A SAFE JOB THAT HAD NO FUTURE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22654, 3 June 1948, Page 3

A SAFE JOB THAT HAD NO FUTURE

LONDON, May 2

The man who put the locks on the Bank of England's vaults left Britain this week because he didn't see enough opportunity for himself and his son. He is 44-year-old Mr. Arthur Brinnt, of Purlcy (Surrey), who has gone with his wife, Dorothy, and their 11-years-old son Michael, to find a job in Capetown—locksmithing or farming. Mr. Briant spent from 1922 to 1935 in charge of a team of workmen who fitted the vaults with 15-ton steelalloy doors. “It would be impossible to break the locks even with a blow-torch or explosives,” said Mr. Briant this week. “There are so many of them on both sides of the doors that nobody could pick them, and nobody has ever tried."

Among Mr. Brinnt's other jobs are fitting locks to the jewel room at the Tower of London where the Crown jewels now lie. looking after the safes at Buckingham Palace, the Mint and Westminster Abbey. During the war Mr. Briant worked on a job that was so secret he has never talked about it, but it included teaching Commandos to open safes before some of their raids into occupied France and Holland. Mr. Briant was later sent to 3urrri3 and China where he opened hundreds of safes left behind by retreating 'apancse.