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This story was told to Bob Reeves and added by Roz Carr at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Open Centre in Hull with the kind permission of Mr J Tyler

Joseph’s story is in two chapters. One in civilian times and the other in military times.

Civilian Times.
Joseph was bon in Hull on 5th November, 1922. A bouncing boy of 14lb. 2oz! He attended St. Patrick’s School, Mill Street, Hull for 7 ½ years with a perfect attendance record. During the war the school received a direct hit and was destroyed.

On leaving school he took up employment at A. Browns Books and School Contracts. At the outset of WW2, at the age of 17 years, Joseph enlisted with the Air Raid Precautions Ambulance Service, where he was to witness many hazardous periods of danger and destruction, especially during the blitz of Hull. The station he attended was in Ryde Avenue in Hull. His lasting memory is of standing at the crossroads of Jameson Street, King Edward Street and Prospect Street and in every direction (to use his own words) it was like ‘Dantes Inferno’. When the war finished he was finally demobbed and went back to work at Brown’s for the remainder of his working life. Joseph also received a medal for his services to the football association for 50 years service as a referee and youth leader. He is now a retired widower, living off Chanterlands Avenue, Hull.

Military Times
Joseph is a modest person who believes he is very lucky to be one of the ones who came home. His thoughts are always with those who did not! His wishes are that the stories he and others tell will be a reminder to succeeding generations of the sacrifice they paid and that it is they who should never be forgotten.

Joseph’s wartime story begins when he was called up to the Royal Air Force in 1941. He was sent to Blackpool for ‘square bashing’ and then posted to a satellite station which looked after RAF Finningly, Lindholm, Waddington and others. Due to his experience as an ambulance driver he was given the job of crash tender/ambulance driver. Many a time he was present to spray water and foam over aircraft whose undercarriage had been shot away, and had crash landed. It was not long before he was posted to Bombay and left via Liverpool on the Mauritania. He was designated to the ‘vehicle transport pool’, where vehicles arrived, sometimes in pieces, and where then taken by Joseph (the convoy leader) and approximately 10 Indian drivers, to many other cities, including Calcutta, which was a drive of 3 weeks and 3 days return by train. Following this period he was posted to Rangoon and then on to Kelang in Singapore, where he witnessed his most harrowing time, because his ambulances were amongst those that ferried prisoners of war from Changi Prisoner of War camp. He will never forget the scenes of horror. Whilst serving at Changi RAF Hospital, Joseph was present when there were numerous winners of the Victoria Cross present, possibly up to 20. Also the Gurkhas, New Zealanders, Australians and Britains - all having medical examinations prior to repatriation. He was also present when Earl Mountbatten of Burma visited the troops and set up a HQ in the Raffles Hotel. Although he did not speak to him, Joseph says that the Earl asked many of the troops if everything was alright at home. This is what Joseph remembers him for.
He finally sailed for home and was demobbed in September, 1946. He reached the rank of Corporal and was awarded the Burma Star 1939-45, The Defence Medal and the War Medal.

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