Anyhow, I think Douglas and Thelma must have talked things over and he decided to go in for a Doctor. So he sold off all the stock on the farm and the bailiffs put up the fees for the four of five years training as a Doctor and he passed first time. I think he was one of the oldest students there. He got a great reception when the results came out.
His next daughter, Lorna, was born in 1929. I remember him sending a telegram and it just said “Another duck!” Of course we guessed it was a girl!
When they left the farm, they moved to Leeds in Hanover Square. While they were on the farm they had a chap called Pierpoint who was helping him on the farm and this Pierpoint and his wife came as a kind of house-keeper to them in Hanover Square. But I think he went to Huddersfield as a House Surgeon for a while. Thelma was of course still working at The Infirmary as a Sister so he felt he should have somebody to look after the children. So he wrote to my German cousin, Lawrence Buhlmann, and asked him if he knew a German girl who would come for the year to look after the kids. So this cousin Lawrence asked his step-daughter if she would like to go England for a year so she said she would. We called Lenny. She went to stay with them for a year to improve her English.
Well sometimes Lenny used to come over to Harrogate and I used to take her out. I didn’t take her out very much, just on odd occasions. She could only stay a year so at the end of the year she’d to go back to Germany. So he wrote to my cousin Lawrence again and said did he know of any other girl who would like to come. Well when my cousin Lawrence got this letter, another cousin of mine, William Buhlmann, had a daughter, Annie, and she was staying with him at his house on holiday. He’d a market garden and he used to grow all kinds of flowers and he’d learnt his trade in Harrogate as I said before when he was a younger man. Well he asked his niece, Annie, if she’d like to go to England so when she got back home to her father and mother in Witten, she asked them could she go to England so they agreed to let her go so she came.
I think she came in 1933 and I often used to go to Leeds, in fact at that time I’d got a job in Leeds at a dry cleaners. A Denbigh Hannam was manager there, he was a relative of mine and he got me this job. So of course I thought I’d have to pop round and see this new girl that Douglas had got. Well when I walked in he said “Oh come on in Basil. Come on in. Come and meet Fritz! Come and meet Fritz.” So in I went and there was this girl, Annie, there. So he says “Now come on Fritz. Stand on the table. This is your Uncle Basil. Let him have a good look at you” He said “Come on; get on the table. Let him have a good look at you!” Well, of course she was furious! She went as red as a beetroot and didn’t know what to say.
Anyhow, I think with me, it was love at first sight because I thought she was a wonderful girl so I used to see quite a lot of her. I remember Douglas and Thelma, one night a week, they used to go to the pictures. Well, on these nights I used to go round to the house and I used to sit with her. She’d to look after the kids of course and couldn’t go out, so I used to sit with her and before they came home it was my time to catch a train back to Harrogate.
Well Douglas and Thelma little knew how much I was seeing of her. I asked her to marry me but she said “Oh no. German girls never marry Englishmen” Of course Hitler was in charge of Germany at that time but I’d made up my mind to marry her and that was that. And I said “I’m a very patient chap and I generally get what I want in the end” and I said “In the end I’ll have you. So she said “I don’t think you will” So I said “Well, we’ll see about that”
Annie had to take Diana and Lorna to school and bring them back each day and I think Lorna must have been a bit of a handful because as she was walking along the road she suddenly put her case down with her books in and said “I’m not going to carry them any longer!” And so Annie had to go back and pick it up and carry them for her.
One day Lorna said to Annie as she was coming back from school, she said “Fräulein, the teacher has been telling us about the Holy Ghost and they said he had no body. So, if he has no body, where does he hang his legs?” I thought that was very funny indeed.
When it was Annie’s day off, she used to come over to Harrogate and we used to go to Knaresborough and we used to spend quite a lot of time punting on the river there. It was very nice on a fine day. You couldn’t go very far on the river, not downstream, as there was a weir so we used to always have to go upstream and it was quite a good way. Towards the end of the stretch of the river where we could go there was an island in the river. Well, that was as far as the rowing boats could go as the water on the right hand side of the river was very shallow and it took you all your time to get up there in a punt. And punts take very little water to go on. But on the left hand side there were quite a lot of rocks and we used to have to steer between these rocks and the stretch of water was only about eight feet wide I should think and the water was coming over there very quickly indeed and it took an awful long time to get up these ‘rapids’ as we used to called them.
I don’t think I ever went there without getting up the rapids but it was a terrible job and it was more than once that we got across the stream, broad-way across the flow of water and it used to flow over the side of the punt and sink it. And the cushions in the punt used to go floating down the river. So of course we’d to get out and get them in again and turn the boat the right way up and get it going again. Above the rapids it was very deep water and was quite calm. About fifty yards beyond that there was a waterfall so of course we couldn’t go past that. Of course you steered the punt from that back with a pole and you’d to weave in and out of these rocks and we used to go down there at a fair speed and the water was very very fast. You were very lucky if you got down without hitting a rock or two.
Nearly every time we went to Knaresborough we always used to see somebody fall in; especially those who weren’t used to punting. Sometimes you’d be punting along with the pole and the pole would get stuck at the bottom of the river. Well of course when it did you had to let go of it or else you were over the side. Well these learners, they used to hang on to the pole and or course the boat used to go on and in the water they’d go and somebody had to fish them out! When my pole got stuck in I used to just leave it and paddle the punt back with a paddle. They supplied a pole and a paddle. So we just used to pull the pole out and that was okay. The punt poles were very long indeed. I remember just near the road bridge over the river, there was cherry tree on the bank and they used to call this cherry tree deep. You used to just put your pole in and shoot it down and it used to disappear under the water and then shoot up again. It was impossible to touch the bottom there so it must have been a fair depth. Luckily we never fell out there!
Anyhow, Annie’s year-stay in England came to an end so off she went home. I said could I come and visit her and so she said “Oh, yes! Certainly you can”. So off I went to my second trip to Germany as I’d already been there when I was at sea. I went to visit them at their home and of course I’d never seen her father and mother before but as soon as I got into the house, her father said “Good Evening Basil. My home is your home for as long as you like!” Well, Annie’s mother and Annie they were very much surprised to hear that he could speak English. I had a wonderful month in Germany.
We used to go for long walks over the moors, well, they weren’t moors, they were wooded hills. They were only a few minutes out of the town and you could go for different walks. The trees were marked with certain signs – different coloured signs and you had a guide book and it told you which colour to follow to a certain place and we used to have some very nice walks indeed. Of course we used to stop at these little country pubs and have a drink.
I remember one little pub that we went in to, there was only one other couple in there and of course we were speaking in English and these other two were Germans and he suddenly said… we guessed they were talking about us… and they said “Hmm Polacks” and spit on the floor. So I said to Annie “What did he say about us then?” so she said “Oh, he thinks we’re Poles” she said “Take no notice because he doesn’t know we understand German so it’s best to leave it as it was. But I was very annoyed about that.
Annie had two brothers, Walter and Kurt. They were very nice chaps indeed and I used to go out drinking with all there pals. I suppose this would be about Nineteen Thirty Four or Thirty Five.
Anyhow, I’d to go back to England but before I went I asked Annie if she’d like to come back for another year and she said she would. So she came to look after children for some friends of Douglas’s and stayed with them a year so I used to see quite a lot of her then. But by this time my firm had transferred me to Manchester. I got some very nice digs with an Irish woman. In this house, beside myself, there was a married couple and an Irishman.
Well, at the cleaners, where I worked, there was Jew, he used to come in and he used to go all round the theatres and collect all their garments from the actors and actresses and bring them to us to be cleaned. Well they used to slip some of these things through for him without him paying for them and so as he was in contact with nearly every theatre in Manchester, they used to give him free tickets. There were only two chaps working then, me and another one. He used to give us free tickets for the Manchester Hippodrome and the Empire.
This Irishman, I got very friendly with him and I said would he like to go to the show one night and he said “Yes, he would” so off we went to The Manchester Hippodrome and there was a Review on, I remember. We were in the best seats right at the front of the house, two or three rows back from the front of the stage. During the show, he never spoke a word. Of course, there were a lot of chorus girls there with very little on and when we came out I asked him how he’d enjoyed the show. So he told me he’d enjoyed it very much. He said “Do you know?” he said “Do you know? The people almost looked real didn’t they?” So I said “Well, they were real people” so he said “Oh no, I’m sure they weren’t. It was a film” I said “No, it wasn’t a film. They were real people on the stage” so he said “Oh, they couldn’t be so I said “Why not? Why couldn’t they be?” so he said “Well, they’d never allow girls to come onto the stage with so little clothes on as that” he said “No, it was a film alright” And I couldn’t convince him that it was Review at all.
At this time Annie was in Germany of course, at home.
Well, in this shop, there was a Manageress and she used to be in charge of all the girls, I suppose she was really in charge of the shop but she didn’t interfere with us two chaps very much. As long as we got on with our work she didn’t bother us. I remember she wanted another girl so she put an advertisement in the paper and about twenty girls came in to be interviewed. Anyhow one of the girls that came into the shop, she looked very nice and there were about a dozen sat there already so I brought this girl a seat and asked her to sit down and I’d tell the Manageress that she was there. So I went to the Manageress, I said “That’s the one you want to choose. There’s only one you can think of having. She’s far the best. You must pick her” She said “What’s it got to do with you” she said “I’m doing this job. I’ll choose who I like” But she did choose this girl I’d picked out so I thought I was a pretty good judge.
At that time of course, I wasn’t engaged to Annie. She hadn’t said she would marry me and so I used to get these tickets from this Jew and I used to take girls out from the shop. I remember one girl I took out. We went to see a picture called The Thirty Nine Steps. It was a famous film and a famous book. I forget who had written it. But anyhow, we went to see this show. We went up in the circle. Well, as soon as this girl got to the top of the steps she slipped and she rolled right down the steps, right to the balcony rail. There was me trying to catch hold of her, running down the steps after her but I couldn’t catch hold and she bumped herself up against the rail at the bottom. I asked her if she’d hurt herself and she said no, she hadn’t but she hardly spoke a word all the time we were there. I bought her a box of chocolates and after the show I took her home. She lived quite a distance south of the centre of Manchester and we’d to catch a double decker bus so of course we went upstairs and when it came to her stop we started coming down these stairs and blow me, if she didn’t fall down them from top to bottom! So after that I christened her “Thirty Nine Steps”! I thought it was very appropriate after seeing this picture. That was the only time I went out with her.
These chaps used to run the cleaning machine and before any garment was put in this machine it had to have the tape sewn on it and the ticket made out for it. When we used to do a load of work we used to pop some of this Jew’s theatrical clothing in and of course we knew it was his because it hadn’t a tape on. I remember one Good Friday just the two of us were working, myself and this other man. It was a very hot day and we were in the shop on our own. We saw an ice cream man so we thought we’d like some ice cream. So we went over to him and we saw he had a very filthy coat on. We asked him if he’d like it cleaning. So he said yes, he would. So we put this coat into the machine and when we emptied the machine we were looking for this coat and we couldn’t fine it anywhere. So we’d to check every garment to see which was the one that hadn’t a tape on. At last we came to this coat. Well it was a beautiful coat. Quite a different colour to the one we put in. We took it across to this ice cream man and said “Here’s your coat”. So he says “That’s not my coat!” so we said “Well, it must be. It was the only one that hadn’t a tape on so it must be yours” He was flabbergasted, he couldn’t believe it. So I remember he gave us a great big pack of ice cream so we had a good feed that day of ice cream!”
This girl who’d come into the shop and I’d picked out for the Manageress to engage; I took her out one night. The Manageress, she knew I’d got a girlfriend in Germany and she said I ought to be ashamed of myself taking girls out when I’d already got a girlfriend but as I said before, we weren’t engaged and I wasn’t at all sure she’d marry me so I thought that there’s no harm in it. And I said to the Manageress “Anyhow, it’s nothing to do with you what I do in my spare time” I said “If any of these girls complain to you that I’ve done anything wrong to them or behaved in any way disagreeably to them and they complained to you, then that’s the time that you can start talking to me.
This girl, they called Phyllis Jones and she’d already got a boyfriend but she did go out with me this once. I think we went to the pictures, that was all, and I took her home and that was that. Anyhow, soon after that she got married to a chap called Clark and lived in Manchester.
My mother was still in Harrogate and she was looking after my Aunt Kate and Uncle Edgar. My Aunt Ada had already died. My Auntie Kate, she must have had a stroke or something because she went out of her mind, more or less, and she kept saying to my mother “Where’s the good Annie” she said “There’s a good Annie and a bad Annie here and you’re the bad one” She also took an intense dislike to me. She accused me of taking all her clothes away and bringing rags to her. She was really quite mad. I remember my uncle used to sit with her a great deal during the day so it took a bit of time off my mother’s hands. But I don’t think my mother went to bed – for four years she used to be sat up with this auntie all the time.
I remember my mother had a very bad nerve. I think it was called Fifth Nerve Neuralgia. She went to the doctor and the doctor in Harrogate told her that there were only two men in England who could do this. One was in London and one was a Professor Jefferson in Manchester. She used to be in agony with this nerve and used to scream out. So last of all she decided to go to Manchester and have this nerve deadened. Well this nerve wasn’t much thicker than a hair and the surgeon had to put a needle in her cheek and it seemed there was a small hole somewhere in her cheek and this nerve passed across that. This doctor, this surgeon, Professor Jefferson, he got the needle in the nerve first time. Of course he had quite a lot of students watching him. Well, this completely cured her. But her left side of her face was dead. She couldn’t feel anything on that side of her face.
One day I was looking in the paper and I saw an advertisement for a Governess. So I went to this house and told them about Annie. But when I went to the door, there was a huge black Retriever there and it started snarling at me, this dog, and barking. I thought now, as soon as I reach to the bell and touch it, it’ll bite me. So I talked to it and calmed it down a bit and last of all plucked up courage and rang the bell.
Well when I went inside I saw this chap and his wife. Their name was Renee. I told them about this German girl, Annie. I said would they like me to ask her if she’d come to England so they said yes, they certainly would. But she said they were going on holiday rather soon to the Canary Islands so she said you’d better ask her if she’d be willing to go with us there. “Of course, we’ll pay her fare and everything”
So, I wrote off straight away to Germany and told Annie that if she’d like to come to Manchester, I’d a job ready for her and they want to take her to the Canary Islands. So she wrote back and said she was coming. It wasn’t very long before she arrived back in Manchester.
This chap, Renee, he had a factory where they made cutting tools for cutting very hard metals and his wife used to go away for a week at a time traveling for him, getting orders for him while he ran the factory. Annie used to look after these two children; a boy and a girl. Well, the girl was the eldest and one time when her mother came back from traveling, this little girl said to her mother, she said “Do you know mother, what Fräulein did to us?” So she said “No, what did she do?” so she said well, she hit Tommy on the head and knocked his head right on the floor and picked it up again and stuck it back on!” Of course, her mother knew she must have been lying, obviously but she didn’t like the way these kids used to tell lies about her. They also employed a maid at this house and she used to do all the housework of course and Annie just used to look after the kids.
Well, one night while Mrs Renee was away, Mr Renee, he had a party and invited a lot of Officers from the ships on the docks up there. And I suppose it must have got pretty tight. Anyhow, they were trying to catch hold of Annie and this maid and so they ran upstairs and Annie said “Come into my room” to the maid and so she did and they barricaded the door with a chest of drawers and God-knows-what and they couldn’t get in. So, she didn’t feel like stopping there any longer.
Eventually, my Aunt Kate died and so there was only Uncle Edgar to look after. She was really very run down by looking after this Aunt Kate for so many years that I decided to look for a little house and I found one in the same street that I had my digs so I asked my mother to come over to Manchester and live with me, which she did. Well this house was quite nice but it very very small and my mother had never been used to living in such tiny rooms so we got a bigger house, a three story house in Stretford Road. We used to let a bit of it off and that helped us out with the rent. I was only getting Three Pounds at that time from the cleaners which I suppose wasn’t a bad wage in those days.
Well one day Annie came to see us and she said they wanted to get rid of this dog so she said would I have it? So I said “Well, I don’t know. It was pretty savage when I saw it last” So he said “Oh, no, it’s quite alright. It wont bite you” So I took this dog and it made itself quite at home with us and very friendly indeed with me. It was only about a mile away from where these Renee’s lived but it never offered to run away. It used to stop with us and go out with us. It was a beautiful dog.
As I said, I was working at this cleaners in Manchester and one Saturday morning Annie came down and walked into the shop and she said “I’ve given my notice in. I’m not stopping there another night in that house” So I said “Well what are you going to do then?” so she said “I’m going back to Germany”
Anyhow, she came to live with myself and my mother. So I said “You’re not going to Germany again this time” I said “We’re going to get married” and at last of all, she agreed to this much to my delight!
Her mother in Germany had never seen the sea but her father had been through the First World War and he’d traveled quite a lot. Anyhow, I wrote and asked them if I could marry their daughter and they agreed. We asked them over for the wedding but her mother wouldn’t come as she’d to look after Annie’s two brothers, Kurt and Walter. Anyhow, they wrote and told us when her father was coming and we went to the station, ooooh, half a dozen times I should think and met half a dozen trains in but he wasn’t on them. So we made a few enquiries and it must have been very rough and the ship was a day late and he had to stop in Harwich the night and he came the following day.
In those days they were only allowed to bring Ten Marks out of Germany with them. Well of course Ten Marks was only about Ten or Twelve Shillings so of course he couldn’t find a room for the night for that. So he asked a chap, a passenger on the boat, if he’d lend him some money. So he did. Of course he gave Annie’s father his address. So when her father got home we sent this money to this chap and thanked him very much for helping him out.
Well of course Annie’s father was my first cousin and he stayed with us for about three weeks in Manchester and then went back home. This was in 1937. We were married in October 1937.
Before we got married, Annie told me that a German doctor had told her she’d never have any children so I was very sorry to hear about this as I was very fond of children and I would have very much liked some. But I said “Never mind, it’s you I want more than anything else so don’t worry about that”
One day Annie cam down and said she felt very sick and this went on for three or four days so I said “You’d better go to the doctor and see what’s the matter with you” So off she went to the doctor. When she came back, she was crying like anything so I said “What on Earth’s the matter?” So she says “The doctor’s told me I’m going to have a baby!” So I said “That’s nothing to cry about” I said “That’s the best news I’ve ever heard” I said “I’m delighted about it”
In August 1938 my first daughter, Rita, was born.
The following summer we went to her home in Germany to see her parents. This was about July 1939. Well at that time it looked very much like there was going to be a war between England and Germany. I remember the Supervisor at this cleaning shop I was at, he told me that if ever war was declared and anybody wanted to come in, if there was a raid on Manchester, and anybody wanted to come into the shop I’d to turn them out, I hadn’t to let anybody in. I said “What? Do you mean to say I’m not to let anybody shelter if there’s bombing outside?” So he said “Yes” So I said “Well, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do if there is a war and there’s any bombing” I said “Anybody who asks to come in here, I shall let them in” So he says “Well, they might steal some of the customers clothes” So I said “Well, if there is a war on and they do start bombing” I said “I’m going to get all the rails of clothes and I’m going to put them up against the windows to stop any flying glass hitting us” so he said “Oh well, as long as we know, that’s alright” He didn’t say it was wrong. I said “Anyhow, if they do bomb the place, the clothes will be no good in any case”
When we got to Germany, Annie’s two brothers, Kurt and Walter were in the SR with Hitler. They weren’t in the SS, they were the more-or-less the Gestapo type. The SR were just ordinary members.
Well her brother Walter used to take me out at night and we used to go round the pubs and have a jolly good time but he used be drilling nearly every night and I used to go and watch them drilling and just stood there smiling to myself. When they’d finished, when they were dismissed, we used to go to a pub, they’d be about twenty of us, and we’d have a jolly good time together.
They were very interested in me, being an Englishman. They said “What are we going to do about Poland?” Of course, the threatened invasion of Poland by Germany. So I said “It’s not what we’re going to do about Poland. It’s what you’re going to do about Poland” So they said “Oh, we’re going into Poland” so I said “Well, if you do that, England will declare war on you” So they said “Oh, no no. England will never fight us” so I said “I’m certain they will” I said “They’ve given their word to Poland and” I said “they can’t do anything else. They must fight” so they said “Oh, okay then it looks as if you’re going to be at war with England then” so I said “Well, if the first shot’s fired in Poland, that’ll be the day we declare war on you” I said “Not that I want to declare war on Germany” I said “I think you’re all jolly fine chaps” and at that time I thought what a happy crowd the Germans were. All the school children going to school used to be singing and everything seemed fine.
I remember one time I was in a pub and of course I couldn’t speak German but quite a lot of these chaps could speak English and I mentioned something about Adolf Hitler. Well, one of these chaps jumped up and started thumping on the table and started shouting at me. So I said to one of these chaps who could speak English, I said “What’s he on about? What’s the matter with him?” So he said “Oh, he thinks you said something insulting about our Fuhrer, Hitler” so I said “No, I’ve not said anything wrong about him” so he said “No, I know you haven’t” so he explained to this chap so everything was alright. I said “As long as Hitler stops in Germany, as far as I’m concerned and as far as England is concerned he can do what he likes here. We’ll not interfere. But if he starts invading any other country then we’ll step in”.
Anyhow, I’d made up my mind to impress upon them that there would be war if they invaded Poland and just at this time, they said well, they’d come over to Manchester and drop us a few presents. And at about this time we saw the Graf Zeppelin go over so I said “Are you going to send that over then, to us, to drop some bombs?” so he said “Oooh, no no no, not this time. We’re not having Zeppelins this time. We’ll send bombers over”. So I said “England are very generous” I said “For every present you drop to us in Manchester” I said “We’ll drop you two back” I said “Maybe a little late but they will certainly come. We won’t forget you” Well in this I was proved right because as you know, the first part of the war, we were pretty badly off.
As I said, it was in July 1939 just before the War started. And I remember when we were coming through the customs, they were looking through all our boxes and they were very heavy indeed because Annie had brought all the stuff she’d saving for her bottom draw and bringing them home to England. At the customs post they said “What have you got in there” It was very heavy so they said “Is it full of money?” so I said “I wish it was!” Anyhow they had a good search through everything and looked at all out films, all our negatives, even opened our camera to see if there was any film in that but they were very friendly and they let us through alright.
Just before we left Germany for England, I was out with Annie in a big café, there must have been about two hundred people in this place and I’d run out of matches and I wanted a light so I said to Annie would she go across to one of the chaps and ask for a light for me. So she said “Oh, I daren’t go and ask for a light for a foreigner” so I said “Alright. Well I will” and of course, nearly all the chaps in there were dressed in these Jack Boots and the SR uniform. So I just showed them my cigarette and made out that I wanted a light so one of them pulled a lighter out and flicked it and gave me a light and he said “Ah, you Hollander?” so I said “Nein, I’m an Englishman” so he said “Ah, so. English” so he then said something as much to say “Just a minute” and he walked across to the orchestra and to my amazement they struck up God Save the King. So of course I jumped up and stood to attention and all the other people round about, they stood up until the whole place was standing up. And then they played the Horst-Wessel, the German National Anthem. And of course I stood to attention for that also and so did the Germans. Well immediately after the orchestra had finished, all the people crowded round the table and there were pints of beer coming on to the table and they were swinging my arms, singing and shouting and they made a huge fuss of me much to Annie’s surprise. In fact they were very friendly indeed and I’m sure not of them in there wanted a war with England.
I remember one day we were on a walk through the woods and I was smoking and there was this chap in green uniform, he was a Forrest Ranger, shouted something to us. So I said “Ja!” Annie and her brothers were laughing like anything so then he shouted something else so I said “Ja!” and then he shouted again and I said “Ja!” Well, this time he was furious. He came rushing across to us and started playing steam with me. So I said “What’s gone wrong? What have I said?” So they told him I couldn’t speak German and the first thing he said was “I see you’re smoking. Smoking is not allowed in this part of the woods in case of fire” And of course I shouted “Yes” and he said there was a big fire here not so long ago and he said it did a lot of damage so I said “Oh yes” and he said and you’ll be the next one to light a fire if you keep on smoking and of course I sad “Yes” again and of course this made him furious and he came rushing across as I said before and they had to explain to him that I didn’t understand German. So he said “Well if he doesn’t understand German, what’s he saying Ja for all the time?” Anyhow luckily I had my passport with me and I showed it to him and it took a long time to convince him that I really hadn’t understood what he’d said. And it turned out I was liable to a One Hundred Mark fine. Well when he’d gone we had a jolly good laugh about it but I was lucky to get away with it and after that I was careful what I said in German.
Anyhow, as you know, in September 1939 the War broke out. I was called up for my medical examination and they turned me down because I wasn’t fit. I’d been poisoned by these fumes from this cleaning shop and I wasn’t at all well.
One day this other chap and myself had had an argument with the Manageress. She wanted us to work all night one night to get the stuff out for some customers and this we refused to do. We said no, we’d had enough. So she telephoned to the Head Office in Apperley Bridge where the Firm’s works were and reported us. So next day two of the bosses came over and they called us two chaps in and said they were sacking us. So they said “When could we be out?” so I said “I can be out in three minutes. Soon as I get my overalls off”
So as I said, I was pretty ill at the time and I didn’t mind although it was the first time I’d had the sack from anywhere. While I was downstairs changing, one of these bosses came down and said “Oh, Riegels” he said “we don’t want to sack you. We want you to come back to the works in Apperley Bridge near Bradford” So I said” Well, you’ve already sacked me” so he said “Oh well, it’s the other chap we want to get rid of, not you. It’s him that’s causing all the trouble” so I said “Well, you sacked me and I want to go to Lincoln for Christmas” My brother was in Lincoln at that time. So I said “I’ll leave” and I said “I don’t think I’ll ever go into another cleaners not even to take a suit in to be cleaned” I said “I’m fed up with the job” So I left them.
Well I was off work quite a few weeks and last of all I applied to join the AFS in Manchester and I was accepted. And all over Manchester we had these little stations. About seven or eight men at each station. I’m afraid at ours, there were rather a lot of rebels there because all they used to do was to train a bit and then polish these machines, these pumps up. I don’t know why on earth they made everything of brass but they were polished everyday and they were shining like gold.
When we were there we used to do twelve hours on duty and twelve hours off. There was a change over at the weekend and they used to do eighteen hours on at a stretch. Well when we were on nights we used to play Solo nearly ever night and Darts.
I remember one time we were drilling at an old reservoir and it had some filthy water in it but we used to go there and practice with the hoses – running out the hose and turning the water on. Well, there was a very decent Patrol Officer, he used to come round to our station quite a lot and we were all very friendly with him. He was at the other side of this reservoir and he kept turning his hose on me so of course I did the same to him. We were firing away at each other, soaking each other. I had glasses; I used to wear glasses and of course, my glasses got covered with water and I couldn’t see very well. Anyhow, we’d been doing this for some time and I saw a chap with some silver on his shoulder and I thought “Oh, hello! This is the Patrol Officer that I’d been squirting” So I turned the hose full on him. When he turned round… well, it had knocked him over actually. And when he got up I found it wasn’t the Patrol Officer at all but it was the Head of the Auxiliary Firemen. Well, he played steam with me and asked me what I thought I was doing. He said “You did that deliberately” so I said “Yes, well I did sir. I’m very sorry but I didn’t know it was you” so he said “Well who do you think it was then?” so I said “Oh, I thought it was the Patrol Officer across there” so he said “Are you in the habit of turning hoses on Patrol Officers then?” so I said “No, but we were only having a bit of fun. You can see what a mess he’s made of me”
Anyhow, when you’re holding a hose, it has a very strong pull against you. You’ve to learn against it. As soon as the chaps on the pump saw that I’d turned it on this Chief of the Auxiliaries they switched the water off and down I went because the hose just went flat and the tension went off it and down I went.
Anyhow, he made a few enquiries about me and as it happened he wanted to see my identity card so he took me away to his car and he wanted to stamp it evidently. So when I came back all the other chaps thought I’d got the sack or something but he was very decent about it and he saw I really had made a mistake so he let me off.
At the beginning of the war of course, we’d nothing to do at all but just hang about the station. We weren’t very popular with the soldiers. I remember just after Dunkirk a lot came back to Manchester and there was a column marching along the road and they started shouting. There was only two… I was only with one other Fireman and these soldiers started shouting “Aren’t Firemen brave men. Aren’t they brave!” So I stood this for quite a long time and last of all I said “Well”, I knew they’d come back from Dunkirk, so I said “Well, you didn’t hang so much washing on the Siegfried Line as you were going to do!” I knew they couldn’t break ranks and come at us so we got away with that alright.
It was a long time before we had any raids on Manchester so when we were on days we used to sleep at home.