It was her nursing career that made Ruth Trinder her millions. The very career she was looking to give up when she joined Coutts in 1971. Now, more than 35 years on, sitting in her fabulous boutique hotel overlooking the river in Richmond, she can't quite believe how things have come full circle.

Ruth Trinder has just become a private client of Coutts following the sale of her business – a nursing home empire she and her husband built over three decades. Hers is a story of triumph over adversity, of bloody mindedness, of risk-all-and-why-not mentality. And, my, did she take some risks. Some of which paid off and others which... well, she has no regrets.

She says that her training at Coutts was an important part of her later career. "I was just an ordinary clerk then," laughs Ruth, in her strong Kenyan accent. "I told the employment agency I wanted to give up nursing and that I was very good with figures, so they sent me to Coutts to work in the statement department.

"It was good training for me, even now. They drummed in; if you're not sure, check, check again and check again. Once, I even got in trouble for it at Coutts. We had to get authorisation to release clients' dividends to the accountants for tax returns each year, but authorisation had to be given first. I did all my checking and there was no indication that there was authorisation, so I refused to release them.

"I got called to the head of the department and everyone was saying 'Ruth, you are in so much trouble!' In the end, the head said he thought I did the right thing but that, in this instance, we would release them," she says, whooping with laughter at the memory.

"I went to view a care home and the minute they saw me, they said the place was not for sale. I came back to Victoria and was absolutely fuming."

Even at Coutts, she says, she told people she wanted to set up her own business and they laughed along with her. It was a time when men were taking a job for life and women weren't expected to work after marriage. But Ruth wanted more. After three years at Coutts, she left to become a travelling cashier for another bank, saved day and night for a deposit on a flat and eventually bought one in Battersea.

Two years on, she decided to move job again, but this time with the equity of her flat behind her. She wanted her own business but there were obstacles in the way. "I couldn't borrow money because I was a woman, I had no business experience and I remember my late husband Bill saying to me 'on top of that, you're black'." She decided the best thing was sell her flat which gave her £8,000 to put towards buying an old people's home.

But more resistance came. On discovering a care home was becoming available in Hanbury, she took the train from Victoria to see it. "I think the minute these people saw me, they said the place was not for sale. I came back to Victoria and was absolutely fuming."

After getting advice from an independent financial adviser, Ruth bought an old people's home in February 1977 with a two-year lease. "I had clinical experience and training but no practical experience with elderly people," she remembers.

What motivated her was where she could be in two years time. "I thought, I will have business experience, be able to borrow money and run another company if everyone can just forget this woman and black thing."

But there were more blows to come. On informing the council she was the care home's new owner, she discovered the place was blacklisted. The council told her she had six weeks to turn it around or it would be closed.

"In two years, I thought, I will have business experience, be able to borrow money and run another company if everyone can just forget this woman and black thing."

Her days consisted of waking her six residents (which would soon grow to 11) at 7am and then going down to prepare breakfast. While the residents ate, Ruth made the beds and sorted out clothes. Then it was back into the kitchen to clear up, prepare mid-morning coffee and cook lunch.

After clearing lunch and a quick nap, it was back into the kitchen to prepare afternoon tea before moving onto supper. When residents went to bed at 8pm, Ruth would go upstairs to her flat, change and come back down to scrape the old paint from the ceiling, repaint, hang wallpaper, pull up lino and lay down carpet. At 10pm, she'd do her final check that everyone was in bed, and then begin it all over again the next day.

"When I took over, I wanted everyone to be fed nice food. The lady running the place before me had fed the residents soya beans, smoked and had a big dog in the kitchen with her. Disgusting," she sighs. Within ten months, Ruth had turned the place around and purchased a second care home in Beckenham. This time, she was granted a £9,000 loan from the bank. The only surprise came from its previous owner.

"He told residents that the house had been bought by a black lady who was going to turn it into a student hostel. Many of them moved out." He also cut off the home's gas and electricity supply, and burnt the mattresses in the garden. Undeterred, Ruth got everything reinstalled, bought new mattresses, hired a housekeeper and helped run both homes for the next five years.

By now, it was 1982, and Ruth and Bill, then her husband and a property developer by trade, purchased their third old people's home in Putney, this time complete with nursing care. It would be the start of their empire. After that, they would buy three more in '84, '85 and '89, a hotel and a beautiful new home on the river in Kingston in 1990.

By 1992, however, Britain would in recession, the property market would bust, and Ruth's husband would be dead. Grieving, looking after her daughter and staring down the barrel of a £4.5m bank loan, how would she pull through to become a top private client of Coutts? Find out in the next edition of Coutts Woman...

By Barbara Walshe