Precis

I was born in 1938, and my mother seriously told me that I was the start of the war, that the reason for the war was that Hitler wanted me and he was gonna come and get me. And I hid under the table.

My father said “It’s OK son, I'll protect you, nobody will get you.” And I came out from under the table - I’d be about two years old. So I remember that.

But then life progressed of course. I didn't have a very good education - I kept being invited to go to a private school without payment, because when I was three years of age I was teaching others how to read, but we couldn’t afford the uniform.

So I went to the normal secondary school, and I left this school grateful for the school. I left the school aged 14, because my birthday’s on Christmas Day and I was released from school for the Christmas holidays and told not to come back.

So I left school at 14, and my father, my brother and my brother-in-law all worked in the mines, coal mining, just outside the city. And I decided I would go coal mining. So I went for a job and I became the youngest coal mine worker in the United Kingdom, because I was 15 and, I think, about a week. So I was very young.

The pits were very hard work and I was working in the bottom of the pits, working on tubs. And I broke my arm which was very usual – everyone was getting injured ‘cause the tubs were very fast and you couldn’t go slow, you had to work fast, so it was very dangerous.

My father took me out of this job when I injured myself, and I'm very pleased to say I became in charge of a pony. So I was a pony driver down the pit, and every morning I'd go for the pony and walk a mile and a half, or even longer, to where the coalface was, and I would take timber, on this yard-high seam, for the miners working there. And I was told, because of my age, “You must not go onto the coal face, it is only for adults!” So I spent most of my spare time working on the coal face, helping people – nobody said anything.

I was accidentally injured by an explosion – I’ve still got the marks on my back – and that caused a bit of a problem due to my age, but we got round it and I wasn't prosecuted.

You had to be 18 to work on the coalface. My birthday was on Christmas Day, so when they started work again about 4 days after Christmas, I was on the coalface. I was the youngest coalface worker in the United Kingdom - I didn’t realise of course at the time. And I began working as a trainee on the coalface – we did 6 months and then I became officially a coalface worker. I was working in a yard-high seam, taking 9 and a half yards of coal – I think it was about 12 tonnes, I’m not sure.

I did that for 3 years, but when I got to the age of 20, moving towards 21, I wanted to go into the Navy – I wanted to see the world. So I left the pit at Christmas time, and my uncle was in the Navy and he took me down and I joined the Navy. And I sailed on the Queen Elizabeth to New York six times – I was the youngest sailor on the ship.