassuring factor, I argued that our expedition is not one of the asking kind but one of the giving kind, which is far more comfortable. 

At 12.00 o’clock, we had rendez-vous with David.  David is our former Patron and former ambassador to Belgium.  When leaving Belgium, we tried to arrange a farewell present for David in getting him launched in a F-16 of The Belgium Air Force.  David collected all the necessary authorisations form the foreign office, and The Drones Board succeeded in creating absolute chaos at the top of Belgium Defence Ministery.  Final Result : The Minister of defence refused.  David received the statue of Icarus out of the hands of the Chief Staff of Belgium Air Force, and the latter also became member of the Drones Club. 

But today, the surprise was ours when we where awaited by David in a enormous pink Rolls Royce called “Harrison” manufactured in 1934.  Yesterday David mailed me the curriculum vitae of Harrison.  I quote :

“Harrison attended a garden party at Windsor for Her Majesty the Queen Mother. While in Jordan in 1999, Harrison was part of the Concours at the Roman City of Jerash, a function attended by HRH the Jordanian Queen Mother and HRH Prince Abdullah. In 2002, Harrison participated in the parade of Rolls-Royce cars at Windsor Castle in front of HRH Queen Elizabeth and HRH Prince Philip to commemorate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.” 

Our arrival here didn’t pass unnoticed.  But we are here, and we are gratefull, because of the gentlemanlike reaction of the HSBC towards this event.  P.G. Wodehouse’s literary heritage is kept alive by a number of Wodehouse Societies in the world.  The fact that the HSBC is represented by his CEO indicates that P.G. Wodehouse’s short banking career didn’t pas unnoticed. In 1899 Wodehouse joinded The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, till 1902, when he left and started his literary career.

Wodehouse was not born to become a banker.  He wrote of his banking experiences in the postal departement in “Psmith in The City”.  Reading his adventures I remember vividly my first job in what today is The Fortis Bank in Belgium.  Wodehouse writes :

“I was just a plain dumb brick. I proved to be the most inefficient clerk whose trouser seat ever polished the surface of a high stool.  I was all right as long as they kept me in the postal departement, where I had nothing to do but stamp and post letters, a task for which my abilities well fitted me, but when they took me out of there and put me into Fixed Deposits, the whisper went around Lombard street, Wodehouse is at loss. He cannot cope.”

Today is also historic because of Sir Edward Cazalets’ presence.  Sir Edward is the steph-grandson of P.G. Wodehouse. He above all can throw an insight in how Wodehouse really felt being a bank clerk.  At this moment a new biography is being written by Robert Maccrum, literary editor of the Observer, in close collaboration with Sir Edward.  No doubt P.G.W.’s bank exploits will be covered in this book.

Wodehouse and his work are woven deeply into the consciousness of the English Speeking World.  From Bangladesh to San Francisco, there are people who know and love the work.  Wodehouse created many timeless absurd characters.  He above all masterly and skillfully used the English language.  That brings me to Sir John Bond, the Group Chairman of the HSBC, and in particular to his speech of 12 March before the English Speaking Union of The United States.  How important is language is the central question in his speech.  To quote Sir John :

 “If language is an operating systeem, English appears to be Windows”.  “English was exported with the British Empire, and today English does not belong to the English, nor to the Americans, more people use English in India than spoke it in the entire world in Shakespeares time.  English is succesfull because it provides an competitive advantage, which is the reason why so many people are learning it today.”

In the recent history English was imported into Belgium by the British Troops in the First World War.  Ypres and Passendaele are written in the collective memory of Britons and Belgians. In 1944 Belgian cities and villages where liberated by British and American soldiers.   Today in Brussels, the center of the EU, we daily experience that English is the language of the globalized world.  Last week I dinned with mr. Nirj Deva, Member of the European Parliament from the Conservative Party, who pleaded to introduce English as the common language in Belgium to resolve the bareers between the Flemish and Walloon Community in Belgium. That of course is the other extreme and is a simplication of a complex reality.

We Drones not only see and experience English as ‘the business language’ but also as brilliant tool of communication in the hands of an equally brilliant writer.  The essence of Wodehouse’s work is perhaps best expressed in one of Oscar Wilde’s phrases :

“We should treat all the trivial things of life seriously and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality”

Gentlemen, today we remember P.G. Wodehouse, former employee of THE HONG Kong and Shanghai bank.  His earnings at the bank in combination with his talent opened the road to professional authorship for him in 1902.

We do such in perhaps the most remarkable building recently build in London.

We do such in “The Worlds Local Bank”.  ‘De bank van Hier’ as  I might translate it in Dutch

We do such in a financial group with key business values like a minimum of bureaucracy; fast decisions and implementation.  Mr Dalton and we can agree that you indeed score a high rate at these indicators.

Last but not least, We do such because we are The Drones Club of Belgium, driven by four basic values : Savoir Vivre, Sense of Humour, Comradeship and Generosity.  Let me illustrate them all four in one gesture, in one performance, executed by the patron of all patrons David Colvin !!!

Kris Smets

29/11/2002

London, HSBC HEADQUARTERS

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