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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Mairi Campbell of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ on behalf of Mr Benjamin Freeman Biddall and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

This is the story of a young Travelling Showman of the Scottish Section of the Showmans Guild of England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.

In 1939 we were updating our funfair at a place called Kirkcudbright, in the same shire as it name, I was about 16 years of age, as soon as the war was declared the blackout cloased the funfair.

Two or three days later a gentleman from the council arrived as we were packing up, the local Territorial Unit was a dock company of the Royal Engineers and he was looking for men to unload grain at the harbour, every man on the show ground volunteered, we were there a month and unloaded several boats before they had organised labour.

We moved from there to Dumfries where we offered war work, digging shelters, forestry commission work, also building the new RAF drome. Several of the 18 to 30 showmen were inducted into the services.

After about a year we were all offered a move to Girvan Ayrshire to work at the building of the 464 Factory both my brothers and myself and my father started with Sir Robert McCalpine. There I learned to operate various machinery, I finished up an ‘All Round Operator’.

After about a year we were asked to open the funfair on the harbour for what they called ‘stay at home holidays’. I was working 12 hour shift at the Factory and then standing in a stall until 11pm every night for about 6 months, of this I got fed up and left McAlpine’s to be full time at the fun fair, that was in 1941 I went back to work after the fun fair closed at the end of the season and in November 1941 I received my calling papers.

I was sent to Beverley in Yorkshire just over the river from Hull, I had 6 weeks infantry training. I met two other Scottish showmen at Beverly T A Davison and Leslie Johnston when the six weeks were up I was posted to Royal Engineers Preston Barracks Dawson I never saw them again until after the war.

When I arrived at Preston I met two other showmen SPR Bobby Millar and SPR Freeman of Wales a distant relative of mine. On a weekend in Blackpool I met another scots showman Harry Graham , after completing my course at Preston I arrived at Newark for another course in machinery. Passing out on both machines got me an increase of 6D a day on top of my 3D for being a Sapper. I think that raised my wages to 19/6D.

My next posting was to an Aerodrome con , co, at Putney in London where I spent my time between cleansing streets and rebuilding a drumming Marshalling Yard made in a park somewhere in London. While in London I was sent to a new drome being built in Oxfordshire, there I met my old boss from McCalpines in Girvan, we were to stay and gain experience and when he saw me he put me on an Allan Passons Launching tool I spent 8 weeks there but I had to return to Putney I was only three days there when I was told they were forming Mech.Eqpt.Sec in Field Park Coy’s and so I was posted to Arran Scotland to the 15th Field Park Coay R E 3rd British Infantry Division.

That is where I started my training for D Day but was unaware of it until we moved to Fort George Inverness our first job was to construct a runway into the sea to load up landing craft which had never seen before but before I left the North for the South of Englandi knew them inside out. While in the 15th Field Park I met an English Showman called Joseph Carrigan, unfortunately Jo ran over a mine and was blinded.

After months of training at Burghhead Beach and Nairn Murrayshire we set of for the South of England.

95% of Showmen were in the Forces.

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