´óÏó´«Ã½

I first came to Birmingham in January 1943 when I was about 24. The English Government had made a call to Irish workers offering them work in order to help with the war effort. In order to assist with the move across the water, free travel, food and help with accommodation was organised until we got settled. I had come over from Country Cork in Ireland on the boat to get a job and a better life. Prior to leaving Ireland we had to call in at the Fitzwilliam Hotel in Dublin for a day to attend a medical. We were put up in the hotel for free and meals were also provided.

My first job was with ICI at their factory in Halford Drive, Witton, Birmingham making radiator tubes for aeroplanes. It was a very big factory split into different departments. I worked two weeks of days and two weeks of nights. My job involved taking g brass and copper tubes from a bath of suds and feeding them into a big machine, which would punch the tubes and send them into a basket to await the next stage in the production process. I was paid around £5 a week for my work.

During the day shifts we mainly worked piece work from eight in the morning until about six o’clock in the evening. We used to have a cup of tea at about ten o’clock in the morning when some music would be played such as Glen Miller. We were always very busy. The night shifts started at about eight o’clock at night and finished at about seven o’clock in the morning. It was hard to keep awake at times and I always felt tired but managed to keep going — our hands would often get cut due to the sharp edges of the Copper and Brass tubes.

The people I worked with were nice; I remember one day not long after I started I got lost in the factory. I had been asked to go to a part of the factory to get radiator tubes but I ended up in the wrong department. Most of the people who worked there came from Walsall and Perry Barr; I lived in Kingstanding at the time.

After about twelve months at the factory near the end of the war I left ICI and went to work at a pram factory in Newtown Road.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Anastasia Travers from WM CSV Action Desk on behalf of Norah Cadden and has been added to the site with her permission. Norah Cadden fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.