AN INTERVIEW WITH
Melvin Phillips
Melvin Phillips went straight into conveyancing age 18 and
joined Allen Ticehurst Solicitors in East Grindstead in 1980.
Based at our East Grinstead office, Melvin is a former president
of the local Chamber of Commerce and served as town mayor
in 1990. He continues to volunteer in the local community and
runs the committee which funds the town’s Christmas lights.
Following his interest in heritage Melvin also raises money for
the London Bus Museum in Surrey and supports the Bluebell
Railway. He was also awarded a British Empire Medal from the
Queen in 2015. Definitely not your average solicitor, we met with
Melvin to find out more…
Amber: How long have you worked for
Mayo Wynne Baxter?
Melvin: Five years now, but I’ve been
based in East Grinstead all my working
life apart from two years from when I left
school to now.
Amber: So did you grow up in East
Grinstead?
Melvin: I moved down from London in
1969. We lived in Copthorne, which is one
of the local villages. I went to school in
the grammar school and the secondary
school, then went up to the sixth form
college here and then went to work in East
Grinstead for a firm of solicitors.
Amber: When was it that you decided to
do law?
Melvin: I think it was more decided by the
careers advisor than it was decided by me.
I was interested in transport at the time,
and I was looking at jobs likely to go into
something like transport management,
planning, and the careers advice when I
was at school was virtually non-existent, all
they wanted to do was get you out, there
was no work experience, nothing. They
just wanted to find a job for everybody
and that’s what happened. So I arranged
an interview with London Transport who
had a huge student training programme,
it’s a huge organisation, it’s now called
TfL, but they’ve got the London buses
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and trains. I went up to their headquarters
for an interview but I didn’t know quite
what happened but I ended up in their
legal department. The transport planning
department had very high requirements
of A levels and the school didn’t think I
would get those grades so I didn’t get
the opportunity on their training scheme.
So there the jump was made into the
profession, and I started basically working
as a trainee legal executive for a local
solicitor in East Grinstead.
Amber: So tell us a little bit about your
community involvement, you were the
Town Mayor of East Grinstead I believe?
Melvin: I started off being involved in the
community by becoming a member of
the Young Conservatives and that sadly
doesn’t exist anymore but at the time it
was a very, very large organisation and a
lot of the politicians that are in government
today, are in fact people who I recognise
or have recognised from the Young
Conservatives. I went into local politics
slowly as well but the Young Conservatives
were community based and at the time
there was a desire to do all sorts of
things locally, and one of those was the
Christmas lights which was one of the
things that primarily got my nomination.
Moving on from that, it wasn’t just that
community involvement; that was one
aspect of it which is what a focus for the
award became but then also because its
politics you tend to get involved in local
councils and basically it turned into a
stage where I went on the Town Council.
I served on the Town Council for 12 years
and one of those years I was Town Mayor
and that’s when my daughter was born,
and that’s 27 years ago nearly, and I also
served on the school governors because
politics tends to nominate people on to
the boards of school governors, I did 18
years of that. I also served on the District
Council for 8 years which flowed on from
the Town Council, I was also President of
the Chamber of Commerce for 2 years, so
I was very much involved with all sorts of
things locally and the reason is that once
you’re involved with one thing, it happens,
a lot of people on certain organisations or
charities, you’ll find them on all sorts of
things, they come up everywhere because
they know that you’re community involved.
One thing led to another, and it just
snowballed really, because I worked locally
I was able to support all those things. So
it was the benefit of working locally and
particularly for a solicitors. So for 34 years
I was involved with the running of the
Christmas lights in this town, which was a
completely community based organisation,
all the money was raised voluntarily apart
from a small grant from the Town Council
so it wasn’t as it is now funded virtually
solely by the Council like many areas. So
that’s how that commitment over 34 years
and the fund that promoted the suggestion
of the award from the Queen.
Amber: Was there a ceremony?