大象传媒

Part one of an oral history interview with Mr. Ivor Chappell about his early wartime experiences when he lived in Kempston, Bedfordshire. The interview was conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

SEE ALSO memories previously submitted to the 大象传媒 鈥楶eople鈥檚 War鈥� website 鈥� 鈥楯oining the D.E.M.S.鈥�, 鈥楩orever Young鈥� and 鈥楽ome Christmas鈥檚 Remembered, 1942, 43, 44 & 45鈥� by Mr. Ivor Walter CHAPPELL about his time in the Royal Navy posted to D.E.M.S. gunner duties on board 鈥楨mpire Spartan鈥� HMS Chrysanthemum and HMS President.

鈥淚 was born in Kempston Barracks on the 25th of October 1924. My dad did 22 years in the Beds. and Herts. Regiment. My father had the chance to run what they call the Drill Hall at Ampthill. He had the chance to take up employment out of the Army. He first of all went to the Britannia Iron and Steel Works, Kempston - actually it wasn鈥檛 called that at the time, it was called Howard鈥檚. They made plough shares in the 1920s, I think. He got through World War I and all that stuff and my little mum looked after eight children and we were nearly all born in Kempston Barracks. I was four years old when we moved to Ampthill, we moved up Park Hill. My father was a Steward, still Army 鈥榠sh if you know what I mean. All smart, moustache and all this stuff you know, he was proud of his 22 years. We all moved to Ampthill, eight children and mum and dad. Then dad was still working, it was in the middle of Ampthill and it was mainly T.A. which stands for Territorial Army and they used to have big 鈥榙o鈥檚鈥� in Ampthill. The Beds. & Herts. Regimental Band used to come and play the 鈥楻etreat鈥�, it was a thing for us kids. Well I was moved there when I was four years old and for some reason known to themselves my mother and father decided to move back into Kempston. My mother was a Kempston girl. My father was an Essex man, well he was Essex Army so that鈥檚 how he met my mother in Kempston. So we were all Kempston kids. Then they decided to come back to Kempston so we moved into 26 Bedford Road, Kempston which is right next door to the Barracks.

My dad, he became chief cook at what was called the 鈥楤ovril鈥� factory in the 1940s, in Reddings Wood, in Ampthill, this side of Ampthill Hill. During the early part of the war they hollowed the centre of that wood out and they put this big building in and Bovril came from London. Bovril had been bombed I think, that was their chief depot in London. So dad took over the canteen. He had about 10 or a dozen women under him and he worked there from about 6.30 in the morning until about five or six o鈥檆lock at night.

And then in the early 1940s he volunteered for the Home Guard. My dad was always a soldier, until the day he died. There was no way he was going to miss the war so he put himself forward as a Home Guard, well they were LDV at the time, Local Defence Volunteers. Then he became a Home Guard, he was back in khaki again, he had got his rifle and bayonet and that was it. The best part of it was he was right down the bottom of Spring Road, Kempston. We were right next door to the Barracks and he used to cycle down Spring Road, turn right in the Elstow Road and there鈥檚 a line of fir trees and they are still there actually - and they had a bunker built there and they had a machine gun. But for the start they probably had two rifles between ten of them, something like that until things got sorted out but it all took time. When the air raid sirens went my dad would have to 鈥榮tand to鈥� at his post down Spring Road there in Elstow Road. He cycled there and then he鈥檇 do perhaps three parts of the night down Elstow Road, cycle home, quick swill, comb his hair or whatever, I don鈥檛 know if he鈥檇 have anything to eat or not, then he鈥檇 get on his bike and bike five miles to Ampthill, to the Bovril Factory. Then he left there. Then when they took over these fields opposite Chimney Corner there - that was a big armaments factory and they had got what they call a 鈥榟ostel鈥� and they鈥檇 got Irish and goodness knows what else living there in this 鈥榟ostel鈥� and my dad was running the canteen. So he was still cooking, he stayed there, it was hard for the times, he was there for several years. I think he gave up cooking for a while and I think he became a general labourer in Allen鈥檚 Engineering Works over in Queen鈥檚 Park, Bedford. And then he finished up, which I think he loved, as I say he was
always a soldier, he finished up a cook in the Sergeant鈥檚 Mess in Kempston Barracks! So his world had turned a complete circle and he had come back to where he started from 40 years ago, something like that. That鈥檚 marvellous!

I left school in December1937 and well, I was only a little fellow and mum bought one of my elder brothers 鈥� he鈥檇 got small framed bike, she bought it off him for 拢1 0s 0d for me. My first long trousers were a bib and brace overall and she had to turn up the bottoms about six inches. I was only about 5 foot tall, I鈥檝e always been a little fellow. I went for a job interview at W. H. Allen鈥檚 over at Queen鈥檚 Park. I鈥檇 got a pal called Evan Smith. Mr. Smith worked in W. H. Allen鈥檚, Evan went there for a job 鈥� got it! I went there for a job 鈥� did I get it? No!

So I went to Bedford Plough and Engineering which is right on Cow Bridge, it鈥檚 Ampthill Road, you turn right and go into Kempston, that鈥檚 under Cow Bridge or you turn sort of left, I鈥檓 going back years now of course. There鈥檚 the railway, here was a big gap and there was a kind of a factory, a foundry. I鈥檇 wondered into the yard and a young lady asked me what I wanted and I said, 鈥業鈥檓 looking for a job.鈥� So she said, 鈥極h,鈥� she said, 鈥榟ang on a minute鈥�. And she went through this big door and she comes out and she said, 鈥楥ome on鈥� and I went through. And sitting behind the desk is a man with grey wavy hair, glasses, collar, tie and suit 鈥楥ome on in lad, sit down.鈥� 鈥楴ow鈥� he said 鈥榳hat are you doing here on a day like this a little boy like you?鈥� So I said, 鈥業鈥檓 looking for a job sir.鈥� He said, 鈥極h, are you?鈥� So I said, 鈥榊es, Sir.鈥� 鈥楢ah, so when are you leaving school then?鈥� I said, 鈥楥hristmas.鈥� He said, 鈥楢ah, I think we might fit you in somewhere lad.鈥� 鈥楢udrey鈥� he said 鈥榖ring this lad a cup of tea and some biscuits.鈥� I never forget these things, so she came in with a cup of tea and some biscuits. His name was Mr. Shorten. He was a Scotsman and one of the best blokes I ever met at the start of my life. So anyway I had my cup of tea and two or three biscuits and it was lovely and I鈥檇 got a job! After Christmas, January 2nd or 3rd (1938) or whatever, I could start work there as a 鈥榗ore boy鈥� and that is what I did.

They made plough shares, they made parts for ploughs. This was 1938 because I helped the carpenter to build an air raid shelter for the men. They dug out all the ground out of the front there -I look at it now and think of it too. I went in the foundry. You won鈥檛 know what I鈥檓 talking about but I was a 鈥榗ore boy鈥�. I used to make little sand things and I can鈥檛 recall the name but they were fitted into things and they were clamped on top. And they would get like a pot with a handle of molten steel and tipped it through this hole and it would go down and make a plough share. But in the middle of this share there鈥檇 got to be a bolt hole to fit it to the plough. I made little cores and that would be in there and the molten steel would run all round it - through the cap on top and they鈥檇 leave it for while, while the steel had set. Perhaps 20 minutes or half an hour and when they took the top off because it was all made with sand and stuff, there would be a nice plough share with all little bits and that sticking up and they had to grind them off, that was called 鈥榝ettling鈥�. Have you ever heard of a 鈥榝ettler鈥�? Well a 鈥榝ettler鈥� was a grinder, he would grind the little steel bit that stuck up, the rough bits and my core would be in the middle there and that would make the bolt hole. I was only there for only 12 months because the fumes 鈥� they got my throat, I nearly choked one night and then I broke out in eczema. Because this stuff that we were using on making these sand cores, this sand had yellow chemical poured in it to make it go stiff and hard and I also had to get a sieve and sieve dried horse muck, it used to bind the sand together. So there was me up to my finger tips in horse muck! Anyway, that was my job. But the funny part about it was I was with this carpenter helping to make these air raid shelters out the front because war wasn鈥檛 declared, it was 1938 but it was coming. And he said to me one day - my father, his name was Hubert William Chappell and everybody called him 鈥楤ill鈥�, I don鈥檛 know why. So some people that knew my dad as 鈥楤ill鈥� used to call me 鈥楲ittle Billy鈥� they called me and I liked that 鈥� anyway I lasted there a year.

And then I really jumped out the frying pan into the fire - I went as an Errand Boy in Bedford. You weren鈥檛 about but in 1940 we had blizzards I was trudging through two foot of snow with a basket over my arm 鈥� I used to deliver papers and books and magazines. I worked for a high class Newsagent 鈥� he used to mend fountain pens. And of course all around Lansdowne Road and The Crescent, Shakespeare Road, there was no end of posh people, they had cars and gardeners and chauffeurs and all this stuff. And that鈥檚 what I was delivery so the first Christmas I was there, I was a cheeky little sod, I鈥檇 knock on the door and the woman would come and say, 鈥榊es, lad!鈥� I鈥檇 say, this is how I did it, I鈥檇 said 鈥楳r. Pipler鈥檚 book boy鈥� and she would say, 鈥業鈥檝e already given to the newspaper girl!鈥� 鈥楢h, yes madam, but I鈥檓 the boy, the delivery boy, I鈥檓 not the newspaper 鈥� 鈥極h, hang on a minute, I鈥檒l see what I can find.鈥� Perhaps if I was lucky I got six pence, maybe I might get threepence, but I asked for it! I used to do deliveries to all these posh houses you know, as I say they were posh. Of course no end of them up Lansdowne Road now, I think, are old people鈥檚 dwellings because they are massive houses. But nobody can tell me Jenny and they still can鈥檛 convince me to this day when you see it on television you see a twenty bedroomed house and there鈥檚 a man and a woman and two children, what鈥檚 this twenty bedrooms about and six bathrooms? And then there were people slogging away in the mill, down the mine for what - 拢3 0s 0d a week? Living like slaves. It鈥檚 a funny old world, that鈥檚 how I thought.

I started work at half past six in the mornings to get the papers, there used to be a wholesale paper merchant right next door to the Roman Catholic Church in Midland Road. I used to come down from Bromham Road with a great big truck, pulling it riding my bike, steel rims, rattle rattle 鈥� half past six in the morning! W used to get all the papers and that was the first time I ever saw girls being paper girls, because generally it鈥檚 paper boys and it was good. They鈥檇 got a set back doorway at Pipler鈥檚, it鈥檚 an estate agents now I think, it鈥檚 almost opposite Holy Trinity Church that was or The Crescent. Right next door to The Crescent was St.Barnardo鈥檚 Children鈥檚 Home, I don鈥檛 know if that鈥檚 still there or not, anyway this is the 1940s and all the papers that I was handling, all the war, all history, years, well months of history. Mr. Pipler, he was senior, Harold and he wouldn鈥檛 perhaps come until 8 o鈥檆lock and I鈥檇 been there since seven - so I鈥檓 selling papers. 鈥極h, I say old boy could I have an Express?鈥� 鈥業 say old boy have you got a The Times there?鈥� 鈥楾hat鈥檒l be threepence,鈥� you know. Sometimes I used to think, if you鈥檒l excuse the language, I used to think bugger you mate and I put threepence in my own pocket and buy threepenn鈥檛h of sweets from the shop down the street. But I was honest mainly. But that鈥檚 how I felt.

Another thing, this blizzard we had in 1940 I was trudging around those streets, I walked miles, I was wet through, I鈥檓 cold and I was going into this outhouse out there back of Pipler鈥檚 shop and there was Basil, the younger brother and his pal. They wrapping newspapers up and doing various tasks, they had got the gas fires on, drinking cups of Bovril they were 鈥� did they ever say, 鈥業vor would you like a drop of Oxo or Bovril?鈥� No. But I鈥檓 a tough little sod and I did it. So I carried on there and then one day, the thing that altered my whole life was an advert in the old Beds Times and it said, 鈥楤rickyard Labourers Wanted鈥� at Kempston Hardwick, Eastwood鈥檚 Flettons - 拢2 15s 0d a week. I was getting 15/- a week, 15/- for what would that be? Half past six, I would go home oh, about quarter to nine, this was cycling from Bromham Road over the bridges and back to Kempston Barracks and I鈥檇 have a quick breakfast there with mum, perhaps half an hour then I鈥檇 cycle like mad to get back to Pipler鈥檚. Then I鈥檇 work until one, an hours dinner 鈥榯il two and then finish at five, so how many hours is that - what, about nine hours. And I was doing that for six days a week for 15/-. And then I went to the Brickyard over here and it was very hard work 鈥� filthy, dirty, brick dust, coal dust you name it. I was working there and I was mixing with men like that and it was all hard work, hard graft and so forth.鈥�

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