大象传媒

I was born in 1926, so when the war began I was 131/2 years old. I left school 3 days before my 14th birthday in March 1940.

Brother Alf was 4 years older than me and had already been called up and was in the Durham Light Infantry at Branspeth Camp, near Durham City. He came home most weekends, he was so smart, looked so well and was very proud to be in the D.L.I.

It was at that time I made up my mind that if and when I got called up I would like to be in that regiment.

Meanwhile the L.D.V. or Home-Guard had just been formed in 1940, our local vicar was made a Captain and was in charge of recruiting. I was only 141/2 years old when I asked him if I could join. He said I was big enough to handle a rifle, and to be on parade on Thursday night. About two weeks later I was given a rifle and five rounds of ammunition to take home, these I kept under my bed. I was in this D.L.I. unit of the Home Guard until it was disbanded.

On December 29th 1943 I was passed grade (1) at a medical board. I was looking forward to being called up in March 1944. Then on January 21st 1944, due to rotten luck or fate, I got a small piece of paper saying my name had been drawn by ballot to work underground in the coal mines, this work to commence on 13th of March 1944, wage 60/- or 拢30-0-0 per week. After training I was sent to work at Wooley pit near Crook, Co Durham. The working man did not have a car in those days, I had to push-bike the best part of 10 miles each way to the pit in all weathers, and on horrid shifts ie. 2.00am start.

We did not have pit head baths at Wooley and the house where I lived did not have a bath in, nor did it have tap water or electricity, so I had to wash hands, face and feet in a small dish of water. At weekends you washed the other bits behind the pantry door.

The war ended in May 1945, but Bevin Boys had to wait for Demob the same as the forces, my Demob was group 60 which meant I had to stay at the pit until October 1947. On the 18th September 1946 I had some more rotten luck, I got crushed between two sets of full tubs of coal, the result a broken pelvis, a rupture of the urethra and other bladder injuries.

I was off work for almost 1 year, I was paid for loss of earnings only, less than 200 pounds, nothing for pain and suffering under the old Compensation Act. Although I was a conscript I could not claim a war pension as my injuries were not the result of enemy action.

So the war wrecked my life in a peculiar sor of way.

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