Apprentice "Banging In"

Now to the actual subject of this piece of copy:-

I know that various print houses in and around London had their own traditions/quirks but I believe that Spicers to be the only firm that used to "bang in" their apprentices. This I was soon to find out, much to my detriment!

I remember it was a Friday; my apprenticeship papers had been signed in the presence of the personnel officer (Miss Faulk), my Mother, Mr. Arthur Jenkins (who was my very good mentor) and myself. After the signing I went back to my department. What happened about an hour later back in the print room took me completely by surprise.

My cousin who worked in Uncle Fred's department (a different dept to mine) came over to me, grabbed me around the waist and with the help of somebody else in the shop tied my hands over the top of a pulley shaft! (Not a lot of health and safety in 1954) and my feet were on one of the work benches. Then the next thing, yes you've guessed it, my trousers and underpants were pulled down! The male members of my dept then proceeded to smear "bronze blue" around my parts.

These actions by themselves would have been a laugh but, the fact that there were women present and young ones at that brought real tears to my eyes. On top of this humiliation I was left there for over an hour, and during that time it got around the factory that I was there in all my glory and all the other departments came to see, and believe me Spicers was a very big building with lots of departments and employees.

Well that's the account of my "banging in", I would like to know if any other firm has or had the same kind of thing?

I have seen many "banging outs" since then, but somehow its not the same as being on the receiving end of a gloved hand full of the dreaded bronze blue. Oh and by the way, it's nearly all scrubbed off now!

Click here for Part One of Roy's story, "Taken on at Spicers."