Alexander was born at 231 Every Street, Nelson.
He worked in a garage in Haslingden.
He was a 25 yrs. old Marine Engineer (Cammel Lairds), living at 7 Wilton Street, Wallasey, when he married Violet Muriel Martin.
In 1943, he was living at 148 Norwood Road, Wallasey when Raymond was born.
In 1949 Alexander, Violet and Raymond moved to live with Silvester at Barons Cottage, Edgworth, Nr. Bolton.
In 1951 he, Violet and Raymond moved to 18 Old Barn Place, Bromley Cross, Nr. Bolton.
In 1955 he, Violet, Raymond and Richard moved to Turton Conservative Club.
In 1959 he and all his family moved to 16 Trent Street, Lytham.
Violet was born at 12 Banks Lane, Hensingham
It is believed that Violet lived at 18 Bedford Street, Hensingham as a child.
Violet suffered from Altzeimers Decease for many years but first became really ill when she had a stroke (20th Sep 2004) and wandered, luckily ending up next door. She stayed at Ray and Pats for 3 days but it was evident that something was drastically wrong as she wasn't eating or drinking properly. She was eventually moved into Blackpool Victoria Hospital (8th Nov 2004), then transferring to Lytham Hospital (19 Nov 2004). 8 weeks later (11th Jan 2005), she moved into Rosewood Lodge Care Home until her condition worsened and had to move to Fairhaven Lodge Care Home (9th Jan 2006).
Violet died in Blackpool Victoria Hospital following an operation after breaking her femur.
1943 - 1949: Lived at 148 Norwood Road, Wallasey.
1949 - 1951: Lived at Barons Cottage, Edgworth, Nr. Bolton.
1951 - 1955?: Lived at 18 Old Barn Place, Bromley Cross, Nr. Bolton.
1955? - 1959: Lived at Turton Conservative Club, Wellington Road, Turton, Nr. Bolton.
1959 - 1964: lived at 16 Trent Street, Lytham.
1964 - 1965: Lived at 60 Woodlands Road, Ansdel, Lytham St. Annes
1965 -1967: Lived at ? Victoria Street, Lytham
1967 - 1969: Lived at 14 Wellington St, Lytham
1969 - 1990: Lived in St. Annes, Lytham St. Annes
1991 - 1998: - Lived at Wimmer Str, Munich, Germany
1998 - present: Live in St. Annes, Lytham St. Annes
1942 - 1961: Lived at 270 Blackburn Road, Edgworth, Nr. Bolton
1961 - 1964: Lived at 272 Blackburn Road, Edgworth, Nr. Bolton
1964 - 1965: Lived at 60 Woodlands Road, Ansdel, Lytham St. Annes
1965 -1967: Lived at ? Victoria Street, Lytham
1967 - 1969: Lived at 14 Wellington St, Lytham
1969 - 1990: Lived in St. Annes, Lytham St. Annes
1991 - 1998: - Lived at Wimmer Str, Munich, Germany
1998 - present: Live in St. Annes, Lytham St. Annes
Lived at 18 Old Barn Place, Bromley Cross, Near Bolton, from birth till family moved to Turton Conservative Club, Turton approx. 1955.
Born at 48 Appleton Road, Widnes.
1939: Moved to Wallasey with his mother, first living in rooms, then 7 Wilton Street.
March 1972: Emigrated to Adelaide, Australia
WAR TIME CHILDHOOD MEMORIES RELIVED.
By Graham Duerden, Greenhill, South Australia.
Since 1982, I have lived on Yarrabee Road, Greenhill, in the Adelaide hills, a suburb of approximately 165 homes. During the summer months (December to February) Greenhill and surrounding areas are prone to bush fires. We have our own small Fire Station on Yarrabee Road, garaging two Fire units manned by residents who are extremely well trained volunteers in the South Australian Country Fire Service. In addition we have the Metropolitan Fire Service based at Fire Stations about 15 minutes away, whose members are salaried regular Firemen and Firewomen
The first Greenhill community practical Fire Fighting Training I attended was in 2002, using the community fire fighting equipment recently purchased by donations from the community and Government grants. The training was given by officers of the C.F.S. to residents who wished to participate. That evenings training and the days which followed brought back memories of being a volunteer in the Auxiliary Fire Service (A.F.S.) in England during W.W.2.
The year 1939 was an eventful one for me. In May I left Haslingden Council School, Lancashire, at the age of 14. We moved about 50 miles South to live at Wallasey, Cheshire. Adjoining was Birkenhead and both Boroughs were opposite the city and port of Liverpool and separated by the wide River Mersey. The three areas came under the general heading of Merseyside.
Also that year (1939) my parents decided I commence an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering with the Abacas Engineering Company in Birkenhead. They made electric hoists and overhead travelling cranes. I would have liked to have been an apprentice Carpenter or Sign writer but my parents decided otherwise. Vividly I remember 11-00 am. on Sunday, 3rd. September, when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced on the radio that Great Britain was at war with Germany.
I had a very happy childhood in Haslingden, a cotton mill town. My father had retired in 1931 after being a Police Inspector in the Lancashire Constabulary. One of his interests was rough shooting and training Irish setter dogs to the gun. They were trained to hunt and retrieve game. Consequently he taught my elder brother and I these skills which in my case continued for 37 years until I emigrated to Australia in 1972.
Childlike I sought adventure, and because of my knowledge and handling of firearms, I volunteered in December, 1939 to join the Local Defence Force (L.D.V.) later renamed the Home Guard. Without any hesitation I was accepted and issued with a steel helmet and Khaki armband with the letters L.D.V. printed boldly in black thereon. At this tender age, that was all I received to defend my beloved country!! During the months that followed there wasn’t enough excitement for a growing boy. No point 303 rifle to fire, no enemies to shoot, so I resigned and returned my ‘deadly’ equipment to the Storekeeper.
I then had a brainwave. I thought how exciting it would be to ride on a red Fire engine, go to fires and rescue beautiful maidens in distress, so in 1940, I joined the Messenger Service of the Auxiliary Fire Service (A.F.S.). A condition was that you had to own a bike and be willing to use it. How generous this mob was!! I was issued with a smart blue uniform, rubber boots, steel helmet and a military service gas- mask in a canvas haversack. Far superior to the inferior gas-mask in a small plain cardboard box issued to civilians!! I felt ‘on top’ of the world’!!
After attending lectures, I was posted to the Central Fire Station about 3 minutes walk from my home, number 7 Wilton Street. There I joined 5 other Messengers. Based at the Fire Station were three or four Fire engines, 3 trailer Fire pumps each towed by a van which carried the crew also 2 Ambulances. Regular Firemen manned the Fire engines and Ambulances and the auxiliary Firemen the other appliances. In those days none of the vehicles had two-way radios.
The first German bombing of Merseyside was in the summer of July, 1940 and continued through to the winter of January 1942. It was a quiet period between September, 1939 and June, 1940. At the Fire Station I learnt to play billiards and snooker and when nobody was looking, slid down the Fireman’s pole for a thrill!! Also during this period, numerous alerts that bombing may occur were received by the Fire authorities from the Air Ministry. On receipt of such information, a regular Fireman would visit my home during the late evening or early hours of the morning. He would wake me from my slumbers and hand me a list of about 5 names and addresses of Auxiliary Firemen. The same applied to the other Messengers. I would then cycle through the pitch black darkness known as the “Blackout’ to inform the volunteers to report for duty.
On arrival at the Fire Station most personnel took shelter in the reinforced cellar in anticipation of a bombing attack. Others out of curiosity, stood at the open doors of the Engine house to watch if anything was happening. When nothing occurred, clearance came through to disperse. We then returned to our homes to catch as many hours sleep as we could before leaving for work.
I clearly remember being in the cellar when we heard for the very first time anti-aircraft gunfire and bombing. This occurred on the night of the 10th. August, 1940. Unexpectedly I saw fear on the faces of the men. Shortly after, we were dispatched to fires caused by incendiary and high explosive bombs. The Blackout was turned into daylight with buildings and street gas mains on fire, flashes from static and mobile anti-aircraft guns and searchlights probing the sky for enemy bombers. The descending bombs and pieces of shrapnel from spent anti-aircraft shells made distinctive noises. All the different sounds heard during a raid were frightening the first number of times, but we got used to it and went about our tasks.
My duty as a Messenger was to put my bike on the allotted Fire appliance and go out with the crew to a particular fire. At the scene I conveyed messages between the Officer-in-Charge and fire fighters and generally assisted best I could. Occasionally I would cycle back to the Fire Station with a message and then return to the fire scene.
Some of the incidents I recall are:
1. My first Wartime death. A Night Watchman in a large Departmental store burnt to death during a night time Air Raid. In the process of extinguishing the fire, we found his charred body.
2. During an Air Raid at night time, the drowning of a Fireman at a dock fire. He had slipped from the wharf without anybody noticing.
3. The death of an apprentice workmate during the day time, who crashed his motorcycle hurrying home after hearing the Air Raid siren sound. On the return of the ambulance to the Fire Station, I saw a Fireman hosing blood off a canvas stretcher. When I heard of my mates death the next day, I realised it was my mates blood. I was a pall bearer at his funeral.
4. The deaths of some of my other workmates. (1) Hamish, R.A.F. Navigator. (2) Diaz, R.A.F. Air Gunner. (3) Dennis, Airborne Glider Pilot. (4) Harry, a former A.F.S. Messenger, who had left to join the Merchant Navy, torpedoed.
5. During day light after a raid, acting as a Guide to a driver from another Brigade, taking a mobile canvas dam filled with water to where the Bomb Disposal Squad were defusing an unexploded bomb. The water was needed for their boiler in order to pump steam inside the bomb. The bomb had penetrated the nice green lawn rear of a posh dwelling house. Being a kid I was too timid to ask if the bomb could explode whilst we were there. Unlike children of today (2007) who are not backward in coming forward!!
6. During darkness before a raid, acting as a Guide to a driver from another Brigade, taking an empty mobile dam to Seacombe ferry to fill with water from the River Mersey, prior to an Air Raid. Whilst he was busy outside the vehicle, I fell asleep in the cab due to fatigue. Suddenly I was awaken by an explosion which violently shook the floating landing stage and vehicle. On looking across the River Mersey towards Liverpool landing stage, I saw a searchlight directed on a ship with its stern high out of the water at about 30 degrees. It was sinking amidst a pall of grey and black smoke. Minutes later the Air Raid sirens sounded followed by the throb of German bombers overhead. The searchlight beam directed at the ship was extinguished and the anti-aircraft guns started firing as searchlight beams probed the sky.
About 5 years later I was a British Constable in the Palestine Police. One evening I went to a cinema in Jaffa and saw on the Pathe Gazette news, the same ship being blown up because it was regarded as a danger to shipping. What a coincidence!
7. During daylight after a raid, going with a number of other Messengers to the beach at Harrison Drive to collect Incendiary bombs. We put these into sandbags that we had emptied on route to the scene. Later I will explain the reason.
8. During darkness after a raid, going with another Messenger to New Brighton cricket ground, Rake Lane, where we knew a German parachute mine had detonated. We found pieces of the beautiful green silk canopy and ropes still smouldering. Some undamaged pieces we retained.
9. During darkness after a raid, going with a Messenger to where a parachute mine had exploded in Lancaster Avenue amongst rows of terraced houses and a public Air Raid shelter. We assisted Rescue Squads until leaving to go to work. Four days later a baby girl was discovered alive underneath the debris. Nearby were her deceased parents. She made news again when she celebrated her 21st. birthday
10. In darkness during a raid, an escape from death whilst cycling with a message from a fire scene back to the Fire Station. I heard a bomb whistling down, threw myself sideways onto the road, and covered my head with my hands and arms. The bomb exploded about 50 metres in front of me showering debris all around without striking me.
11. During daylight after a raid, returning home to find a number of windows blown out and the curtains flapping in the breeze.
12. During darkness after a raid, going to Seacombe Ferry. Looking across the River Mersey to Liverpool, I saw the docks were ablaze from West to East, a distance of 8 miles.
13. After finishing work at 5-30pm. and walking along Monk Road towards my home in daylight, I saw a small hole in the middle of the road which was roped off presumably by Council workers. Examining the hole, I thought ‘Is there an unexploded bomb down there’ followed by ‘There can’t be otherwise the Bomb Disposal Squad would be in attendance’. Some hours later, a small calibre bomb inside the hole exploded causing slight damage to surrounding homes.
14. Being told by my elder brother, also in the Auxiliary Fire Service but stationed at Vernon’s Fire Station on the Dock Road, that his Driver/Engineer had been killed by a bomb blast and that he had to take control of the van and fire pump trailer. He continued in the capacity of Driver/Engineer until the end of the War.
15. Other memories are, the glare and heat of fires. Buildings blown away or damaged. Areas of desolation, rubble, dirt, dust and smell. The various noises during a raid. Bomb craters in the roads. Water mains damaged and flooding the roads. Unusable public telephones due to bomb damage. Street gas mains on fire. Dangling telephone wires and tangled and twisted fire hoses. Fatigue through lack of sleep. Sometimes throwing myself flat on the ground on hearing a descending bomb. After an Air Raid seeing dirty, smelly and worn out colleagues. Relief when the All Clear sounded and colleagues and myself found ourselves unharmed. Expectations that bombing would occur again.
On the lighter side, we Messengers started a small lucrative business. We made extra spending money from collecting and selling souvenirs to the Firemen from Brigades outside Wallasey, who had come to give temporary relief to our fire fighters. Items such as jagged pieces of shrapnel and nose caps from anti-aircraft shells, pieces of parachute and guide ropes from parachute mines, metal tail fins from incendiary bombs and even unexploded incendiary bombs!! We charged between 2 pence and 6 pence for each item!
Some V.I.P. in relation to the Messenger Service stated that the Messengers showed a high standard of courage and devotion to duty and that despite young in years they did the work of grown men without thought of danger and with amazing cheerfulness. I appreciated that!
In 1943 when I attained the age of 18, I automatically was appointed a Junior Fireman. I was sent on a weeks Training Course to a mansion house near Kendal in the English Lakes District. The house minus its expensive furnishings had been taken over as the Headquarters of the Fire Authority. The training was long, hard and strict but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I then served at the Rullerton Road Sub Fire Station until 1945.
By 1945 I had climbed the ladder (pun intended) to become an apprentice Detailer Draughtsman. Six years earlier (1939) I had started my working life in the Drawing Office making blue and brown prints from the Draughtsmen’s drawings. Spent time in the Stores, the Structural Section and then erecting cranes plus attending Night School twice a week. After attending Night School, I was sometimes caught in an Air Raid whilst travelling home on the bus. The bus driver stopped and all passengers alighted to enter the nearest public Air Raid shelter until the All Clear sounded. We then boarded the bus again to finish our journey home.
However in the early part of 1945 at the age of 20, I was dissatisfied with my occupation. I repeat, that on leaving school I had wanted to be a Carpenter or Sign writer but my parents decided otherwise. When I saw an advertisement wanting recruits for the Palestine Police, I applied, was accepted and sailed on a Troopship in convoy to Egypt. At the end of my Contract, I returned to England in a similar manner.
In October, 1946, I joined the Lancashire Constabulary. After training I spent 3 years on the beat and in 1950 was appointed a Detective Constable. I continued in the Criminal Investigation Department for 22 years. I retired in March, 1972 with the rank of Detective Senior Sergeant. At the time I was stationed at Divisional Headquarters, Stretford, Manchester. The same month I emigrated to South Australia with my wife and 2 sons.
My employment in South Australia. 1972/8 Chief Security Officer, General Motors Holdens, Elizabeth. 1978/83 Investigations Officer, Motor Registration Department, Adelaide. 1983/90 Chief Investigations Officer, Correctional Services, Adelaide. I was responsible for setting up the first Investigations Unit in the Prison Service. I finally retired in February, 1990.
Written, May, 2007.
Born at 48 Appleton Road, Widnes.
1939: Moved to Wallasey with his mother, first living in rooms, then 7 Wilton Street.
March 1972: Emigrated to Adelaide, Australia
WAR TIME CHILDHOOD MEMORIES RELIVED.
By Graham Duerden, Greenhill, South Australia.
Since 1982, I have lived on Yarrabee Road, Greenhill, in the Adelaide hills, a suburb of approximately 165 homes. During the summer months (December to February) Greenhill and surrounding areas are prone to bush fires. We have our own small Fire Station on Yarrabee Road, garaging two Fire units manned by residents who are extremely well trained volunteers in the South Australian Country Fire Service. In addition we have the Metropolitan Fire Service based at Fire Stations about 15 minutes away, whose members are salaried regular Firemen and Firewomen
The first Greenhill community practical Fire Fighting Training I attended was in 2002, using the community fire fighting equipment recently purchased by donations from the community and Government grants. The training was given by officers of the C.F.S. to residents who wished to participate. That evenings training and the days which followed brought back memories of being a volunteer in the Auxiliary Fire Service (A.F.S.) in England during W.W.2.
The year 1939 was an eventful one for me. In May I left Haslingden Council School, Lancashire, at the age of 14. We moved about 50 miles South to live at Wallasey, Cheshire. Adjoining was Birkenhead and both Boroughs were opposite the city and port of Liverpool and separated by the wide River Mersey. The three areas came under the general heading of Merseyside.
Also that year (1939) my parents decided I commence an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering with the Abacas Engineering Company in Birkenhead. They made electric hoists and overhead travelling cranes. I would have liked to have been an apprentice Carpenter or Sign writer but my parents decided otherwise. Vividly I remember 11-00 am. on Sunday, 3rd. September, when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced on the radio that Great Britain was at war with Germany.
I had a very happy childhood in Haslingden, a cotton mill town. My father had retired in 1931 after being a Police Inspector in the Lancashire Constabulary. One of his interests was rough shooting and training Irish setter dogs to the gun. They were trained to hunt and retrieve game. Consequently he taught my elder brother and I these skills which in my case continued for 37 years until I emigrated to Australia in 1972.
Childlike I sought adventure, and because of my knowledge and handling of firearms, I volunteered in December, 1939 to join the Local Defence Force (L.D.V.) later renamed the Home Guard. Without any hesitation I was accepted and issued with a steel helmet and Khaki armband with the letters L.D.V. printed boldly in black thereon. At this tender age, that was all I received to defend my beloved country!! During the months that followed there wasn’t enough excitement for a growing boy. No point 303 rifle to fire, no enemies to shoot, so I resigned and returned my ‘deadly’ equipment to the Storekeeper.
I then had a brainwave. I thought how exciting it would be to ride on a red Fire engine, go to fires and rescue beautiful maidens in distress, so in 1940, I joined the Messenger Service of the Auxiliary Fire Service (A.F.S.). A condition was that you had to own a bike and be willing to use it. How generous this mob was!! I was issued with a smart blue uniform, rubber boots, steel helmet and a military service gas- mask in a canvas haversack. Far superior to the inferior gas-mask in a small plain cardboard box issued to civilians!! I felt ‘on top’ of the world’!!
After attending lectures, I was posted to the Central Fire Station about 3 minutes walk from my home, number 7 Wilton Street. There I joined 5 other Messengers. Based at the Fire Station were three or four Fire engines, 3 trailer Fire pumps each towed by a van which carried the crew also 2 Ambulances. Regular Firemen manned the Fire engines and Ambulances and the auxiliary Firemen the other appliances. In those days none of the vehicles had two-way radios.
The first German bombing of Merseyside was in the summer of July, 1940 and continued through to the winter of January 1942. It was a quiet period between September, 1939 and June, 1940. At the Fire Station I learnt to play billiards and snooker and when nobody was looking, slid down the Fireman’s pole for a thrill!! Also during this period, numerous alerts that bombing may occur were received by the Fire authorities from the Air Ministry. On receipt of such information, a regular Fireman would visit my home during the late evening or early hours of the morning. He would wake me from my slumbers and hand me a list of about 5 names and addresses of Auxiliary Firemen. The same applied to the other Messengers. I would then cycle through the pitch black darkness known as the “Blackout’ to inform the volunteers to report for duty.
On arrival at the Fire Station most personnel took shelter in the reinforced cellar in anticipation of a bombing attack. Others out of curiosity, stood at the open doors of the Engine house to watch if anything was happening. When nothing occurred, clearance came through to disperse. We then returned to our homes to catch as many hours sleep as we could before leaving for work.
I clearly remember being in the cellar when we heard for the very first time anti-aircraft gunfire and bombing. This occurred on the night of the 10th. August, 1940. Unexpectedly I saw fear on the faces of the men. Shortly after, we were dispatched to fires caused by incendiary and high explosive bombs. The Blackout was turned into daylight with buildings and street gas mains on fire, flashes from static and mobile anti-aircraft guns and searchlights probing the sky for enemy bombers. The descending bombs and pieces of shrapnel from spent anti-aircraft shells made distinctive noises. All the different sounds heard during a raid were frightening the first number of times, but we got used to it and went about our tasks.
My duty as a Messenger was to put my bike on the allotted Fire appliance and go out with the crew to a particular fire. At the scene I conveyed messages between the Officer-in-Charge and fire fighters and generally assisted best I could. Occasionally I would cycle back to the Fire Station with a message and then return to the fire scene.
Some of the incidents I recall are:
1. My first Wartime death. A Night Watchman in a large Departmental store burnt to death during a night time Air Raid. In the process of extinguishing the fire, we found his charred body.
2. During an Air Raid at night time, the drowning of a Fireman at a dock fire. He had slipped from the wharf without anybody noticing.
3. The death of an apprentice workmate during the day time, who crashed his motorcycle hurrying home after hearing the Air Raid siren sound. On the return of the ambulance to the Fire Station, I saw a Fireman hosing blood off a canvas stretcher. When I heard of my mates death the next day, I realised it was my mates blood. I was a pall bearer at his funeral.
4. The deaths of some of my other workmates. (1) Hamish, R.A.F. Navigator. (2) Diaz, R.A.F. Air Gunner. (3) Dennis, Airborne Glider Pilot. (4) Harry, a former A.F.S. Messenger, who had left to join the Merchant Navy, torpedoed.
5. During day light after a raid, acting as a Guide to a driver from another Brigade, taking a mobile canvas dam filled with water to where the Bomb Disposal Squad were defusing an unexploded bomb. The water was needed for their boiler in order to pump steam inside the bomb. The bomb had penetrated the nice green lawn rear of a posh dwelling house. Being a kid I was too timid to ask if the bomb could explode whilst we were there. Unlike children of today (2007) who are not backward in coming forward!!
6. During darkness before a raid, acting as a Guide to a driver from another Brigade, taking an empty mobile dam to Seacombe ferry to fill with water from the River Mersey, prior to an Air Raid. Whilst he was busy outside the vehicle, I fell asleep in the cab due to fatigue. Suddenly I was awaken by an explosion which violently shook the floating landing stage and vehicle. On looking across the River Mersey towards Liverpool landing stage, I saw a searchlight directed on a ship with its stern high out of the water at about 30 degrees. It was sinking amidst a pall of grey and black smoke. Minutes later the Air Raid sirens sounded followed by the throb of German bombers overhead. The searchlight beam directed at the ship was extinguished and the anti-aircraft guns started firing as searchlight beams probed the sky.
About 5 years later I was a British Constable in the Palestine Police. One evening I went to a cinema in Jaffa and saw on the Pathe Gazette news, the same ship being blown up because it was regarded as a danger to shipping. What a coincidence!
7. During daylight after a raid, going with a number of other Messengers to the beach at Harrison Drive to collect Incendiary bombs. We put these into sandbags that we had emptied on route to the scene. Later I will explain the reason.
8. During darkness after a raid, going with another Messenger to New Brighton cricket ground, Rake Lane, where we knew a German parachute mine had detonated. We found pieces of the beautiful green silk canopy and ropes still smouldering. Some undamaged pieces we retained.
9. During darkness after a raid, going with a Messenger to where a parachute mine had exploded in Lancaster Avenue amongst rows of terraced houses and a public Air Raid shelter. We assisted Rescue Squads until leaving to go to work. Four days later a baby girl was discovered alive underneath the debris. Nearby were her deceased parents. She made news again when she celebrated her 21st. birthday
10. In darkness during a raid, an escape from death whilst cycling with a message from a fire scene back to the Fire Station. I heard a bomb whistling down, threw myself sideways onto the road, and covered my head with my hands and arms. The bomb exploded about 50 metres in front of me showering debris all around without striking me.
11. During daylight after a raid, returning home to find a number of windows blown out and the curtains flapping in the breeze.
12. During darkness after a raid, going to Seacombe Ferry. Looking across the River Mersey to Liverpool, I saw the docks were ablaze from West to East, a distance of 8 miles.
13. After finishing work at 5-30pm. and walking along Monk Road towards my home in daylight, I saw a small hole in the middle of the road which was roped off presumably by Council workers. Examining the hole, I thought ‘Is there an unexploded bomb down there’ followed by ‘There can’t be otherwise the Bomb Disposal Squad would be in attendance’. Some hours later, a small calibre bomb inside the hole exploded causing slight damage to surrounding homes.
14. Being told by my elder brother, also in the Auxiliary Fire Service but stationed at Vernon’s Fire Station on the Dock Road, that his Driver/Engineer had been killed by a bomb blast and that he had to take control of the van and fire pump trailer. He continued in the capacity of Driver/Engineer until the end of the War.
15. Other memories are, the glare and heat of fires. Buildings blown away or damaged. Areas of desolation, rubble, dirt, dust and smell. The various noises during a raid. Bomb craters in the roads. Water mains damaged and flooding the roads. Unusable public telephones due to bomb damage. Street gas mains on fire. Dangling telephone wires and tangled and twisted fire hoses. Fatigue through lack of sleep. Sometimes throwing myself flat on the ground on hearing a descending bomb. After an Air Raid seeing dirty, smelly and worn out colleagues. Relief when the All Clear sounded and colleagues and myself found ourselves unharmed. Expectations that bombing would occur again.
On the lighter side, we Messengers started a small lucrative business. We made extra spending money from collecting and selling souvenirs to the Firemen from Brigades outside Wallasey, who had come to give temporary relief to our fire fighters. Items such as jagged pieces of shrapnel and nose caps from anti-aircraft shells, pieces of parachute and guide ropes from parachute mines, metal tail fins from incendiary bombs and even unexploded incendiary bombs!! We charged between 2 pence and 6 pence for each item!
Some V.I.P. in relation to the Messenger Service stated that the Messengers showed a high standard of courage and devotion to duty and that despite young in years they did the work of grown men without thought of danger and with amazing cheerfulness. I appreciated that!
In 1943 when I attained the age of 18, I automatically was appointed a Junior Fireman. I was sent on a weeks Training Course to a mansion house near Kendal in the English Lakes District. The house minus its expensive furnishings had been taken over as the Headquarters of the Fire Authority. The training was long, hard and strict but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I then served at the Rullerton Road Sub Fire Station until 1945.
By 1945 I had climbed the ladder (pun intended) to become an apprentice Detailer Draughtsman. Six years earlier (1939) I had started my working life in the Drawing Office making blue and brown prints from the Draughtsmen’s drawings. Spent time in the Stores, the Structural Section and then erecting cranes plus attending Night School twice a week. After attending Night School, I was sometimes caught in an Air Raid whilst travelling home on the bus. The bus driver stopped and all passengers alighted to enter the nearest public Air Raid shelter until the All Clear sounded. We then boarded the bus again to finish our journey home.
However in the early part of 1945 at the age of 20, I was dissatisfied with my occupation. I repeat, that on leaving school I had wanted to be a Carpenter or Sign writer but my parents decided otherwise. When I saw an advertisement wanting recruits for the Palestine Police, I applied, was accepted and sailed on a Troopship in convoy to Egypt. At the end of my Contract, I returned to England in a similar manner.
In October, 1946, I joined the Lancashire Constabulary. After training I spent 3 years on the beat and in 1950 was appointed a Detective Constable. I continued in the Criminal Investigation Department for 22 years. I retired in March, 1972 with the rank of Detective Senior Sergeant. At the time I was stationed at Divisional Headquarters, Stretford, Manchester. The same month I emigrated to South Australia with my wife and 2 sons.
My employment in South Australia. 1972/8 Chief Security Officer, General Motors Holdens, Elizabeth. 1978/83 Investigations Officer, Motor Registration Department, Adelaide. 1983/90 Chief Investigations Officer, Correctional Services, Adelaide. I was responsible for setting up the first Investigations Unit in the Prison Service. I finally retired in February, 1990.
Written, May, 2007.
Took the Duerden name when mother married Graham (Cecil).
1901 Census: was 9 yr old living in 3 Top Row, the parish of Pendleton (St. Nicholas) with his parents, Mark and Sarah, and siblings George, Jessy, Silvester, Fred, Nora and Clarry..
Was a Corporal in WW1.He lived at 3 Thorn Street, Sabden with his wife Ella.
He also spent some time at Dykes Farm, Sabden.
Year taken from 1901 Census.
Did not marry.
Emigrated to Australia.
Was a very good artist and had paintings exhibited in the National Gallery in Perth, titled "Waiting for the broth", "The prize cockeral", "Uncle Will and the new lino" to name a few.
Copies of his work that were in an auction in 2002 can be viewed by clicking on "scrapbook".
It is believed that he was killed when hit by a passing bus and then another vehicle.
2004: A gardener.