大象传媒

In remembrance of W.O. John E. East, 820 Squadron Fleet Air Arm, Royal Navy. John, born 1900, volunteered as a Boy Sailor in 1916, served through two World Wars and retired with the rank of Warrant Officer circa 1950. John died in 1969 but recently the following story, in manuscript, of a casual encounter during blackout in Portsmouth 1940, was found among his papers, together with many similar others. John obviously thought the encounter worthy of recording. For posterity it is reproduced in the following.

I was in the Suffolk Bar in Portsmouth in the early months of the last war. My ship was an aircraft carrier (Ark Royal) called in from sea to get de-gausing gear fitted at the height of the magnetic mine scare. The blackout was rigid and illumination in the pub was just the bare necessary. An elderly couple came in and took seats at my table. We exchanged greetings, which developed into conversation. After a while the old chap said he was the only native of Portsmouth that was a Freeman of the City. If I鈥檇 like to check, he said his name, and that it was enshrined on the wall of the Town Hall. Of course I asked what he had done to get this honour, and he told me. I recount.

When he was a boy in his teens, his job was Points Shifter for the old trams that ran to the terminus at Charlotte Street from city centre. He, using a long iron bar, would shift the points on the rails for the change over of the trams to the city centre on the return trip. One evening he was on duty, it was still daylight, he saw two toughs having an altercation with a single policeman, they usually went in pairs. The affair was getting serious, and the Policeman was moving in to close with the tough in front of him, when the other came up behind and threw a scarf or something around the policeman鈥檚 neck and was tightening it, so much so that the Policeman was overbalancing and would have fallen backwards on his head. To quote the old man, 鈥淚 clearly saw death in that Policeman鈥檚 face.鈥� The lad realised he鈥檇 have to do something. He ran over to the tough who had the stranglehold on the Policeman, raised his iron rail shifter and brought it down on the head of the aggressor, who was felled to the ground and released his tension, the other aggressor ran off. The Policeman quickly recovered and hand-cuffed his opponent. When the facts of the incident came to the notice of the authorities, the young lad was feted and given the Freedom of Portsmouth.

I cannot recall the name confidently, but incline to Burroughs, no opportunity arose since to verify. I thought it a grand story worth recording.

W.O. John E. East.
R.N. Retired. Dublin 1969.

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