Bernard Percy Hayward known as "Bunny" to many of his friends and associates was born on the 24th February 1910.
Educated at
Warwick School, he joined the Head Office Staff of the Bank on the 2nd November, 1925 as office boy. Head Office at that time operated
from shared accommodation with the City of Birmingham Water Department.
A great lover of all forms of sport, he became interested in table tennis and with several other members of the Staff, helped to form, and became Honorary Secretary of, the Bank table tennis club which joined the Birmingham Business Houses League.
During his early years with the Bank he spent a considerable time as
assistant to the late Mr H G Wright, who was at that time Branch Controller. The first real hint of future promotion, however, came
when he was appointed to a newly created position as an internal audit clerk in 1937.
He did not have to look far to find the
lady who was to become his wife, as Winifred M Mann was already a member of the Bank Staff when they married in 1935.
As with
many other members of the Staff his career was interrupted by the war. It was due to his war service in Norway that he acquired a
strong affection for that country and has often returned there for holidays visiting friends he made during his war service.
He
returned from the Forces on the 2nd September 1946 and in 1949 received his final Branch Manager's appointment by being appointed
as Manager of the Sutton Coldfield Branch where he stayed until 1960. Promotion then followed rapidly and in that year he was appointed
Inspector. In due course promotion followed to Assistant General Manager, the Deputy General Manager and in 1970 he succeeded Mr S
A Guy as General Manager of the Bank. He also served on the Council of the Savings Bank Institute from 1968-1971.
He had the
ability to mix easily with associates holding equivalent and often higher positions than himself in other financial institutions and
through this association the Bank and its functions have become better known than ever before.