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Martin Search's wife has told him he should write a book about his life and career, and after spending a couple of hours in his company hearing his stories, which paint a colourful picture of island life as it has changed over the past five decades, I have to agree.
Despite being known to many for his work at Ray and Scott - the business he co-owns with his partner Jeff Fox - Martin Search insists he "fell into the job just by chance".
It's clear that is true, as his early years working coincided with two very different industries.
Having moved to Guernsey as a boy, attending Vauvert and the then-brand-new St Peter Port Secondary, young Martin took on jobs in both of the island's main employment sectors when he finished his school years in the early 1970s.
Pictured: Martin Search in January 2024 showing Express old photos as he talks us through his 50-year career at Ray and Scott.
Encouraged and supported by his step-father he started off in growing - with his own glasshouses for growing tomatoes. He was busy in the evenings too as he worked in a number of local hotels supporting the cabaret acts that entertained the throngs of tourists of the 1970s.
"I hated it," he says of his time in horticulture. "I just did not like it. But at the same time, I was working in cabaret. I'd got a job as a 17-year-old lad, doing the lights and sitting people down at cabaret shows. This was at the Wayside Cheer and also at the Carlton Hotel, and there was also another one at the Hermitage, which is now a housing estate."
This nighttime work brought Martin into the path of the rich and famous of the day, with visitors such as Paul Daniels entertaining the tourists when there were plenty of them around.
"...to give you an idea, the year Paul Daniels worked, they used to sit 350 people in that cabaret room every single night, six nights a week. And it was licenced, I think for 200."
Working at various hotels each night, as well as growing during the days, meant young Martin was well and truly burning the candle at both ends but he wasn't enjoying all of his work.
Hoping to leave the glasshouses behind him he took on a Saturday job at Ray and Scott jewellers which at the time was on New Road, St Sampson's.
"I wasn't happy with the growing and I just wanted to get out of it. I rented my own greenhouses through my stepfather, I had 550 feet but it was soulless. I didn't have anyone to talk to and so (a friend) said to me 'I've got a man who wants a training manager in a jewellery shop...go down to the shop and meet Mr. Ray and see when you like'."
Pictured: Mr Ray (standing) and Mr Scott (sitting, centre) with Mrs Scott (centre) and Martin Search (right).
"I'm not one to turn something down so I drove down to the Bridge, parked outside the shop, which you could do in those days, I walked into the little shop in New Road and met Mr. Ray and he was a lovely man. He was maybe in his 50s by this time and I was 18 and a bit. He was nice, he was kind."
From that first meeting, Martin started off unpaid working Saturday mornings - as well as every night of the week at the hotels, which grew to include setting up his own cocktail bar, and every day in his glasshouses - until he was offered a paid role.
"I did that for the entire summer right the way through to September. And I really enjoyed it. I just really enjoyed it. I was talking to customers, and it wasn't that busy but it was people coming in and out and I was obviously very naive to it. During the summer he said to me, 'we can do exams, I can put you on correspondence courses, and I can do this' and this was the good thing about my tutor, my boss, he was a great guy. He taught me so much."
After that first summer working for Mr Ray and Mr Scott, Martin was enrolled on the relevant courses and he started working his way up the business, first giving up his glasshouses and eventually stopping his cabaret work in the evenings.
Pictured: One of many old photos Martin Search has of Ray and Scott jewellers over the years.
Martin says one of the things he has seen change over the intervening decades is that young people don't seem as keen to really work hard to get where they want to be in life.
"There seems to be a society that expects to have, and they moan about 'we can't afford this, we can't afford that' but they still expect to have their lovely phone and their lovely car and their holidays. But I had two jobs till I was 30 or 35, and I worked and I worked and worked. That's what you have to do. And if you don't really knuckle down and work, unfortunately, don't expect to get to many places. Whether it's just doing extra curriculum for the job you're doing, or whether it's putting the hours in."
That's what Martin did, with extra curricular studying during his early years at Ray and Scott as well as putting the hours in when he was able to afford to drop his evening work.
In time it all paid off handsomely with him able to buy the business when both Mr Ray and Mr Scott retired during the 1990s. By that time Ray and Scott had been based in its iconic location on the Bridge for the majority of Martin's time working there and he has never wanted to change the business' name.
"I only ever did a year at the old building, and that was when I was doing the summers and then the following year we moved here. I remember in here as a building site and I remember an argument one day when Mr. Scott came in.
"There was a sign in the window and it said 'Charles Ray and Scott' and Mr. Scott climbed in the window, and he pulled the sign out and he threw it across the shop. He said 'if it's going to be Charles Ray and Scott, it is going to be Charles Ray and Tom Scott'," he laughed, remembering those days.
"I didn't change it for two reasons," he said. "Firstly, it was a very well established business by the time I bought it, and well known and respected. And secondly, security. Nobody knew the way security would go and as it happens security is a big thing, but certainly in those days you had your name in the phonebook and there was no way I was going to put my name over the door. I'm not that vain that I need my name over the door, and it wasn't my business as far as I'm concerned, it was always Mr. Ray and Mr Scott. I've just come in and fine tuned it and nurtured it on. And it's a traditional thing.
"It would have cost a lot of money. What is the point?"
Martin clearly remembers both Mr Ray and Mr Scott very fondly. Even today he says he doesn't consider Ray and Scott to be his business as he has been in partnership with Jeff Fox for almost 20 years now.
Describing himself as a "caretaker" of the business, he recalls his professional highlights over the last 50 years which includes some award wins including as runner up to the 'Best Business' at the Guernsey Awards for Achievements in 2017 as well as national award wins in the jewellery sector.
"I'm not planning on retiring anytime soon," he says.
"People have asked me that, and they say, when am I going to retire, but at the end of the day I think working keeps you young. I think it keeps your mind active. And I think it's a good thing."
Looking to the future, Martin wants to ensure younger people join him and his partner in the retail sector.
He says it is an exciting and interesting career choice with varied paths to follow.
Pictured: Martin Search has more than enough stories and photos to fill a book, about his fifty years working at Ray and Scott and his wider life too.
Having chalked up 50 years as a "shop keeper" - a career he "fell into just by chance" - Martin hopes other people are as open to opportunities as he was back as a naive 18-year-old who was burning the candles at both ends as he tried to build a life for himself and his family.
"I would always say, if an opportunity arises, always take that opportunity. Always try it. Because you never know. And also stick with it for a little while.
"I knew from day one that I enjoyed this job. And I would say retail for certain people is an amazing job because you meet so many amazing, lovely people.
"I've been blessed with great staff and I'm also very happy with the type of industry I'm in because I've obviously met very nice clients, and people that I can actually get on with.
"I would always say try always, and always, always strive and don't be frightened. One of the things is that people tend to be pushed or buttonholed into an area and if you enjoy a job you tend to be successful at it and if you're successful you tend to do well financially with it. If you don't enjoy the job, you won't enjoy the finances.
"You have to enjoy what you do, and money is not everything. I never believed that this job would pay me lots of money. I didn't do it for that. I did it because I just loved it. I just loved it. I've absolutely loved it."
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