大象传媒

.I was a pupil at Warrington Boteler Grammar School, aged fourteen when War was declared in 1939. I remember my mother telling me that it had just been announced on the wireless and being quite excited, not appreciating the enormity of the situation, but determined to do something about it.
My decision was to protect our home and family from the Luftwaffe by digging an air raid shelter in the garden which I immediately started to do by digging up a flower bed in the rear garden to a depth of about three feet, ignoring my father鈥檚 blooms and forgetting about his wrath, the soil being built up round the edges and old pieces of wood placed over them with a small access hole. It was completely useless of course and after the first rainfall was full of water .My next decision was to do something for the war effort by enrolling as a Messenger in one of the Voluntary Services, such as the Auxiliary Fire Service or Firewatching duties but was told that I was too young.
I left School in 1940 and started employment at Warrington Central station as a junior in the Telegraph Office. One of my duties was working the Switchboard where I used to receive Air Raid Warnings from our Liverpool Headquarters of enemy air activity in the Warrington area, the messages being Air Raid Warning Yellow, then Red if Aircraft were approaching, followed by Green as an All Clear message On a Red all non essential staff had to retire to Shelter under the Arches beneath the Station.
I also joined the Home Guard, the Central Station Platoon; we went to the Drill Hall to do our training. We also took part in one or two exercises in the Town involving Regular soldiers. I think we had one rifle in the Platoon with three rounds of ammunition between us to guard the Station approaches. It got quite hairy at times when the last trains arrived back from Liverpool or Manchester carrying lots of GI鈥檚 returning to Burtonwood after a night out but I survived unscathed this particular war service in the defence of my Country.
At this time I attended St, Johns Mission, primarily it must be admitted so that I could attend the Youth Club in the Tin Mission in Beresford Street where I met girls and also took my first steps on a Dance Floor. It was at this time that I was also called upon to act as a Firewatcher in the Church. I remember one night firewatching with Cliff. Whittaker and Ernie. Millington and in the middle of the night, Ernie took it upon himself to relieve the tedium by playing on his tenor sax some of Glen Miller鈥檚 current favourites. I was called up in Royal Navy in 1943 and part of my service can be seen on the 大象传媒 WW2 website item no /A2638604.

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