Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

36 SOME EARLY STAFF Marguerite Walkes , the first secretary to the general manager, joined the public service in 1951 and had worked with the Regional Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Finance. On her first day at work, she went up to the fourth floor of the Treasury Building and walked for some time before she saw an open door. That was Ken Brathwaite’s office and he took her to see Kroc, who interviewed her and then asked her to bring her notepad; thereafter, she took notes until lunchtime. Apart from performing secretarial duties, she helped to find accommodation for the Bank’s expatriate staff. Before joining the Bank, Trevor King had worked as a bus conductor and as a salesman with Family Guardian Insurance. During mid-1972, he was out of a job and on advice from a friend applied at the Bank, where he was later interviewed by Brathwaite and Blackman. He worked as the governor’s first chauffeur and then as a security guard for four months in 1976 before his appointment as a messenger later in that year. Brian Greene was working at the IDC in 1972 when he saw an advertisement in the newspapers for the vacant post of clerical officer at the Bank. He asked himself, “Why not create history by becoming the first clerical officer at the Bank?” With this in mind, he took in the application himself, to ensure its safe delivery, on the very last day that it was due. Between leaving the IDC and joining the Bank he got married, on December 9, 1972. In his own words, “I started 1973 on a fresh note, newly married, new job and raring to go.” Livingstone Boyce was employed at the British Caribbean Currency Board from 1954 to 1965 and thereafter with the ECCA between 1966 and 1972. In his role as the Bank’s first messenger, he helped to burn the ECCA notes which were being put out of circulation - about $1 million in value per day for 30 days. He later became the governor’s chauffeur and recalls transporting three bishops at the same time and, on another occasion, four central bank governors.