Renewing family ties

The grandson of Douglas Nelson, one of WNJ’s three founding partners, is looking to forge a career in accountancy with the practice his grandfather helped to create.

Henry Nelson, 19, joined WNJ in September as a trainee accountant on the practice’s apprenticeship scheme.

And he is delighted to be renewing the family ties that stretch back more than six decades and to be following in his grandfather’s footsteps.

WNJ was founded by William Wallwork, Douglas Nelson and Michael Johnson in 1960, from the merger of a number of smaller regional firms whose origins went back more than100 years.

It began life in offices in Theatre Street in Preston city centre. The main office was relocated to Derby House in Fulwood, Preston, in 1988 and then to Chandler House on Preston’s Riversway, where Henry is now based, in 2003.

Henry, a former Newman College student, said: “My grandad sadly passed away a few months before I was born.

“But my grandmother was really pleased when I told her the news that I’d been accepted for an apprenticeship here. She said he would have been very happy and so proud.”

Henry, who is from Fulwood and who went to Archbishop Temple High School, said: “I’m really enjoying working at WNJ and I feel I’m learning so much. Everyone in the business is so helpful.

“There’s such a wide variety of work which makes every day different and I especially like meeting clients. It is a job where you feel you are really helping people.

“My aim is to work hard, to just keep on learning and to look to build a successful career in accounting.”