Berwick accountancy firm's fond farewell to three stalwarts

Essential fixtures at the chartered accountancy firm, Lynn Ritchie, Anthony Hogg and Daphne Bell have more than 125 years of combined service.

Lynn began her career at GWA’s Hide Hill office in Berwick in 1979. In 1982, she married and moved with her husband to Dunbar.

Ian Davidson, who was GWA’s senior partner at the time, recommended her to another firm of accountants based in Dunbar, N C Campbell & Co. Lynn worked there full-time until 1986, then continued part-time from home while she raised her family.

In 1991, she resumed her full-time role at N C Campbell and, following the merger of the two organisations in 2016, found herself under the GWA banner once again.

Although Lynn’s main role has always been accounts preparation, the size of the Haddington office meant the day-to-day job was varied.

Over the years, Lynn – who retired on September 30 – has had experience of VAT, staff training, income tax computations, and has even tried her hand at reception duties.

Anthony joined GWA in 1976 after leaving Berwick Grammar School. He started out as office junior to Bill Renton in the Hide Hill office.

His early duties were very varied and even included being the office runner to Ladbrokes to put on bets and collect winnings. Another task was acting as a ‘security man’ for the weekly trips to the bank to collect the cash used to prepare the wage packets payroll clients.

As a boy, Anthony enjoyed working on local farms during the school holidays, particularly at harvest time. With this knowledge and love of farming and agriculture, it is perhaps no surprise that a lot of his career at GWA has been preparing accounts for farm and estate clients, as well as limited company accounts for agricultural businesses.

His skill and experience resulted in Anthony helping to train many of the current staff, including partners. He retired on October 11, on his birthday exactly 46 years after he started.

Administration assistant Daphne joined GWA 1973, initially as an office junior, working in the original GWA Sandgate office in Berwick.

As was common in the 1970s and 1980s, she took a career break to raise her daughter. She returned in 1989 and has since been supporting the whole office in a variety of ways – including typing, reception work, answering phones and general admin duties.

When GWA expanded its services to include wealth management, Daphne extended her support to that team when it operated from the old Legion building in Sandgate.

Digitalisation has had a huge impact on her role. She learned to type on a manual typewriter, subsequently progressing to an electric machine, and now, everything is done via GWA’s IT network.

Daphne retires on December 30.

GWA Partner Robbie Dalgleish said: “Lynn, Anthony and Daphne are tremendous employees who have been with the firm for a significant part of its journey and we are indebted to their commitment.

“While we are sad to see them go, everyone at GWA sends them best wishes for a well-deserved, long and happy retirement.”