Stanley Ayres

Bank: London County & Westminster Bank

Place of work: London Bloomsbury branch

Died: 20 November 1917

Stanley Frank Ayres was born in New Maldon on 4 August 1887, the son of Frank Ayres, a bank clerk, and his wife Louisa Landon Ayres.

In February 1905, when he was 17 years old, Ayres went to work for his father's bank, London & County Bank. In 1909 London & County Bank merged with London & Westminster Bank, and Ayres became an employee of the enlarged London County & Westminster Bank. Ayres was a keen cross-country runner, and competed both for the bank, where he was described as 'one of the best athletes', and for South London Harriers. In 1909 he won the Banks & Stock Exchange race at Putney, and in 1910 he won both the cross-country race and the three-mile race at the Inter-Bank Athletic Championship. He was also known for his fine singing voice and performed in a number of bank concerts.

During the First World War Ayres left his job as a clerk at the bank's London Bloomsbury branch to join the army. By the time of his death in 1917 he was serving as a Captain in the East Surrey Regiment, and had been mentioned in dispatches.

Ayres was killed in action in France on 20 November 1917. He was 30 years old. An obituary in the bank's staff magazine noted that he was 'a genial and good-hearted soul who will be sadly missed'.