大象传媒

After my ship HMS Pylades was sunk at the D-Day landings I was appointed to join HMS Liberty at Harland and Wolff, Belfast. The ship was not completed so I was billeted ashore. There were 6 officers, three had done navigational training so the First Lieutenant didn't know who to pick for this job. He went to see a lieutenant on another ship who had been with him under training as a naval officer. This friend was Captain Harris on the Pylades who recommended me as Pilot Officer. I was minesweeping again. The war ended and we were allocated the job in the North Sea channels, sweeping our own mines laid earlier during the war. We used piano wire to confirm the distance over the seabed to the edge of the minefield and took a three point fix on the shore. We had to measure the distance on a set course. We dropped a buoy to mark the mined area. The "tail end charlie" used to fire at the released bouncing mines and sink them. I did this for some time after the war.
Then I took an Educational and Vocational Training course and was appointed EVT officer to the reserve fleet at West Hartlepool. I organised classes in woodwork, plumbing, bricklaying, etc. There was a Polish ship in so I organised and taught a class in English for the Poles. One said it was the best English course he had been on (I used the same method as in the infants' class). When I was demobbed I became a head teacher in Madeley, Staffs. Donnington was nearby and Polish men and women were billeted there. There were a lot of Polish on a housing estate nearby and I taught them English using a classroom in the school and organised it as a nightschool. This led on to other classes getting going and so I was indebted to the Polish people for the establishment of the nightschool in Madeley.

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