大象传媒

CHAPTER ONE.
SETTING THE SCENE - EARLY EDUCATION AND WORK.

The youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Mawson, I was born at Whitley Head, Steeton, near Keighley in Yorkshire in the year 1914. My parents had a small grocery and sweet shop in the house, which my mother ran whilst my father traded around the villages with a pony and trap selling butter, eggs and tinned food.I had four older brothers and a younger sister.
I was five years old when I started school and I can remember being taken there by my brother Charlie who was six years older. He took me to the infant school and told me he would come back for me at dinnertime. He then went on his way to what we referred to as the big school. In the second class at this school the teacher taught us to add up and take away by using wooden squares and also the letters of the alphabet. The next class was the top class of the Infant school and the teacher was much sterner and we had to be quick with everything.
Another year soon passed and I was ready to go to the same school as my brother Charlie, this was the big school with Standards one to eight. After doing writing, reading, arithmetic and drawing in Miss Mitchell鈥檚 class I moved into Standard 2. The teacher鈥檚 name was Miss Wade and the lessons were the same except harder. By now I am 13 years old and moving into the Head Master鈥檚 class. I thought I would be having a hard time but it turned out better than I expected. I worked out of textbooks and the Head Master would mark my books once a week.
We played football and were taken to play matches against Sutton and Ingrow. I played Right Full Back because I was tall.
I am now approaching 14 years and time to say 鈥楪oodbye鈥� to my class and teachers and start a job.
My eldest brother, Fred, got me a job at Steeton Bobbin Mill and the Monday after leaving school I started work at 7-0鈥檆lock. My two eldest brothers had skilled jobs at the Bobbin Mill and on my first day at work I went in with them and was taken to a long room, which was Mr. Longbottom鈥檚 room.

My first task was to take small squares of wood, which had a hole down the centre, to lads who were working on them. Later I was asked to do the same job as these boys. We had to sit over a plank of wood about 6 ft long and on the end was a spindle spinning round, driven by a belt from shafting up above. We had to push the wood squares on to a cutting bit. My wage was 21 shillings and 6 pence a week and at the end of six weeks my wage was supposed to go up to 23 shillings and 11 pence. When the six weeks were ended my wage wasn鈥檛 increased so my brother told me to see the manager and enquire about it, which I did. After about half an hour in the office the manager said 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry lad, they tell me in the office that all lads have to work for 21/6d from now on.鈥� So my brother told me to go back to the manager and give my notice to finish, so I did. Another lad started at the same job after me who was six weeks younger than myself and he was paid 23/11d as soon as he started!!
That was the end of my working at the Bobbin Mill.
On the Monday morning I set off looking for another job and found one at Woodrow鈥檚 weaving sheds at Crosshills. They set me on straight away, After working in the Piece room for some months, the manager came to me again bringing a young man with him, all dressed up in a posh suit. He told me to teach the young man all the jobs I had been doing. I couldn鈥檛 see that this was a good move for me but I had to do it. At the end of two weeks the manager again came to me and said,鈥� I want you to finish this weekend until you are sent for, go to the office and they will pay you up鈥�. This was a sly move as the young man was a relation of the boss and they never sent for me again. I was just short of 16 years old.
This was the year 1930 and I was now without work
I always longed to be a joiner and cabinetmaker but there were no jobs. So I stayed at home helping my mother and father with the business and smallholding and cutting hair to earn a little bit of money.
We used to keep 600 hens, geese and ducks, two pigs and a pony and my job was to get up early in the morning to feed them and get the pony ready for my Dad to go on his rounds. At this time my mother was very busy looking after the shop and baking plain, currant and brown teacakes. She had regular orders for these and my brother Charlie had to deliver them, carrying them in a big basket, to her customers.
When I was about 16 I saw an advertisement in the paper that a young man had a piano accordion for sale. I had already taught myself to play the mouth organ and a concertina so I bought it. Some of my old school pals had formed a mouth organ and accordion band and had played at a few dances. They asked me if I would like to join them, which I did, and from then on we had engagements every Saturday evening, playing for dances. We earned ten shillings each and if we had travelled a way from home, we would get the taxi fare as well.
Well I had to have other work to do and always being handy with my hands with woodworking tools I set about making chicken huts. We acquired the timber and I made a few of these huts, six feet long and four feet wide with a pointed ridge roof and slatted floor for the chicken droppings to go through. These were called 鈥� night arks 鈥� made from weatherboards with two handles, one at each end to lift the arks onto a fresh site. I made a few of these and sold them to different farmers at a profit, which made our arks cost less. I also fit out a hut with cages and reared and sold guinea pigs.
Our next-door neighbour had a motor cycle with a sidecar and whenever he was tinkering about maintaining the engine I was helping and learning. The man also drove the corn mill wagon, taking cattle food out to the farms. I went with him and he would let me take hold of the steering wheel and drive the wagon. This is how I learned to drive.
My eldest brother was married and living at Addingham and his wife worked for a man who had a clothing shop. This man had a brother who was a cobbler also working in Addingham. After discussion with him we found that he would be prepared to teach me cobbling if I would go over in the evenings from 5-30 to 9-0鈥檆lock, but he couldn鈥檛 pay me any wages. So I bought a bicycle and went over to Addingham four or five nights a week for three years. I did this as well as looking after the smallholding and playing in the band at the weekends.
My Mother鈥檚 brother was a clog maker and had a shop in Skipton, my mother wrote to him and asked if he would teach me how to make clogs. He also said he couldn鈥檛 afford to pay me a wage but he would teach me if I could go over a couple of afternoons a week. So I did this, finishing at 4-0鈥檆lock, two afternoons a week for two years. At the end of my two years my Uncle gave me all the patterns for the clogs he made so I could cut out my own clog uppers.
So now I am ready to start business on my own as a Boot and Shoe Repairer and Clog Maker.
During my father鈥檚 journeys around the villages with his pony and trap, he found out that there could be an opening in the village of Cononley for the trade, so I went along there to have a look round. I noticed a little empty cottage and was told the house belonged to two elderly ladies. So I went and had a word with them and told them that I was looking for somewhere to start a cobbling business, and could I rent the old house. The ladies agreed and the deal was made.
Back at home I made a counter and drawers and had my tools and everything taken on to the old house. Looking in the newspaper I saw a Sewing machine for sale, so my mother lent me the money and I bought it, I also bought a treadle finishing machine and I had both these machines taken to the old house.
So now I am all set up to start my business and the work started coming in. I was soon able to pay back my mother for the loan on the sewing machine as well as paying her my board each week and by the end of the year I had 拢100 to call my own.
During the second year the business was going well so I bought a sole-stitching machine, paying cash for it followed by a motorcycle to get to work on.

During the years 1936 to 1939 I courted, married, bought a new house and my daughter was born in August.

A month later World War Two began and it wasn鈥檛 long before I received my call-up papers for the Army. I applied for postponement because of business responsibility and I got three months. I did this twice more and got three months each time, giving me nine months altogether. But duty called and before the end of the nine-month I had to make arrangements to close my shop and store my equipment. My call-up papers arrived and my railways warrant and my address was to be the Camp at Penny Pot Lane, Harrogate.
The date I had to set off was 16th January 1941; the day Mary my wife鈥檚 aunt was being buried. She had been like a second mother to me and yet I could not attend her funeral as it was at 10-30 am and I had to leave at 8-30am. It was one of the worst days in my life, having to leave my wife Mary and our little daughter.

CHAPTER TWO 鈥� PREPARING FOR SERVICE.

I arrived at Harrogate railway station and was picked up by a man with a 15 cwt. truck who took me to the training camp.
The next morning we, the raw recruits, were called out on to the barrack square and taken to the army store and given all our army kit including physical training kit, shorts and vest. We were told to go and put on the physical training kit and return to the square and at that time there were three inches of snow on the ground. I had never had a P.T. outfit on since I left school so along with the others we stood there shivering. The sergeant told us to form up into pairs, about 20 of us, and he ran us off the camp and down the road towards Harrogate in all the slushy snow,a fine start to my army experience. We ran all the way down and back up to the camp, had a wash down and returned to the Barrack square in our battle dress and were given marching and rifle drill. Every day we had different things to do, gunnery and motor transport lessons, along with being on guard at nights. We got 7shillings and 6 pence a week for this.
I was at Harrogate for six months and I used to slip home without leave. Each time I came home I had to walk two miles to the Blubberhouse road from the camp, and then hitch a lift to Skipton. When I returned I had to go by bus and then walk three miles back to camp from Harrogate.
I slipped home many times and made the journey without any trouble but one time the weather turned rough and it started snowing and again there was three inches on the ground, so I decided to return an hour earlier than usual. Mary had made some jam so she gave me a pot to take back to camp. I put the jar in my pocket and went for the bus and got as far as Shipley Branch where I had to get another bus for Harrogate. By this time the snow was getting deeper and no bus came so I set off walking as a man had told me that the busses couldn鈥檛 get up out of Bradford. I kept to the left hand side of the road and kept looking back and after about five miles I looked back and could see some dim lights. I could see that it was a bus so I shone my torch towards the driver. He slowed down and shouted from his window for me to jump on if I could but he couldn鈥檛 stop. I ran for it and jumped on, what a relief not to have to walk the whole way. From Harrogate bus station I used to take a short cut down a snicket but tonight the snow was packed hard on the path and was very slippery. My feet shot from under me and down I went on to the jar of jam!! The glass broke and I had to tip the jar and jam out of my pocket on to the ground. I had three miles to walk from here to the camp, where I slipped in through the sergeants quarters and out at the back into our own area, to avoid going through our main gates.
After getting into my barrack room to my bed I took off my greatcoat and what a mess it was with the jam. I went to the wash place and cleaned the coat and pocket. I dried the coat on the heating pipes. I was up all night getting the coat clean but I was on parade the next morning and no one ever knew.
Now I have come to the end of my time at Harrogate and have to move on. We were taken to Harrogate station and put on a train for Burton-on-Trent where we were marched to a Brewery. We were shown to a long attic room above this brewery in which there were ugly make shift beds, just oblong wooden frames with sacking nailed across, with just dark grey blankets. The beds at Harrogate were iron and we had two sheets. Now we were getting to the rough stuff.
We didn鈥檛 have any marching drill at this place but were told to go down to the railway goods yard and empty coal trucks, putting the coal into 1cwt bags. We did this job for three months, five days a week. We were given denim work clothes but it was a dirty job and I got really fed up with it and the town.
One evening I saw a notice asking if anyone would like to join the Military Police and if so to hand in their name at the office. So I thought well here goes, it can鈥檛 be worse than emptying coal trucks, and handed in my name.
The next morning I was called out on parade and told to report to the Medical Officer and then back to the Battery office where they gave me another railway warrant to travel to Chillton Foleate, near Hungerford.
When I got there and reported to the office, I just put my kit down and an officer took me to a three-ton wagon and asked me to drive it. He sat in the passenger seat and took me around the town and back to camp. That confirmed I could drive. I was given another rail warrant to go back home for ten days embarkation leave. This meant I would be going overseas to some place or other because the unit I had been posted to were already packed up ready to move. This Unit was the H.A.C a London regiment 鈥� The Honourable Artillery Company.
After my embarkation leave, I returned to the unit and was put in charge of a four wheel drive vehicle called a gun quad, used for towing guns, ammunition and limbers, it had a wire rope and winch gear. I had to drive all the way back up to Liverpool in convoy to get onto a ship. This ship was named 鈥� The Samaria鈥�.
When the troops were all on board, we numbered 3,500 plus the ships crew. We set sail from Liverpool on my 27th birthday the 28th September 1941. It would be 3 years and 9 months before I returned to these shores and saw my wife and daughter again.

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