Page 34 - Keble Review 2014

Interview
34
The Keble Review 2014
Fred White first joined Keble in 1998 as Lodge Porter. He left for a brief hiatus in October2002 but rejoined in the same role in April 2003. He was made Head Porter in May 2007.
Fred White Head Porter
What did you do before you came to Keble?
I started work at the Post Office in 1973 straight after finishing school in Botley. I was in the telephone billing section – this became BT later on. People would phone in to check any unusual charges on their phone bills, which were not itemised like they are today. I once even spoke to Sir John Gielgud when he phoned in to query some international phone calls on his bill! You would also get a lot of very irate callers, which taught me many customer service skills that I would later
use as Porter. After a few years, I moved to the Building Services department and travelled around the local area, which I enjoyed.
What made you decide to apply to be a Porter at Keble in 1998?
There was a lot of privatisation in the 1980s
and 90s, and many of the sectors around me
were being replaced by external contracted companies. I thought that it was very likely that Building Services would follow, so I decided to take voluntary redundancy. After a few weeks, my mother-in-law sent me an ad in a newspaper for the Porter position at Keble, which was probably
a not so subtle hint to find a new job. At first, I wasn’t sure about it because Porters at that time had a reputation for being gruff security men,
who would catch you if you tried to get in after the curfew, but I applied in the end thinking that
it could be a good stop-gap. I was interviewed by the Head Porter, Bill Thompson, and the Domestic Bursar, Janet Betts. I was given the job – probably more because of my service skills than for my gruff policing disposition.
Did you know Keble before you applied?
Like many local residents, I didn’t know much about the colleges before I started working in one, but
I had been in Keble before as a young chorister when we were invited to sing at a wedding in Keble Chapel. We must have impressed the couple, who heard us singing in the City Church, which was then All Saints Church on the High Street [now the Lincoln College library].
Did you enjoy being a chorister?
Yes, it was really fun. My crowning moment was getting to sing the solo at the start of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’!
Your job must be very varied – what exactly does it entail?
The job tends to change a lot between term time and outside of term. During term time, we are dealing with a lot of enquiries from students,
we sort the post, book rooms for teaching, events, societies, etc. Outside of term, the B&B and Conference business becomes much more prominent and we are constantly checking guests in and out, processing online bookings, directing people to the right places and fielding questions. People assume that the summer is a quiet one for Oxford colleges, but in fact it is the busiest time of year for us at the Keble Lodge.
What part do you enjoy most?
I really enjoy interacting with the students. The relationship students have with Porters nowadays is much more genial than it used to be when the porters were the watchdogs of the College. I have come to know some of them even better because they have worked in the Lodge during the summer to help out with the B&B and Conference business and I have a very high opinion of them.
What is the most bizarre query you have had in the Lodge?
We get a lot of interesting queries, especially
from B&B and Conference visitors who use us as
a Tourist Information centre. We get asked things like, ‘When is the next train to Stonehenge?’, or ‘Should I bring my bathing suit so that I can swim in the Roman baths in Bath?’.
How do you unwind after work?
In the summer, I like to go to the back garden with a glass of wine and to play with the eldest of my three dogs, who loves to fetch his ball. I don’t watch much television, but I do listen to a lot of music.
How has Keble changed over the years?
In the beginning, we used to work the night shift as well as the day shift, but it was actually often really difficult to find cover if anyone was off ill, so around 2008, we switched to professional night Porters from a security company – the same one that covered the Ball!
What do you think of the redesigned lodge?
All of the Porters love the new design. It gives a lot more space to work behind the counter and it does add a lot more security to the College because now everyone who enters Keble has to pass through the Lodge, so we have much more control of the comings and goings in and out of College.
When I first came for my interview in 1998, Janet Betts said that it was very likely that I would be working in a port-a-cabin when I first started because they were planning on redoing the lodge. It only took 14 years for it to actually happen!