MADAM - May I address this contribution to two of your correspondents, (SNJ August 13, p24) and to any other interested parties.

First: To provide an answer to Mr Malcolm Cooper and ‘How Did We Survive’ from my earlier letter.

1 - I meant on a day to day basis not with reference to ‘life expectancy’.

2 - The time period I referred to was the 1930s (and earlier, then through into the 1950s).

Secondly: With reference to Mr Ron Birch and his comments about Lloyds Bank Ltd.

I recently wrote a complaint concerning a Lloyds Bank branch situated in a Devon town where the said branch only opened on one day per week and hadn’t an ATM machine.

Following my long standing principal of always, in such circumstances, of addressing ‘The Engineer’ and not ‘The Hand Rag’ I addressed my letter under personal cover to Senhor António Horta-Osório, chief executive at Lloyds Bank Ltd. Head Office, 25, Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7HN.

I received a prompt telephone call followed promptly by a letter in reply both from a gentleman, whose occupation apparently, included dealing with ‘plebeians’ such as myself.

As Mr Birch did, I too found that the staff in certain Lloyds Bank branches did not know who their CEO was – or – if they did, then it was kept close to their bosoms.

Lloyds Info by the way is readily available via the internet.

Lee Prescott

Stonehouse