John Interview 93 4 children 1 boy 3 girls Wife - Margaret Son Kenneth = when he was at elementary local church schoolteacher told john and wife that he was very clever and should be sent to prep school. Couldn’t afford this, if we send one to the prep school what are we going to say to the other 3. Anyways they sent him. Boys only. - Was top of the class for first year out of 14 pupils? But dropped to lowest in the class in the 2nd year - male teacher said something had happened but he wouldn't say what - he said to us at 13 he wanted to go back normal school - he wouldn't talk about it. John and wife worried something awful went on to make him have such a drastic change in his success and enjoyment at that school. In his 6th form year Kenneth said he wanted to go on to become a fireman despite this not being what they thought he could potentially aspire too. He was in-charge of a squad Unfortunately Kenneth died as a fireman when he attended a serious accident on the motorway, one of the worst ones they has been involving several vehicles. He hit/cut his head which developed into a tumour leaving his wife and 3 children under 10 with a father at 30 years old. Out of tragedy came the most wonderful thing . Something wonderful came out of such a terrible time... One of Kenneth friends from school Dave, an old classmate of Kenneth came up to john and spoke about Kenneth. He went on to say how he also loved Christine (Kenneth wife) when they were at school but Christine (wife) chose Kenneth. Dave and Christine later got together and took on Kenneth family as his own. Memories of meeting Christine for the first time when Kenneth brought her to meet him and his mum She had a Mohican. When Kenneth and Christine were sweethearts, he brought her home to see us, and I thought it would be lovely to the girl my son is going to marry and when she arrived at the house, have you even seen anything like it she had a Mohican, up in spikes, it looked dreadful. She walked past the kitchen
window and Margaret said to me- what was that and we never forgot that we never let her forget that either. John joined the committee of plumb tree hall – was already occupied by plumb tree housing association. ‘Geoff is not quite as mobile as I am’ ‘Don’t forget theirs a speed limit along here!’ – jokes to other elderly man as he walks past slowly on trolley. John used to like to draw Loves the outdoors Loved running Still loves walking now – half an hour this morning, about a mile. Always enjoyed the proximity to the Lake District. One or two other blokes my age, at school time we used to go what we called cy-climbing - cycling into the lake district, putting your bike over the wall and climbing one of the mountains- coming back then riding home again. And before you say – you didn’t get very tired because you used different muscles, when your sitting on a bike and peddling you are not using your walking muscles. Oh I remember one occasion though, I over did it ones, my worst day ever from half past 7 in the morning till 2 o’clock the next morning – I over did it. I looked at the map of wasdale head, over escorse, over the Langdale valley and its just a dotted line – so I thought oh yes ii can take a bike up there, I can do all that, no bother… but the dotted lines means it a pony track, and you have to carry your bike some of the way, and at the far end, to get into landale valley, you have to come down rosette gill, which is a water fall. I put the bike round my neck, so that I could use both hands, and eventually I fell with the bike round my neck- I was very lucky. At the bottom, I got on my bike and rowed home. The last stretch down to Newby bridge then you turn west and go through Ulveston Dalton and it was head on to the wind, and this was 12 o’clock 1 o’clock in the morning, and in the end, coming across every road into barrow I was so tired, I lay on a seat and a police man stopped next to me and said ‘you aright mate?’ and I said ‘yeah of course I am!’ I wasn’t going to let one!
And he just rod off! In the end I couldn’t ride on a level, I could only go down hill I was that tired. When I got home at half past 2 in the morning, my father said to me ‘your going into the bath’ and he help me and he got me into the bath, I could get up the stairs on my own he had to push me from behind. I was very fit, I hated indoor stuff, I loved the outdoors, this is why I think I walk now, I enjoyed my walk this morning and people say ‘yeah but your in your 93 year!’ but I don’t do it as a must do it I do it because I enjoy it! A walk on my little round walk – perfect. I was 19 then, not yet in the RAF – I was in that when I was 20. I was in the RAF flying bombers and my brother was in the war flying fighters he was killed I survived, it could of easily have been the other way around. I’ve been in 17 countries during the 6 years of the war. After the war was over there was a tremendous lot of 1300 allied prisoners in the Far East and everyone wanted to get them home as soon as possible. It would have been a doddle to do nowadays. We hadn’t any airliners or any plane that could fly more than a quarter or the distance so we had to have intermediate stops between Singapore and this country in 3 places so that we had 4 laps – the first places were easy, it either had to be Calcutta or Yangon it had to be India. Our planes could only do 2 and a half thousand miles, they were old bombers - sterling and Halifax, in my case the liberator, the American one and you could only do that journey in 4 hops so you had to have 3 intermediate places. The one nearest this end was in North Africa either Benghazi or Alexandria. The middle one was a very nasty affair in Iraq Iran or Syria. We had to have a base their where you could change crews to refuel – 2 thousands gallons at a time. We needed 400 airplanes to bring home 1300. Nearly 20 in an airplanes, take out the bomb bays put in seats. Wooden seats, pitch-dark freezing cold, terrible noisy. When they got out at the intermediate places they had half a hour to stretch legs and then were taken on board the plane that had landed their previously ready to take them home. Unlined planes and the poor blokes some woman had 12-14 hour stints at a time on the planes. At the end of 52 hours they were with their family. I felt sorry for the rear gunner there was no way out, when he got into that turret he was there for the next 12 hours. He didn’t mix with the rest of the crew he was on his own. The los through being killed was always greatest as a rear gunner because enemy planes attached a bomber from the rear.
Our squadron was one of them used to bring back prisoners. We were waiting for our demob, and they said ‘right your gonna fly again’ when they announced this to 300 RAF blokes a number of comments from the aircrews told them where thy could go and what they could do when they got there! But once they said what we were going to do that was very different . It’s not difficult how to find how to help people who are a lot worse than you are if you are in direct contact with them. We dealt only with the walking wounded. They were prepared to go through anything to get to their families. The noise was so great that the 2 pilots had to shot in each other’s ears. When they switched of the engines the silence was really painful. We could only take 26 in two seats down the sides; they were old bomb bays you see. The very bad (injured) prisoners come in Dakotas, which were more suited for hospital beds. We ran into trouble in Iran, things were interfered with, food supplies. – One of those things. Liberator bomber – look up We had 2 flying suits – inner and an outer Up in the pilots seat Margret and I took the 2 older children on holiday to America years ago on the first 707 jets. We were seating in the tail (safest place for future knowledge) they sent down a sheet of paper on which you were to write comments and I wrote ‘things rather more comfortable than they used to be 40 years ago. About 10 minutes later the stewardess came to me and said did you write this and I said yes I’m afraid I did, and she said were you flying airplanes in the war and I said yes and she said the captain would like you to join him on the flight deck. I surveyed the modern aircraft. He asked me what I thought – the main controls were very similar, the control column, the flat lever, even the air speed indicator normal. Everything else GREEK. 3injections.
Malaria. I thought I don’t, mind injections; I’m a tough guy. We only went in one other time – for good reason, they didn’t want you to see what the other bloke had had done to him. I rolled my sleeve up and the malaria jab went in normal, but then I waiting and looked away and BUMF! Right in the chest the … fever. He stood back and looked at me and for a moment I thought oh that’s all right and then I got a terrible painful agonising 10 sec. it was into the muscle. The bloke doing it had a grin all over his face. As soon as I got out of the RAF, because I wanted to keep my feet firming on the ground I went to university of reading to study agricultural science. 3 years they’re to get a very modest bsc. The last 2 years at reading we learned crop husbandry and the second was animal husbandry. 1945 after the war when at uni john met an allied prisoner – (wasn’t on one of his planes) – he suffered from malaria he was ill nearly all the time missing lectures and he failed his exams. He was in the same corridor as john in student halls. The next semester he had to move. He kept on trying to do a degree in horticulture, but he died during the second year, as they didn’t have the medication to cure meningitis. After I worked for 3 years as a manager at a testing station at stoke Mandeville for 2 or 3 years. I loved animals so I was involved with animals and when I got a promotion, I did advisory work for spillers. (A big food company, who has an agricultural section where they made animal food for farmers) I was technical manager there. I stuck as close as I could to the feeding and involvement of animals. And I was like that till I retired. My favourite animal has go to the cow. But I had a lot to do with pigs. Wonderful memories about pigs. I took a friend and his child round a pig farm at stoke Mandeville and there was a sow and little. the child saw the sow lie door on her side and the little pigs are all stretched along her udder with a teat to each and they nocked the teat with their noses until the milk started to flow and then they suck suck suck suck suck! a wonderful sight. This little boy said to his father ‘what are they doing’ and his father said their having their breakfast like you, and he looked at the piglets with the teats still in their mouths and said ‘blimey have they got to eat that lot!’
I enjoy and have always enjoyed the outdoor, hence the going in for farming hence the love of walking climbing. It’s not a choir to me. A bore damaged me on one occasion. A bore with which you have not removed the tusks can be a very dangerous animal. Just after it served a sow, I looked round and the bore had me on my thigh. Kept up with sport at uni- rugby every since I was 9 or 10 – my father gave me my first rugby ball and I've always been a great rugby supporter and NOT a great soccer supporter. My wife father said to me one day you know john, ‘soccer players (he had been a referee) the game that was designed my gentleman but it played by ruffians. Rugby is a game designed for ruffians but is played by gentlemen. The difference- you’ve only got to listen to the crowd supporting the players. Union player. My first rugby was at barrow and that was the rugby league. (9or10) I remember going to the matches, and in the stand at the back their was an enormous woman, one can only assume who it was until the crowd was silent and then shed shout ‘get stuck into it fletcher’ one must assume she was mrs fletches. Her husband was one of the players and one can only feel sorry for him if that was he came home to. She was wide enough to take 2 seats! Could have been a rugby player for all I know – no she wouldn’t have been too active. My father wanted me to follow in his business and I did not want to. He thought one of his sons ought to start at the bottom and work he’s way up. The junior wanbridge, James Slee, I had to call him Mr Slee, though he should be working for me some day! He was a fuel merchant, he was manager director or owyn Hugitson limited who supplied vicars and the seal works and electricity works with their fuel. Coal coke and lime. During the way when vicars had 25000 employees they used a tremendous amount of fuel in their Furness’s when they were making submarines and all sorts. My father wanted one of his sons – my 2 other brothers had escapes, eldest to Glasgow, and middle one (the one that was in the fleet air arm in the war) had escaped to Birmingham to the Austin motor works. And I was left I couldn’t find a excuse I had to work in the office there until I was old enough to volunteer for the RAF and after that I never went back to my father. I was the youngest, its good in some days, but there are times when you'd wish you had a bit more authority
Went to university in reading – studied agricultural studies always loved animals Favourite animal was the cow Also likes pigs – story about pigs ‘ Many years ago when I was in Canada, they had a good arrange between the British and Canadian governments that when we were training we were allowed to have every fortnight a couple of days leave at the weekend at the house of various people in Canada who had emigrated from this country to Canada and were very pleased to house at weekend blokes in the RAF who were training and I and one friend stayed every fortnight in a house -, 187 lanore avenue Winnipeg the father was from Aberdeen, the mother from Plymouth, and they had 2 Canadian daughters. They had moved to Canada to work. We stayed there and I told Eric, a colleague of mine, and he said, what was the address, and I said, and on his computer he showed me a picture of the house. Just like that. Immediately.
187 lanore avenue Winnipeg
My mother was Hampshire and my father was barkshire so they were both southerners and they met down their and married down their, but work brought them up to barrow. I was born in barrow. And Margret and I promptly went back down to Sussex! So we’ve been going backwards and forwards for generations. My daughters youngest daughter had a 1st degree at Cambridge in fashion, was roaring away with a good job, had a tiff with her boyfriend. And he jilted her. So she took up a job in Australia. In our day, that would have been impossible.
I spoke to her on face time- this amazing machine. I said to her it seems to a old bloke like me its terrible that your so far way, and she said I’m not really, I could e home In 24 hours. Things are changing so much. It’s hard to keep up. I thought I was modern and that my father was terribly old fashioned. Now my children are in the same position I was! Your children, especially grandchildren make you realize how many generations out of touch you are. … Especially with things they have to us their hands for, they and wonderful up here (points to head) but there not so good down their. If you see me trying to do this (puts fingers together in weird position) I’m trying to imitate something my cousin Richard parker did. He worked In a factory and court his arm on a machine he had it torn out at the shoulder and was left with nothing of an arm, and I have watched him thread a needle with his left arm/hand and I’ve been practicing it and he help the needle upright …And within a hour or two I could do things that I had never of believed possible. That was how he measured his abilities; he said if you can thread the needle you could do anything. He used to drive (weather he’d be able to drive nowadays I don’t know) but he had his car adopted for one hand driving and he never took his hand of the wheel even to change gear. He may have only had one arm but my goodness you would have wanted to be careful when you shook hands with him. He could crush your hands! I remember saying to my wife who of course did all the sewing ‘ have you ever tried to thread a needle with your left hand with just your finger and thumb’ she said ‘no its impossible!’ I said no it’s not impossible once you learn how to do it! He has had a knee replacement Why is it that I can remember things that were 70 years ago and what I did yesterday and forgot to make a note of I cant remember? Short-term memory collapse. Things that have happened to me in war time and afterwards, I can remember well. Its almost as if what was in-between there and there was ‘soft’ in those days. But then it concretes over and everything after a certain time just bounces off. It’s embarrassing but not lethal. I thought history was dreadful. Names dates, who they were king of or who they defeated.
When I was a little boy I used to like going to the farms with my father to see the little animals. I can remember the very first time I saw a cow ruminating. I stood a few yards away and I watched the swelling come up the side of the neck and I said to the farmer that cows going to be sick! And he said no its ruminating I said what?? A cow has 4 stomach, rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum. 1st 3 are to enable it to pass backwards and forwards food to chew for hours then when its ready it goes down in to the 4th stomach like ours, which is digested. Capacity of 4 stomachs – 40 gallons 1 cow can give 10 gallons of milk 80 pints in one day Heavy milker's need to be milked morning afternoon and evening Lovely little animal’s calf’s but can be quite violent in their moves! Mr meadows – guy I worked for fed the calves he was trying to keep its head in the bucket then suddenly it threw its head up and knocked it everywhere and the old chap shouted ‘bloody cow!’