Mainwaring believes in following rules and orders, sometimes to a ludicrous degree and is class-conscious and a snob. Being educated at the local Grammar School – as a scholarship student – he considers himself middle class and looks down on anyone he considers beneath him, which may be because he struggled to rise above his working class background. He claims to be the son of a successful tailor in Eastbourne, but Lance Corporal Jones reveals that Mainwaring's father was actually a poor draper who sold badly-made workmen's trousers and Barry Mainwaring confirms this. "If I had a title I'd be on the board of directors at the bank!" he shouts at Sergeant Wilson when the latter gains a title in the episode "The Honourable Man". Despite his arrogance being encouraged by his status as the bank manager (having started as a clerk and working his way up to assistant chief clerk, chief clerk and eventually manager), Mainwaring reveals in the same episode that he considers it a mere "tinpot branch" and his career is at a seemingly permanent standstill, as revealed in A. Wilson (Manager)?: whenever he applies for promotions he is always turned down due to his unimpressive background. Mainwaring's pomposity and snobbery work against him, as he is frequently dependent on those in the Home Guard that he considers beneath him, such as Sergeant Wilson, his chief clerk at the bank with whom he shares an antagonistic friendship and Private Walker, a black-marketeer who interrupts during Mainwaring's lectures with a quip or a sly revelation that Mainwaring is benefiting from underhand deals. Mainwaring is particularly jealous of Wilson, who is more relaxed and charming and possesses combat experience that Mainwaring does not and takes every opportunity to remind his sergeant who is the senior.