FRANK RICE-OXLEY (1928- )
Frank Rice-Oxley was married to local historian Mary Rice-Oxley, a founder of the Leatherhead & District Local History Society. He succeeded his father as chairman of the industry newspaper Metal Bulletin, founded by his grandfather. Frank himself founded the Post Office Vehicle Club, and on retirement set up Roxley Models in Bookham, the specialist seller of transport models.
Interview date: 26 October 2017
Location: Effingham
Interviewer: Tony Matthews
Interesting start
Your full name and date of birth?
Francis Lawrence Rice-Oxley, christened by mistake by the vicar as a girl. Born 7 August 1928. Father nearly fell through the floor. Frances Florence. Father had to have me rechristened. Luckily we didn’t have a second birth certificate. So instead, Francis Lawrence, Francis known as Frank.
Where were you born?
West Dulwich, London, SE21.
Family business
What were your parents’ names and their backgrounds?
My mother was Gertrude Lilian Matilda Quin. It was an Irish family. Her father worked for The Ironmonger. He had a service agreement with them. He didn’t get on with his Editor so he had a let-out clause and he left them on condition under his agreement that he didn’t compete with them for two years. The Ironmonger magazine. So then he founded his own newsletter called Metal Market Newsletter. He had an enormous knowledge of the market. Within two years it was so successful that he launched the trade journal Metal Bulletin. First of all once a week and then twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays.
My grandfather, Laurence Howard Quin, died in 1935.
Family background
My mother was two years older than my father. He was in the Army. Francis Bowyer Rice-Oxley, Bowyer being a family name on his father’s side. Father died of cancer in 1958 at the age of 64 by which time my mother was 66. Mother died over 20 years later.
When did they come to this area of Surrey?
My mother’s family lived in West Norwood London SE. 27 and my father’s family lived in Leigham Court Road going towards Streatham
Did you have siblings?
Yes I had two sisters. Doreen was four years older than me. She was born in June 1924. Barbara was nine years older so she would have been born in January 1919…. My father was a Lieutenant in the Durham Life Infantry and he went to France to the battle of the Somme and when he was in the trenches the whole of his body seized up because he had had rheumatic fever as a child So he had to be [honourably] discharged from the Army C3 which was the lowest grade..
What did he do for a living?
He worked for my grandfather….on Metal Bulletin.
A journalist?
Yes.
Is that how your parents met?
No idea. I know she was going out with another chap and he kept following her.
Early years
When did you move here?
I was born in West Dulwich, 58 and then 78 South Croxted Road and before the war, about 1936, father was ill. He had about ten different things wrong and he survived. So we moved to a bigger house, [Oaklands], Kingswood Drive, Upper Norwood, SE19. Part of the Vesty estate. We employed a housemaid, [Amy], and a cook, [also Amy known as ‘Emm’,] who were both elderly, [taken on from a friend,] a part-time chauffeur [coupe shared with Grandmother], and a part-time gardener. We shared the sofa with my grandmother.
How long were you there?
Until the war. We were on holiday at Dawlish and we were due to come home on the Saturday as usual but we knew the war was imminent so we stayed a further day and the war broke out on the Sunday. We came home on the Sunday to find that my school, [Brightlands,] had already evacuated down to Lenham in Kent and my younger sister’s [Dulwich High] had gone down to Brighton, Roedean in Sussex. My older sister was 20 by then. She helped in various ways on the home front, eventually became a nurse. So in 1939 father saw a barrage balloon right above the house. I remember it so well. He didn’t like the look of that at all. Prior to the war, when he became managing director when Mr Quin died, he took the precaution of reserving a suite of offices in Leatherhead High Street above Taselli the barber. When the war came, the directors and the few staff we had all moved down that way. We lived in Ashtead, [where we rented a house from an Army Captain – Barnet Wood House Barnet Wood Lane – with the other directors] Mr Tarring at Cobham and Mr Cordero up on the Downs.
There were so many air raids, we didn’t realise the air raid siren was on the top of the building. So every time there was an alert – and obviously a false one – everybody had to go down to the shelter. The directors realised you couldn’t edit a magazine [newspaper] and bring it out twice a week being in an air raid shelter. So Mr Tarring found a house at Eynsham, [near Witney,] in Oxfordshire and they went there first. Father used to go up on the train and go there in the week and join us at weekends. There were no bombs up at Oxford, the nearest was 20 miles away. They never stopped talking about it. Very fortunate.
Did you go to school in Ashtead?
Yes. I went to St Nicholas. It was very much a corporate punishment school and Father took me away. I went to Downsend Preparatory School for two terms which was brilliant. Then we moved up to Oxfordshire and we lived at Botley-by-Cumnor, about two miles out of Oxford. We went there about 1940.
[I went to the public school Magdalen College School but I didn’t do well academically and at the age of 16 I left to take a commercial course at Oxford Tech involving shorthand typing and book-keeping.]
Army days and meeting Mary
When did you return to live in Surrey?
9 April 1946. We moved to Bookham – Heysham, Sole Farm Road. We were living there when I went into the Army on 12 September that same year. [My former training in the Junior Training Corps at Oxford followed by the local army cadets at Leatherhead stood me in good stead.]
What Army rank did you have?
Transport Corporal [R.A.S.C].
How long were you in the Army?
From 12 September 1946 to 31 December 1948 because I got caught up in the Berlin Airlift. [There was high activity which delayed my release by three months.]
After the Army did you return to live in Bookham?
Yes, Heysham, Sole Farm Road. ………I got married in 1951 [to Mary nee Bridger]………. We lived with my mother-in-law to start with and then we found a semi-detached cottage at Preston Cross in Bookham, 326 Lower Road, just by the crossroads. Both children were born there. We then moved up into Effingham to 9 Manor Gardens to here [when Sally was 13]. She is now coming up to 60 so we have been here something like [47] years…… I’ve found what we paid for this house. £23,950……… Simon Francis was born 29 November 1952 and [our daughter] Sally Mary on 24 November 1957.
Where did you meet your wife Mary?
We both belonged to the Young Conservatives and I was holding the wool. We [both] knew Stephen Fortescue very well. I was holding the wool at one of the events at his house and then I didn’t see her for about three months. By this time I had become chairman of the Leatherhead, Fetcham and Bookham Young Conservatives…… I organised a ramble to meet at the Victoria [Hotel] at the top of Bookham High Street. I waited and waited and I was just about to give up after I had been there about half an hour just standing and who should turn up but Mary. So we went off and had tea at Cobham. We went for a ramble. We felt very close and we got married on 20 October 1951, Festival of Britain year.
Roxley Models
I had always been interested in transport, particularly Post Office. In 1988 I retired after going into the company on 1 January 1948. Before I retired the accountant said to me have you ever thought what you are going to do when you retire? I said no, I haven’t really. He said you are so interested in Post Office and you are interested in models, have you thought about developing that way?
I used to buy old Dinky Toys and paint them up as Post Office vans. Paint them as red or green or whatever and Mary and I started Roxley Models in 1986, two years before I retired. We started off at home and then we moved to [a shop at] Cranleigh. Then about 12 years ago we moved to Great Bookham on No 4 Beckley Parade As a matter of interest I looked on the web last night for Surrey model shops – railway shops. There’s only about seven and we are one of them. We do a lot of work now and do charity work as well for the [Bookham] football team. Then I became a member of Probus and I organise the speakers which is very interesting.
With Roxley, we found a manufacturer who was prepared to make some models for us like Post Office and he even put the lettering on them. We had a letter from the Post Office pointing out that we needed a licence, we needed their permission and all the rest of it. The letter lay in the tray at Cranleigh Post Office about three weeks. Eventually we got it sorted out. We got our licence and I’ve got a book of all the designs the Post Office has given us for our models. Then we contacted BT [who]…. said we had to have a licence from them. We paid a one off but with the Royal Mail we had to pay a commission on all our sales which I think was 10%. So obviously our models for the Royal Mail cost more than the ones for the telephone.
We did hand-built, we did kits. We did other models. We did an order for the Hong Kong Police. We did an order for Post Buses. We did Electricity Board vans. We did DAF 400, two types of vans. We did fire appliances. Of course all that rather stopped when the manufacturer [Allen Smith Models] went bust. The other one, [Bill Barnes of Tober Models] who did our specialist little models of mail vans, telephone vans, a lot of Morris Minors – the older models – he became ill and died. So we lost all our manufacturing capacity although we had got the designs and everything else. Most of the moulds to do the models [we still hold]…. but of course the main sales now are railways. Enormous interest in what we do. We do overseas as well. We haven’t been to an overseas market yet. We get people in from abroad.
Worldwide?
Yes, I suppose so. I think so. Lot of interest and of course we had our catalogue which we don’t publish any more because we are on the web. We have a webmaster and two people designing our [new] website and that should go live shortly. But we have never made a profit. I just pump money into it all the way along. [Particularly when we lost our two manufacturers.] So I have used up [some] of my capital to put into the business.
How do you see the future of Roxley Models?
Very good. I want to incorporate it. I hope before my 90th birthday next year that we will become a limited company because we are doing so well. We hope to eliminate all our losses and move into profit. I’m very confident.
Is it your grandson who runs the shop?
[No. He helps at present but when he passes his driving test he will go on the road benefiting from his degree in photography. He is Sally and Phillip’s son.]
I’ve given talks about Roxley Models. I gave one at Amberley, the Amberley Museum, and all the time I was talking there was this bus parked alongside me with the engine running. I only found out later that the new curator – the one we were friendly with had died – the new curator didn’t like our chairman so he had arranged deliberately for this bus to keep the engine running while I was speaking. Very childish. So what we did, I was then invited to give a talk [at a GPO event]………. on the whole thing …….and that went down very well……….
At one time I was the archivist to the Friends of the National Postal Museum but then they folded up and became part of the National Postal Museum itself and they weren’t interested in my being an archivist any more. I was on the committee of the Post Office Vehicle Club. That got a bit beyond me so I stepped down. Not being on the committee I was no longer an archivist for them [but I continue to work with them with the historic work quite challenging.]
Post Office Vehicle Club
When we started the club in 1962 the Post Office and the Royal Mail were not interested in us at all. Now we get all the latest information, not necessarily on vehicles. We get all things like postal increases in advance and a lot of help. Sad thing is they are closing all these offices. When they close them the allocations of vehicles are dispersed to the head office or just cease altogether.
The Post Office Vehicle Club was formed by three of us in 1962 but sadly the other two are no longer with us, namely Godfrey Abbot and Gordon Watts. Our interest in the GPO fleet started between the wars. The idea was to bring together people interested in current operations and vehicle purchases. Today’s new vehicles are tomorrow’s preserved ones and the club has built up a historical record of many vehicles operated from 1906 to the present day. It has published booklets on the GPO fleet and its successors, the Post Office, BT and Royal Mail, and produces a monthly magazine for members called Post Horn.
Why Post Office vehicles?
It’s a long story. I was interested in Post Office models. When I was up at Oxford at the beginning of the war the Post Office – the Royal Mail – were not allowed to buy any more vehicles and were told to reduce their fleet by a thousand. I was living at Oxford by then and there were no new vans for a time. Then they rescinded and we started having new mail vans and telephone vans from the Cowley works. I used to go up there and spend a lot of time. All the engines for the new Post Office vans came down on a Scammell six-wheel lorry from Coventry. Well, the factory at Coventry was bombed and I think the lorry destroyed so there were no engines. So what of the Morris people? Well they said the war is on and we’ve got to go on. So they produced the vans without engines and they used to take them on up to Cuddington on trial…….with one van with an engine towing one without an engine. Then they were all stockpiled at the distribution depot until such time as the engines were available. It probably took about six months before everything got back to semi-normal and the engines came again.
Life with Mary Rice-Oxley
I had TB in 1955 and I was away a year. Six months in Cuddington and six months convalescing at Woking. Mary had to come and visit me sometimes with Simon as a little boy. I remember his bobble hat. His uncle taking him round. Father used to come on a Sunday and Mary would be there most times. She would come on the bus and he didn’t take her to our house, he took her to the bus stop which I thought was a bit mean. They were living by then down at Godstone and later to Walmer in Sussex It wouldn’t have hurt him to go a little bit out of the way but they always rather regarded her as a shop girl which was a bit unkind because her parents ran the hardware shop.
Tell us about Mary
Mary lived in Ashtead all her [early] life. Her father was a casualty of the First World War. A delightful man. He died at 69. He went to The Pirates of Penzance at Dorking and he caught pneumonia. He was a lovely man. He’d only got sight in one eye. He was rescued at the Battle of the Somme and he lost a lot of his fingers. But he was always cheerful. In his time before he went into the Army he was a director of Sleighmakers in Covent Garden. Through that they found their little shop in Effingham.
When was Mary born?
Mary was born 26 August 1925. She had no brothers or sisters. She went to Roseberry School and she trained to be an architect. She was able to use the letters SRIBA – Student RIBA. Then they abolished it and would only let people have the RIBA. They had to take the exams and unfortunately her family didn’t have the money to pay for her to go the further stage. So she just became a student really all her life. Before we were married in 1951 and even earlier she knew Stephen Fortescue. Together they founded the Leatherhead & District Local History Society in 1947 [actually 1946]. It went from strength to strength and he was a brilliant solicitor.
So through Stephen, Mary was able to keep up all her interests in architecture and everything. Before we married she worked for a firm, two partners Minoprio & Spencely, up in London….. They did major projects. [Sir Charles Anthony Minoprio (1900-1988) was heavily involved with town planning after World War 2. In 1947 he prepared a development plan for Crawley New Town. Its target population of 50,000 was later doubled.] One was I think out in Dubai but she never went out there at all. She worked on the new Crawley and she helped to do all the designing and everything. She went down there and saw these villages which were going to be absorbed. Rather like ideas for the new Heathrow now. The new Crawley was an expansion of Crawley to become Crawley New Town. There’s a map which shows you the new town added on to the existing Crawley. She worked on that and she was still at work when we married and then eventually she left London. She went to work at the School of Stitchery and Lace and she was helping there. She did all sorts of things but obviously it wasn’t compatible with her going to London each day. Then of course she started a family with me and that was it. But she had to fill the gap and kept very, very busy. We bought this house and she did very, very well.
When did she start writing books?
Working with Stephen Fortescue……There’s an enormous lot there. There are tributes to her, lots of photographs and maps she has done which are very, very clever.
Were you also involved?
I helped her a bit with the one that Simon asked to be put in. She has written several books or helped with several books…
Do either of your children inherit an interest in local history?
Simon was very interested in Effingham at one stage and very interested in nature too. The other day he had a nostalgic walk along the railway line up there.
Do they live nearby?
Simon spends his time either here or in Portugal. He got married last year. Sally lives at South Wallington. They are both partners in Roxley. She is quite active but he isn’t. Obviously when I go there will be new partners but I’ve got a keen interest in the business obviously.
Mary died last year.
She was ill for about four years. We had two carers to look after her. It was very hard to see her going down hill but it wasn’t cancer, it was just old age. She died in St Anthony’s, North Cheam on 2 June 2016.
Final addition on Metal Bulletin
What was the name of your father’s company?
Metal Bulletin but in those days it was Metal Information Bureau Ltd. My mother was very upset when the name was changed to Metal Bulletin Ltd which was much more sensible in the modern age really. I was a director. It took a long while to go on the board, a very long while.
I ended up chairman of Metal Bulletin before I retired. Metal Bulletin was taken over. When I went there we had 22 people and three directors. The turnover was £48,000. Profits were £3000. When the company was taken over which I helped to build up, we had about 500 employees in different companies. Lynda [Freeman] was in charge of buying the cars. Forty cars she was responsible for. She worked for me. She was my secretary for 12 years until she moved off to start a business with her husband. [She now works for me again as my personal secretary as well as running the Roxley Models shop.]
Founded in 1913, Metal Bulletin is now an international publisher and information provider for the global steel, non-ferrous and scrap metals markets. Published [twice] weekly, the newspaper was acquired by Euromoney Institutional Investor in October 2006 for $408 million.