大象传媒

THE LIFE MEMOIRS OF CLARENCE PALMER
AS TOLD BY JOAN PALMER, HIS WIFE

The story is about Joan鈥檚 husband, Mr Clarence Palmer, an artist, who passed away in 1979 at the age of seventy- four. He had a very heroic life and met a lot of famous people. He was not a very big man 5ft 7 inches. At the start of the war he wanted to go in the navy, whilst waiting he joined the AFS as a messenger on a motor bike, but never got round to do it, the very next day the blitz started so Clarence was on call for the fire fighters the Auxiliary Fire Service, where he got badly burnt on a call out in Gardeners Corner in the East End of London. Fighting a fire and the building fell down on Mr Clarence Palmer and his whole crew, were buried in a bomb crater for thirty minutes. He did not loose consciousness and called out until he was heard and rescue workers came, some were dead others injured. Clarence was sent to London hospital where he was in there for six months, there he met King George and the queens mum.

This is an account of Clarence鈥檚 story of what actually happened鈥︹�︹�︹��.
On December 29th 1940, the fire services of Greater London went into battle against the German Luftwaffe and Won! On December 29th 1940, Reichsmarshall Goering tried to make good his threat to burn England into submission鈥nd lost. For December 29th 1940, was the date of the great fire-blitz over London, the date of one of democracy鈥檚 greatest victories over the Axis tyrants. Three men at that fateful night were District officer Chief Daniel Ivall, Auxiliary Fireman Rudolf Heybrook and Auxiliary Fireman Clarence Palmer. By the time they had reached the first fires they realized it was different. There was the noise of explosive bombs and fire engines in the background. They tried to get onto the roof, it was ablaze in ten different places, the sky was raining fire but more importantly the flames over the centre of the city. It was two hours before those first fires were bought under control; they received an urgent call to go to the Square Mile heart of the City of London. Two heavy falls of bombs had started conflagrations north and south of the Guildhall, every available piece of equipment in the area was fighting them. Flames and smoke billowed skyward, marking the target for explosive bombs.

Clarence was in the poorer section of London, then at the height of the battle, a maze of old office buildings and highly inflammable warehouses. The fires there all seemed to blend into one big one. He very bravely fought his way into a building although the bombs were falling all around him, he stated, 鈥淚 always say, they hit you or they don鈥檛. Heave away.鈥� There was a sound of rumbling and the building was crashing down. For more than an hour, Clarence Palmer and eleven others were buried under the flaming wreckage until rescue crews could reach them. He was there until after midnight when the rest of us heard the sound that renewed their courage. 鈥淭he all clear screamed above the roar of the flames鈥� and we knew then that we had won. Hitler had done his worst. One hundred thousand firebombs had been dropped on London鈥�. and a thousand fires had threatened to destroy us. But our preparedness and the determination of regular and auxiliary fire services, had prevailed. For the first time in history, fireman had been in the front line of battle鈥�. and had been victorious.

Clarence, a fire fighter in London, was in hospital for 6 months, was in two hospitals for his terrible burns on his back arms and hands, which he had used to protect his face, his helmet, which was now dented, had saved his head from injuries.

When he came out of the hospital he was sent with two others by the ministry of information to America and Canada for two years to talk and show films to get them to help England who was on their own. The first blitz was in September 8 1940.

Clarence went to America in a convoy of ships with two other men but 13 of the ships were sunk due to submarines bombing them, Clarence was very lucky. He flew back in a troop carrier and met Joan鈥檚 boss who offered him a job which was how he met Joan, in 1942, an inspection worker working with fifty automatic machines, she worked twelve hours a night. When Joan met her husband he could not use his hands because he was badly burnt his little finger was permanently bent over because his tendons were gone, all his back was badly burnt too. Joan got him the fiddliest job she could find to make him use his fingers, she helped him a lot to use his fingers again. Joan got him a job assembling bomb slips for the Lancaster bombers. This helped his hands to work again to carry on with his artistic work. Joan and his close friends called him Charlie.

Clarence had came back because he was a widower, with an eleven year old daughter, whom was brought up by her two aunties. He later went on to decorate the queens throne room, he did the ceilings in gold d茅cor at Buckingham palace, worked on the famous Big Ben, No鈥檚 10 and 11 Downing Street and Clarence house, where he met the Queens mum again, and also did Windsor castle. Clarence decorated all the big embassies and worked in the homes of famous film stars Kenneth Moore, David Frost, Val Parnell and Robert Helpman the ballet dancer, Clarence was known as being a very trustworthy man. He was also the foreman, in charge of all the other painters.

Joan lived near the Colin dale station by Hendomn Airdrome, which was known as the cradle of the air force, this was were a lot of the men and women were killed during the bombings. Many women working in the factory was killed, due to them going home for lunch breaks. One happening in Joan鈥檚 life, was when a German plane got shot down, a pilot knocked on her door, when she was an RAF personnel, Joan answered it, saw who it was and closed the door in his face, petrified of how her parents might react and their well being.
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Clarence and Joan were married on the 5th August 1944 in St. Lawrence鈥檚 Church Whit church, Edgware they had their reception at the top of a tall building in a restaurant over the co-op with the sound of the buzz bombs going off. They was in a shelter with a concrete floor the night of their wedding, then they went on honey-moon. They had two sons Jeff, a musician and John, who is now an artist in Ilfracombe.

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