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While I was still at school I acted as a messenger between the different Air Raid Posts in Rock Ferry. I was taking a message one evening to another Post in Rock Ferry — this was after a couple of bombs had dropped — there were no lights on my bike, and no lights anywhere else, and I rode with my head down and went straight into a bomb crater! Hence my ‘War Wound’ on my left knee.

At 15 I was an office boy, at 16 I had an apprenticeship at Cammell Laird’s Shipyard. A certain amount of Warship repairs, especially the larger ships, were carried out at Gladstone Dock in Liverpool, as there was a bigger dock there.
Each day at least 12 to 14 Wallasey Corporation buses left the Birkenhead Tunnel entrance at 7.30, to take the work force to Gladstone Dock. There was always a rush to catch the last of the buses, because if you missed them you had to make your own way across the river or lose your wages. I was usually one of the last, although I have to say I never actually missed the bus. I did that for two years before being transferred to the Drawing Office.

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