b'It was a great pleasure and privilege to have beenrespectable enough to auction large pieces of redundant asked to contribute to Clarke Gammon Wellerswar-time machinery including trains, cranes and a vast Centenary book. I know that my late husband,array of decommissioned weapons. Brian, would have been immensely proud to see that the business his father, Sidney, set upAs a committed Old Guildfordian, Brian spent much in 1919, together with his good friend Frankof his spare time helping local charities, in particular Gammon, is still going strong 100 years on. Abbots Hospital. One of the finest and most beautiful buildings in Guildford, established in 1619 to provide The property world and the many facets of Estateshelter for the elderly poor of the town, it continues Agency have changed hugely over this time, but I amtoday in much the same way as it has for 400 years.delighted that the professional standards of the firmIn 1996, our younger son Stephen joined the firm as have been continually upheld. The beginnings ofauctioneer and consultant and working together was the firm can in fact be traced back earlier than 1919.highly successful.Brians grandfather, Joseph Clarke, was an independent bookseller, antique dealer and estate agent. It wasIt has been said by many that it would take Brian almost Josephs son, my father-in-law, Sidney Goddard Clarke,thirty minutes to walk from the bottom of the High who set up Clarke Gammon on returning from WW1.Street to the top as he would encounter numerous Selling property and chattels was obviously in the blood.friends along the way, for whom he would always have time, and invariably he came back to the office with Post WW11, Brian joined the family firm, whilea new instruction or some related piece of business. I studying for his qualifications as a member of the Royalknow Brian always felt the firm to be a family business, Institution of Chartered Surveyors. On completingrun on a truly professional basis, and that looking after these successfully, we married in 1951 and Brian workedits staff and clients were paramount. I am delighted that with his father until Sidneys death in 1956. In additionthese ethics still hold true today and I wish the firm to Brians professional work as a Chartered Surveyor,continued success.he was also an auctioneer, selling household chattels and goods, which took place at the salerooms in Upper North Street. In the mid 1950s, after much vetting by the Ministry of Defence, it was decided that the firm was Abbots Hospital, Guildford'