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I lived with my parents in Northwood Stoke-on-Trent as a boy, and after winning a scholarship I went to Hanley High School, the local Grammar School'

I remember all the family sitting together in the front room and hearing Mr Chamberlain's announcement, that at 11'o'clock our country would be at war with Germany. We were all quiet for a few moments I think we all felt a little bit sick at the news. Mother and Father did'nt say much
just then but Mother did say ' Do you think that you will have to go into the services Tom', Father would have been 37 years old at the time. It was a question that could not be answered at the time. As it happened Father was too old to be called up for active service.

As the weeks and months went by the war did'nt seem to be much of a distraction. We began to miss some of our friends who were called up,a lot of local ladies were called to go and to work in munition factories, one knew who they were because of the explosive powders that they had to work with turned their skins yellow, some of them were sadly killed or badly injured,as the war progressed.
For months the war did'nt seem to be much of a disatraction,and to me the first disturbance came when Hanley High School ceased to operate at the building in Birch Terrace Hanley. We boys then had to go and to share with the girls at Brownhills Grammar School in Tunstall. The girls from Hanley High School had to go to Thistly Hough High School for girls, and to share the school.

As far as the boys were concerned,we had to go to school on a part time basis. One day the boys had to go to school from 8a.m until 1p.m and on the next day the boys had to go to school from 1p.m until 5p.m. Moving the School to Tunstall meant that we boys had to travel by school bus. This state of affairs continued until a new school was finish at Chell.

Although Hanley High School had been closed down because it was riddled with subsidence, it was quickly taken over by the Auxiliary Fire Service.

My Father joined up as an Air Raid Warden and was Chief Warden at an Air Raid Post in Eagle Street Hanley this Post being permanently manned by two elderly gentlmen, one of whom regaled me with stories of his life in the Army during the Boer War. Opposite to the A.R.P. post in Bucknall New Road Hanley was a very large warehouse, belonging to Lewis's, the basement had been cleared out and was turned into an air raid shelter. At our home we had an Anderson shelter a corrugatedd device with a rounded roof which was buried into the ground, it had bunk beds in it, but as it was nearly always partially filled with water it was never used, and when the Air Raid Siren sounded we stayed in the house or got under the table.

When I was 14 years old I was allowed to join the A.R.P. as a messenger boy, one qualification was that one had to own a bicycle and have reaonable knowledge of the surrounding area. The theory was that in the event of a bombing raid and all communication ceased I had to take messages to wherever necessary. I also joined the Police Auxiliary Mesenger Service, this was a full time job. There were three of us attached to Police Headquarters in Hanley, mainly doing clerical work.

My mother did wonders with food rations and the clothing coupons that we were each allocated. If she could persuade our local butcher to let her have a sheeps head she turned that into tasty brawn as an extra to the meat ration. From ttime to time she would manage to make carrot jam, and if she could get hold of a rabbit,she would make a delicious rabbit pie.

When I was 17 I visited the Recuiting Office in Bethesda Street Hanley where I volunreerd for flying duties with the Royal Air Force. Firstly though I had to visit hospital where my Father was ill and to ask him to sign some papers giving me permission to join the Air Force,this he did, and I returned to the recruiting office where I was duly enrolled as a member of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. After swearing the oath of allegance, soon afterwards I was told to report to a R.A.F centre in Bristol Road, Birmingham. Here, those of us who were there had to undergo very rigorous medical tests and aptitude tests, we were there for two days. On passing all these tests I was told to go home and await call-up and in the meantime to join the local A.T.C. Squadron, I joined 235 Squadron,based in Hanley. There I learned the Morse Code, very basic electronics, (which I had studied in Physics at school), how to recognise different cloud formations and how to recognise different aircraft, both British and German. We all learned how to march in formation and how to left wheel and to right wheel. Part of the traing was to go to Tern Hill aerodrome for some flying experience in Slingsby gliders.We were there for nearly a week, during which timed we also had some experience of flying blind in a Link Trainer (a static cockpit which moved according to the movement of the control column and rudder pedals),the Link also traced what you had actually done when trying to fly the thing,because you could not see outside, it had to all be done by instruments), when I came to see how I had progressed, the Officer pointed out that at one stage I had been flying at 500ft. below sea level.

Came the day when I received my
my 'call-up' papers in 1943, I had to report to Lords Cricket ground in London where we were issued with uniforms,and a white flash to show that we were aircrew in training. There were more tests,drill and parades in Regents Park. We also had our meals in Regents Park, not with the monkeys of course. Then came an unexpected and an unexplained blow, some of us were called to see an Officer, and we were told that we would not be going forward for aircrew training, no reason was given to any of us, we were all devastated and bitterly disappointd. However that being the scheme of things there was nothing that we could do about it. We then were sent to R.A.F. at Eastchurch and we had to remuster to another trade. I was remustered as a Radar/ Wireless Mechanic, When I enquired why, I was told that because I had been to Grammar School, it was assumed that I would be good at maths!!!. After a couple of days I was posted to St.Helens in Lancashire, and attended the Technical College there in order to study electonics. I was there for 6 months billeted with a lovely family in North Road.
At week ends I was able to hitchhike to Stoke for the weekend.On successfully completing the course I was posted to No1 Radio School Cranwell in order to undertake a more difficult course in practical and theoretical radio, and working with the radios which were used in both aircraft and in ground stations.

After passing this course I was then sent to Felixstowe for a couple of weeks working on airsea rescue boats, I enjoyed this but was then posted to Blackpool to await embarkation to some foreign parts. After a few days I was issued with tropical kit including a pith helmet which was later changed for a bush hat. Two days later loads of us were taken to Morecombe where we stayed for several more days when we then entrained for Guroch on the Clyde. We then were taken to the ship which would be our home for the next three weeks. The ship had been used for transporting meat from the Argentine, it was full of cockroaches. The ships name was the 'Highland Chieftain', a vessel of about 22,000 tons. On board were some marines who manned a large gun at the rear of the ship, and when they practised firing it, it seemed to me that the whole ship lifted out of the water.

It took us three weeks to get to Bombay, via the Mediterranian and the Suez Canal, the ship stopped in Port Tuffec (? spelling) and the ship was surrounded by men in small boats trying to sell us all kinds of junk, and small boys diving into the Canal fot coins thrown overboard by the troops.
Those of us who had volunreered to work on the journey were allowed to sleep on deck after we passed Gibralta, which was a relief after sleeping in hammocks below decks with millions of cockroaches no more than two feet above ones head. On arrival at Bombay we were transported by lorry to a camp called Worli. I was only here for two days and was then posted to a base signals depot at a place called Sion. The work there was fitting out 'Queen Marys', these were 60ft long trailers which came to us empty and our job was to install masses of radio transmitters and receivers etc. which after being fully tested were sent by rail to Madras from whence they were shipped to Burma for use on airfields as they were captured from the Japanese. I spent about a year in Bombay, making full use of my time there visiting all the places of interest in the city. My next posting was to Madras, to another R.A.F. signals and maintenance unit, still working on radios and other electical equipment. My next posting was to New Delhi Air Base but travelling each day to a satellite transmitting station, the only one at that time that was custom built. It was cruciform in design and in each wing were 12 transmitters, some ex. B.B.C. transmitters putting out one kilowatts of power into large aerial arrays on 120ft. masts which I had to climb from time to time in order to make repairs or adjustments. There were also a lot of American transmitters all of them capable of putting out one kilowatt of RF power. They were used for transmitting military intelligence to the U.K. and other parts of the world. We worked a shift system and when not on duty my friends and I went into New Delhi. We also went by train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort. I also had to visit as part of my duties, Bangalore, Calcutta, Dum Dum. I was sent on leave to Muree and Topa in the foothills,and to Kashmir. During my time in Bombay I took further exams and was promoted to A.C.1 and when in Delhi took more exams and was promoted to Leading Aircraftsman, equivalent to Lance Corporal in the Army. When the Japanese war ended I had to stay in the Air Force longer than expectad because therE was a shortage of Radio Mechanics. I finally went to Karachi in order to fly home in a York aircraft, stopping for two nights in Iraq, then on to El Adem in North Africa for a further two nights, and then we had to come down and stay in Malta for two days. The next day we took of for the last leg of the journey to Lynham but the weather in England was so bad that we had to come down at Marseillais and we were grounded for a further two days before the last leg home. Finally from Lynham by train to Kirkham in Lancashire and demobilisation and home for Christmas 1947

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