How about this for a fascinating coincidence.

Many friends and family locally will recall that former Tenby man Robert Ormond was employed by Lloyds Bank for many years - 29 and one day to be exact.

Currently living in Devizes, he eventually retired from the bank in September 2004 as area director for commercial South West, following which he took up a role as managing director of Tincknells Fuels, of Wells, Somerset.

Now, as it turns out, Tincknells Fuels just happen to be a customer of the long-established Lloyds Bank which last year celebrated its 250th anniversary (1765-2015).

As part of the celebrations, the bank produced an impressive commemorative book, ‘Helping Britain to Prosper’, which charts the social history of Britain from the industrial revolution to the digital revolution... and, now as a ‘customer’ of the bank himself, Robert was pleased to receive a boxed copy of it.

Not much of a coincidence in that, you might think, but on turning the pages of this special souvenir publication, Robert was more than a little surprised when he came across an old picture of his late father, yes, former and well-remembered Observer editor Arthur Ormond.

“It came completely out of the blue, I knew nothing about it; it was a pure coincidence,” said Robert, who popped in to our offices to show us the book while on a short break in his home town.

Part of a two-page spread, the photograph, taken in 1978, also features other staff members (including two who are still with the paper) and is accompanied by an article highlighting the Observer’s plight at that time when it came close to closure, but thankfully was saved following the intervention of Sir Ray Tindle, of Tindle Newspapers.... who just happens to be another customer of Lloyds Bank!

The book also reveals how, as a 20-year-old, Sir Ray began his business with £250 of his £300 demobilisation money in 1946 when he purchased his first paper, the Tooting Gazette in London.

After that, backed by Lloyds Bank, his empire grew, adding more and more local newspapers, including the Observer. Now there are more than 200 titles in the Tindle Newspaper Group, read by 1.4 million people each week.