As we celebrate Lindsays’ 200th anniversary throughout 2015, we are keen to commemorate this landmark by sharing our journey through the first two centuries. Our timeline highlights just a few of the key dates which mark changes for the firm over the years.
The histories of businesses tend to concentrate on the founders, the CEOs, or, in the case of law firms, the partners. But just as crucial to success and good service are other staff members - the people who greet clients, deal with the details, or keep the accounts up to date.
As we’ve been looking through the Lindsays archives for stories and landmarks from our first 200 years, we’ve found some evocative accounts of working for the firm. One such was Marion (Maimie) Barron, who joined the firm in 1928.
“On 1st October I was interviewed for a typist’s job and started that day. I sat in the basement, Miss Clapperton in charge. ... On going home for lunch, I told my Mama that I didn’t like it and didn’t want to go back, but she, being of the old school, soon told me to get back and not to be stupid.”
Maimie Barron did go back after lunch and remained with the firm for many years. Her memories include the marriage of two colleagues, fire watching in World War II, and the annual staff picnics on the first Saturday in June. “Different places were chosen each year, quite a few to the West Coast, Dunoon, Rothesay or Ayr (see photo), travelling in a specially reserved rail coach and by steamer,” she writes. They are wonderful stories of working life in a different era.
Miss Barron worked in the Cash Room, which in those days was on the street floor of the offices in Charlotte Square. Before World War II, the room was furnished with high sloping desks and 30” high wooden stools.
In those days Lindsays collected rents and feu duties for its clients, and members of the public would come to the Cash Room on quarter days to pay their dues. The front door was kept closed, and answered by the resident caretaker, who after lighting 15 coal fires each morning, then changed into a smart green uniform.
We’ve found many more accounts of life in the Charlotte Square offices, which we left in 1979 and which many of our clients and staff still remember. We’ll share some more of these stories over future months. And if you have your own memories of Lindsays staff or former premises, we’d be thrilled to read them.
