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Introduction

This article is submitted on behalf of Mr Franklin Derek Tyrer who was born on 15 October 1934 in Preston, Lancashire. Franklin was a schoolboy in Preston during World War Two. This article concentrates mainly on the memories of school days in Preston.

Franklin’s parents were Harold Tyrer and Sarah Jane Tyrer (née Savage). His younger sister Maureen was born in 1936. Franklin’s mother was a younger sister of my own maternal Grandmother, Mrs Cecilia McCrickett (née Savage) and I have several photographs of the Tyrer family from Preston during the war years in my personal photograph collection.

The article uses Franklin’s own words, with only minor editing by me. He fully understands the terms of the ����ý “People’s War” website.

Early memories of school

“I was born in October 1934 in ‘Proud Preston’ as it is known, a town in Lancashire. Although I actually started school just before the war broke out in 1939, most of my early education coincided with the war years. As a child, the war was something that people talked about and we never really knew anything different.

We started school at the age of three and a half at a Jesuit school in Preston called the ‘Sacred Heart’. I was there until 1940, when it was deemed unsafe for us kids to be so far from our parents. There followed a period in scholastic limbo, when we were free to do as we pleased.

In 1940, we were allowed back to Sacred Heart, and I was allocated a place in Sister Clement’s class. These Jesuit schools were paragons of high-class teaching. Looking back now, I feel their demise is a scholastic disaster! We were doing joined-up writing at the age of six and mental arithmetic of course.

My first teachers

I suppose I was always a ‘show off’. There was this one day, I had been kept off school for the 'sniffles' or something so my Mother must have deemed it life threatening! When I went back to school I told the teacher that the reason my sister Maureen, 18 months my junior, and I had been off school.

The reason I told the saintly Sister Clement was that Maureen had had ‘flu’, and I had had ‘Influenza’. My illness had naturally been far more serious than Maureen’s and the name of my illness was much longer than Maureen’s. To this day, I can see the look of amusement on Sister Clement’s face!

Later as my education improved, I was upgraded to a Lay Teacher's Class. She was called Miss Kennedy. Mum and Dad used to send Miss Kennedy little presents of things like chocolates, perfumes and other things that were in short supply. I suppose Miss Kennedy was always well disposed towards me! So my early years at school during the war were endurable.

School progression during the war

Each year, when summer arrived we were allowed to depart for the long blissful summer holidays that all children love and parents detest! This was the time we could play all sorts of games as children and not have to be bothered about the constraints of the classroom. Several times a year, my mother used to take my sister Maureen and me on the train from Preston to Whitehaven in Cumberland to stay with our Grandmother Sarah Jane Savage. The long summer holidays were always a time when we went to see Grandma Savage and other relatives of my mother.

Then, as summer drew to a close every year, the threat of school loomed again. Soon, I was elevated to the status of going 'upstairs' to the 'Big Boys' class. Although still only eight or nine, this meant being taught by Mr. 'Buster' Billington and Mr Paddy Woodcock. You quickly learned, that you must, and could not 'mess' with these two ogres. Buster Billington, had a Whalebone for a cane, which he wielded with glee. I was the recipient of his fiendish glee on quite a few occasions! So, it was farewell to Miss Kennedy, and Sister Clement, and I entered the world of reality, under the secular Buster and Paddy! Looking back, it seemed like that anyway. Perhaps it was just the combination of being a little older and remembering more.

As the war drew to it's close, we were re-allocated to St Walburgh’s, still in Preston. The carefree days of the war were about to come to an end. That was the time when there were major changes in education, due in no small part to the 1944 Education Act brought in by Mr RAB Butler. I went on to become one of the first ‘guinea pigs’ to take the new G.C.E. after the abolition of the ‘School Certificate’. That, of course was in the years immediately after the war. On the whole, we learned many things during the war years, and there is much to be thankful for".

Conclusion

I am grateful to Franklin for taking the time to share some of his wartime memories. This is just one of several articles written about his wartime memories. After a varied and interesting career, Franklin has lived in Spain with his dear wife Andé for a number of years.

Franklin’s sister Maureen (Mrs Lewin), became a successful businesswoman. She still lives in Lancashire, at Blackpool.

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