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| Bristow's Superiors | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Sir Reginald Chester-Perry |
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"Imagine, if you can, a pair of calm blue eyes filled with compassion and understanding..." 
This is the only known picture of Sir Reginald Chester-Perry, adorning the front cover of the House Journal's bumper spring number in 1964. Bristow naturally defaces the photo and produces an uncanny resemblance to Gerry Adams, leader of Northern Ireland's Sinn Fein party. Alone amongst the clerks Jones has actually met the firm’s founder. Well, not so much met as shared a lift with him. Bristow has gone so far as to thumb his nose at Sir Reginald’s Rolls-Royce as it swishes past but Jones has actually breathed the same air and shared the same space as the man, and will retell the legendary story at the drop of a bowler. Here is his first appearance, seen of course through the eyes of Bristow leaning out of his window. Guess who was here? Bristow is quite obsessed with Sir Reginald.
He never meets him in the strip, although he does come face to face
during one of the radio episodes when
some unfortunate circumstances cause the multi-millionaire industrialist
to break his leg during a visit to the Buying
Department. The admiration of his early days rapidly gives way to
a cynical and detached dislike, encapsulated in strip
1865
Chester-Perry is an aggressive industrialist,
keen to buy up likely companies. and even keener to boot out their former
management. He imposes his ghastly colour
scheme (carbon paper blue, clerical grey and paper white) on everything
he can touch (e.g. the firm's football team kit, his racing colours,
his custom built executive jet and the festive garb of the Chester-Perry
Glee Club). Sir Reginald appears frequently on television extolling
his business philosophy. (Bristow normally watches football on
the other channel "Well you know what it’s like when you work so
close to someone..."). He is more than a match for the toughest
interviewer - strip
3551
. and holds his audience rapt as he lashes out at lazy, slothful clockwatching
employees.
Sir Reginald has an excellent sense of humour. His chauffeur, Bristow's source, reveals how he enjoys laughing in bed on a wet Monday morning, or whilst observing the anguish of his employees as they approach the C-P building and realise, once again, that they must go to work there. Or indeed, as Bristow is told when spotting the Rolls one day "What's today? Wednesday. Wednesday he comes here to gloat". But he takes great pride in his creation. Told that the canteen has been awarded a fourth star by the Firm's Canteen Good Food Guide he does not hesitate to order himself a celebratory slap-up lunch - at his club. We have never seen Sir Reginald directly and must rely on third-party information and hearsay. As indeed does Bristow, author of The Greatest Living Englishman. Some of the following "facts" may be drawn from this important work of reference.
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