My Introduction To The Middle East
I had worked for Natwest Bank in Cardiff for three and a half years and Bournemouth
branches for a year and having passed ny banking exams, I was ready to find more exciting work and higher pay and started to apply to various overseas banks here in UK. I also wanted to find a way of leaving home as I was dependent on my parents for accomodation. I got an acceptance from The Chartered Bank in London and I promptly put in my notice to resign.In February 1970, I joined my new employer in Bishopsgate London, an international bank, to join their foreign staff, with branches in the Middle East and Far East. I was even provided with accomodation at their hostel in East Molesley and commuted into Bishopsgate from there. I started a series of attachments to various Head Office and London departments for familiarisation. New starters to the foreign staff normally went to Hong Kong for their first overseas assignment. However, in early April I was working in the telex room and saw an exchange of telexes about a colleague called Bruce (I cannot remember his surname) who was in Hong Kong and had been asked to go to Muscat in Oman but was putting up objections about going. He was obviously having such a great time in Hong Kong that he simply did not want to go. This sounded ominous as I was the next trainee to proceed overseas. In due course, I was summoned by the Staff General Manager to his office to be told I was going to work at a subsidiary, the Eastern Bank in Muscat, Oman in May.
I was then introduced to the Court of Directors who would authorise my power of attorney to operate on their behalf. We were called Covenanted Officers. I was paid my kit allowance and was granted some leave leave while my visa for Oman was duly obtained. It was then called a No Objection Certificate and was issued in London by the Consulate of Muscat & Oman. This subsequently arrived stamped into my passport together with my air ticket.
In 1970 there were no direct flights to Oman. In fact as I subsequently discovered, the airfield at Bait Al Falaj just outside the town of Muttrah and about 10 miles from Muscat, could barely take a BAC 1-11, depending on the air temperature. So, it involved a flight leaving from London Heathrow to Bahrain on Saturday 16th May 1970 on a Gulf Air VC-10 where I stayed over for 3 nights at the Gulf Hotel which enabled me to have some further familiarisation in Bahrain and to acclimatise. On Monday 18th May I took the twice weekly Gulf Air Fokker F-27 flight to Muscat via Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. I arrived at Muscat the same day at around 4pm and discovered just how hot Oman was in May - 42 C in the shade! What an introduction! I wondered if I had done the right thing!
Copyright (c) 2009 Michael Ogden
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