14th Feb 2025

Paul Connolly’s True Confession

St. Stephen’s Primary School, Welling

Paul was born in 1943; his parents moved from Bexleyheath to Welling (almost on top of the Church) in order for him and brothers, Andy and Patrick, to experience a Catholic education at St Stephen’s Primary School. His classmates, included Jim Aitchison, Christopher “Joe” Gariff, Michael Hughes, Michael “Jas” Kelly, Michael Moore, Michael Phillips, Kevin Pratt, Rudy Stocking and Denis Stockton all nine of whom were to join him in the 1954 intake of nearly forty boys at St Mary’s.

The Old St Mary’s College

The buildings on Main Road next to St Lawrence’s Church lacked modern facilities and some like the outside toilets were, by common consent, downright disgusting. There was no Assembly Hall and pupils had to trudge along the high street to the public hall in Hatherley Road for lunch and gym. Nor was there a Sports Field and a longer trudge was required to fields behind Queen Mary’s Hospital in Frognal Avenue. However, Paul did enjoy some of the amenities at the old school, such as the tuck shop and the opportunity of swimming at Eltham Baths. Because of the large intake, the third year was divided and comprised a regular third year, plus a group of less academically gifted 1953 and 1954 intakes, which was christened “The Remove” by Fr ‘Muggsy’ McKeown. This group, which included Paul, was placed in a small classroom at the top of the main building next to the music room.

The New School Building

In 1957, life at St Mary’s was transformed by the move to a brand new, state of the art building in Chislehurst Road. Paul enjoyed the dramatic productions engineered by Adrian Jarvis and Neville Wilkinson and particularly his own involvement in “The Alchemist.” This was criticised by some for being too bawdy for a Catholic School and he noted (at the 2022 book launch) a relative lack of memorabilia from that production! In 1958, he joined a group of four boys on a cycling trip to Lourdes staying in youth hostels along the way, which was led by Fr McKeown and Fred McAndrew. Paul recalls that, despite his reputation as a disciplinarian, ‘Muggsy’ turned out to be an unexpectedly sociable travelling companion. Paul’s talents continued to be social, such as youth club parties held at his home in Welling – when his parents were away. He initially failed most of his GCE’s but managed to pass a few more at the second attempt, allowing him the prospect of a white-collar job upon leaving.

Early Career and London Life

He began working in the City of London as a lowly civil servant in the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) later moving to its West London office, which dealt directly with exporting companies, where he discovered an aptitude for corporate relationships. The office was in Soho close to Carnaby Street and some of his customers were notable fashion designers like Mary Quant and Zandra Rhodes. He enjoyed many of the cultural experiences of the “Swinging Sixties” such as the Marquee Club and particularly the booming theatrical scene in the company of former St Mary’s classmate Tom Ryall – whom he describes as his “cultural guru”. By the mid-seventies, Paul had married Liz who also worked at ECGD and they were considering starting a family.

Banking and Australia

Having reached middle management with ECGD, in 1978 Paul was offered a job with Grindlays Bank in its export finance department. Paul enjoyed his role developing corporate relationships, selling the bank’s capabilities to exporters and negotiating loan agreements overseas, visiting many different countries mostly in the Far East and South Asia.
Concorde: A particularly memorable experience during this period was a business trip to New York and back on “Concorde.” He vividly recalls the steep take-off and the ‘push in the back’ as the aircraft began its acceleration up to and beyond the speed of sound. A digital “Machmeter” upfront measured progress to Mach 1 and on to Mach 1.9. The British passengers typically reacted with dignified silence but some of the Americans whooped like cowboys. This made everyone laugh and relax whilst enjoying the peerless in-flight service.

Australia: In 1984, Grindlays was taken over by the Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ) but Paul’s department was left to continue its work. In 1988, he was asked to move with his family to Melbourne to set up a similar department in ANZ HQ. During his three years there he worked to persuade the Australian export credit agency to change its methods and to operate more like European agencies to put Australian exporters on equal terms with international competitors.

Experiences in the Middle East

Paul returned to London in 1990 and worked in various departments until, in 1995, he moved to the Middle East desk. His experiences of Iran were especially interesting. At that time there was guarded interest on both sides in doing business, particularly on infrastructure projects. Paul found individual Iranians charming and most hospitable but the Government could be difficult and senior officials would sometimes use business meetings to burnish their political credentials by scolding their foreign guests!

After the 1979 Revolution, the UK continued to keep its Embassy open and had often been subjected to harassment. It was situated in Winston Churchill Avenue but in 1981, following the death of Bobby Sands (the imprisoned IRA activist who had starved himself to death), a group of teenage students covered up the street signs with new ones renaming it after Bobby Sands. This proved so popular that the Government made the name change official, forcing the Embassy to change its mailing address and all printed material to reflect the side door address in Ferdowsi Street to avoid using Bobby Sands’ name.

The Iranian visas in Paul’s passport sometimes caused difficulties when entering the USA and he was relieved (as was his family) when it could finally be renewed with a clean and less “controversial” one!

“Eggheads” – Thirty Minutes of Fame

After retirement in 2002 Paul joined a walking group with old friends in the Sanderstead area where he now lives. In 2008 they rashly decided to participate in the TV quiz show “Eggheads” and were invited to audition and subsequently selected to compete against the resident team of experts. Despite the initial panic about potential humiliation in front of millions of TV viewers, Paul’s team developed a strategy to challenge the individual Eggheads on their (relatively) weaker subjects. Astonishingly, they won the competition and a prize of £12,000, which was a rollover amount from previous unclaimed wins. Paul was so stunned by the winning that he forgot to remove his TV studio makeup before riding the train home!