大象传媒

I was born in 1929 in Birkenhead, and attended St. James Infant School followed by Brassey Street Secondary School. I left school aged 14 years in 1943. Prior to this, my family and I were in the May Blitz of 1941. At about 12:00 midnight we were all in a large brick shelter on our back field. The raids had ceased long past, not a sound of planes or anything else. My father called us out to go into our homes. It was a clear night, with no clouds etc. We went into our home, the kettle was put on the coal fire, and we were all settled down after a night of bombs and gun fire. My mother was making a pot of tea when suddenly all hell let loose. There was the most horrendous explosion, too hard to describe in words, doors, windows, roofs, everything was coming down on top of us. Then, deathly silence again. When we got out of the mess and into the street everywhere was aglow with fire. Two arial land mines had floated down and landed on Laird Street. The whole main street had just vanished, with only heaps of rubble and dead bodies everywhere. The next day, like all children, we were clibming onto the school roof to pull down the parachutes. Vulcan Street was lined from top to bottom with dead bodies while they were digging out the dead- something a twelve-year-old will never forget, plus night after night of bombs and guns. We used to watch the bombs falling from the planes in the ray of search lights and we heard them screaming down before exploding, but to children it was fun.

I left school at 14 in 1943 and as a child I went to work for the Blue Funnel Pine, with others my age and size, as Boiler Scalers on the ships. Being small, we used to be able to get into these very hot coal- burning boilers, into the wings and places men couldn't get to; with no electric lights in those days you had to carry a candle to light your way, and we made candle holders from hoop iron of the field. Then all day, for many days, you sat on metal furnaces banging away with chipping hammers to remove the scale build up.

Then we would have to go into the hot furnaces, sometimes on wet sacks to stop you getting burned, but you were burned just the same. Our hours then were 5:00 am until you finished. Being wartime, we used to break down all of the red hot brick work(for example centre walls, legs and crowns, fire bars that were burned) to renew them etc. Any engineer will know these names.

One instant that sticks out in my memory was when we were all in the boiler banging away, with no ear plugs or masks in those days. A chinese engineer opened a working check valve from a working boiler and flooded our boiler internally with boiling hot steam. Luckily, that day there were no men working on top of the tubes, or there would have been one large death rate. As it was, we being children dropped our candles and hammers etc and dropped down to the bottom of the boiler and out of the mud hole and wing doors. After that incident it was made law that all working valves were to be locked and chained before anybody was allowed into another boiler for work. I did this work until 23rd December, 1945. Then I joined the army at age 16 1/2, for five years.

I could tell you many, many stories of the youths of 14 years of age who, in their small way, helped to win the war.

'This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

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