大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from CSV on behalf of Carol Booker and has been added to the site with her permission. Carol fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

In 1942 my father was working the night train on the LMS, London Midlands Railway, Leeds to Carlisle run. He was in reserved occupation as a train driver. The blackout conditions at the station were very stringent on this important route and his fireman had toothache so badly that my father offered to do his maintenance for him. That very dark night he had to get down from the engine and do some sort of maintenance task on the line. The edge of the platform was painted with two white lines but they had also been painted on the edge of the bridge which he stepped over. He immediately knew what he dad done but couldn't stop himself from falling and lay 42 feet below with a smashed body, broken spine in two places and broken arms. Eventually an ambulance arrived and took him to Carlisle infirmary. I remember the total panic and chaos when policemen came to tell my mother. I would have been 7years old. She called a neighbour and I was looked after separately. My father was not expected to live and she stayed with him. Another railway worker took us in. My father was in a full body plaster in the infirmary for 6 months which was very frustrating for him. His will to live saw him through and he was known as the miracle man in the newspapers. It was difficult for me to stay there in Carlisle which was so different from my home. My father came back home to be in bed for another 6 months in the sitting room downstairs in Leeds and this was all through the bombing. He couldn't go down to the Anderson shelter at the bottom of the garden so we would stay in the sitting room with him. Our neighbours were kind enough to stay there with us on occasions. My mother would have to put a table spoon down his plaster to stop the itches. Eventually he was able with my mother's help to heave him into and up from the shelter. It was also very hard for him to sit up and every morning when we saw the dawn we took a huge sigh of relief. He eventually recovered though remained disabled and lived until he was 92, walking 6 miles every weekend.

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