Maurice

When were you born?

20/11/1921

Whereabouts?

Solihull

The Second World War, your memory of the day war broke out?

Sunday it was and I was near the end of my choirboy activity because I was seventeen then and there were three brothers in the choir with me at that time. It was during the sermon that the vicar usually gave and the verger came up the church and whispered in his ear and then he announced that Lord Chamberlain hadn’t heard from Hitler so, ‘We are now at war with Germany.’ So we sang the next hymn, said our prayers, the choir were crying then after a bit we got home and we were jumping about.

Two of my brothers then were in the Territorials and they had to report for duty, they were in the signals 48th Division Signals which were about half a mile away from where we lived. They went down to report, one never came back, he went up into Yorkshire as a soldier he was conscripted. The other one was stationed in the Barracks and he used to sneak home every night. I had another elder brother he was a slaughterman. He was actually called up because they had regular call ups every so often, certain age groups.

I was the fourth son of the family there were two more younger than me, there were six boys. Well I was a hairdressers apprentice then just finishing my time and Mum says, ‘I’ve got three sons in the forces….’ there was one at the grammar school and he went into the navy. I hadn’t got me papers yet but before then my parents organised that I’d go into the…. What did they call it, a reserved occupation, that was it and I was in an aircraft factory. Seven miles away that was in the centre of Birmingham. You used to work twelve hours a day, six days a week, six o’clock in the morning until six at night. During the raids we used to go on duty in the morning, at night time and of course I had a bike then, a motor bike and we used to get the usual journey straight through to work. But if the siren or the all clear hadn’t gone we’d go straight down into the shelter before we started work.

You worked twelve hours a day you didn’t have to do any voluntary duty?

Yes. Fire watching. Make sure the factory didn’t catch alight during the evening, so many nights a week.

After you’d done your twelve-hour shift, you then had to stay through the night watching….

Fire watching on the roof of the factory. We’d have a sleep like it would be a sort of a duty all the way through.

Can I come back… can you remember the hymn that was sung. You said that there was a final prayer and a hymn?

I didn’t take that much notice.

Why do you think, you were a youngish lad, why was there so much emotion in that choir? What was it that triggered that, what was it that.

The choir men behind me were ex war, World War One, the tenors and the bass.

They’d been there.

They’d been there, they’d been through it. Of course I should imagine before the war, it didn’t dawn on me then but years later when I think about it, we actually prepared, they’d prepared us for a war. Because you’d got your Boys Brigade, your Boy Scouts it was all sort of military way of life before the war.

That was interesting.

That was my sort of view. I didn’t think it then but thought it later on. When I think of life today there’s no structure of military sort of acumen.

Well they’re there but they are very small numbers aren’t they? Not the popularity.

I mean you had to do as you were told when you were in there, especially the Boys Brigade they were very strict.

Those brothers how many of them came back? That went away.

I lost one he was, he went through Dunkirk and he was training at Weymouth and the boat capsized and he was drowned. That was a run of people getting drowned in my family.

That was practising for the Normandy landings was it?

No after, after Dunkirk that was in 1940, ’41.

Earlier?

Yes. Being a lad, a young lad I was the eldest one at home I went to the Police Station and said, ‘I want me brother home.’ To bury me brother. The sergeant said, ‘Hang on.’ He said. ‘You want your brothers home from the forces to bury your brother?’ I said, ‘Yes’. He said, ‘How many brother’s you got, you’re not pulling my leg are you?’ Anyway we fetched one from Ireland, one from Yorkshire. Because he wasn’t in the navy then, me younger brother, he was younger. They came for the funeral but we had no body.

They never found the body?

They found the body but there was a mix up between our funeral directors and the army. The army said they’d bury him, we said we wanted him at home so they said ok we’ll end the body up. The funeral directors went down to get the body but the body wasn’t there. If my mother found out where Tom left his life like in Shirley, she’d have had a fit. In twenty-four hours he was on a siding in the railways. Because the funeral directors were down in Weymouth, he had to come back, go to the railway siding, take it out put it in the ward before the funeral.

You experienced people sleeping in the underground?

Yes when I was, I joined up eventually because when me younger brother went into the navy I’d done about three years in the factory and every six months they used to send you a postcard are you still in the reserved occupation you see. The foreman used to say, ‘Have you had your postcard?’ ‘Yeah.’ Have you posted it yet?’ ‘Yeah.’ It was this particular time I never sent the postcard that I was still employed and within a few weeks I’d had me papers. The foreman said, ‘Did you send that postcard?’ I said, ‘No.’ he said, ‘Do you want to go in the forces?’

But there must have been a lot of pressure from your Mum not to go.

She knew what she’d done wrong, I was sort of going down and down, you know. All the people were in the forces and there was me, in the family.

Did you feel kind of left out of it then?

To a point, yes. I was enjoying myself admittedly I mean I was getting the money up. But there was something missing. Then I got me papers and do you know where I ha to go from Birmingham? To sign on, Glasgow!

Why couldn’t you sign on in Birmingham was it the particular regiment that they sent you to then?

No that was the place. I had me details in Birmingham like you see. They said they’d let me know. Anyway there were two fast trains, they took eight hours didn’t they. There was one in the morning which got there in the evening and there was one the night before. Mum said, ‘You’d better take the one the night before.’ I said, ‘It said that day that I’ve got until 23.59 which is a minute to twelve o’clock and I got up there at half past ten at night. Took the tram to Maryhill in the centre of Glasgow which cost me four-pence. The sergeant there was in the HLI, Highland Light Infantry. ‘Come on you’re not soldiers yet!’ They kitted us all out very nice. ‘You’ll be alright now’. They didn’t say we were late or anything like that, you were there on time 23.59 which it’s stuck in my mind, I use that more than once!

When did you experience this thing of sleeping in the underground then?

Well I was stationed on the east coast when we had a pass we used to hitch hike from Kent, just outside Newmarket to Birmingham taking lifts and we’d get lifts we used to come chasing through here to Stony Stratford! The fellow with me going to London so he has to get off and get a lift on the A5 to Birmingham. That why they had Newgate the prison wall they used to call it.

The? Prison wall.

Oh this wall (Works Wall) that’s what it was seen as was it?

Yes. They used to say does he work inside when we first came here, it was like prison wasn’t it

Anyway coming back we used to have a ticket, a railway ticket used to go to New Street station which was an open station, you didn’t have to check in and you could catch the train to London as long as a ‘jumper’ didn’t get on…

Jumper?

Ticket Collector you could get away and if a ticket collector did get on you used to show the ticket. ‘Well done soldier’ and give it you back. We used to get off at Euston and then take the underground to Kings Cross to the East Coast. That’s where we saw, we had to climb over Londoners sleeping. That was after the blitz, after the blitz had lowered down it was in ’42. They were still sleeping there and they used to still sleep down there until the end of the war. The Londoners did.

By that time the doodlebugs were coming over?

That’s right yes we had more people going underground.

I’ve got here rationing and food? Garden, veg, tomatoes.

We used to grow tomatoes, greenery and my mother was a real good bottler, she could bottle anything and she used to make bread and pastry. She was self-sufficient, well she had to be with six boys didn’t she. I don’t think we went without because my father was a grocer and anything that wasn’t rationed, that you could pay, it weren’t under the counter but I mean you could, I mean pay for it you know. It wasn’t Black market stuff, it wasn’t rationed.

So you were growing your own and all that sort of thing and presumably with you working there was good money coming into the house wasn’t there.

We didn’t think of money did we? Money didn’t actually come into it. I mean it was there but (they used to take a lot of it in taxes, they used to take 50% didn’t they, of our money, we didn’t get very much. 50% of that was War Credit that came back after – wife)

I suppose money wasn’t any use because… if you couldn’t buy the food…. If it wasn’t there.

Do you have any special food that either you quite liked or thought oh God I can’t eat this.

No I don’t think I’ve got any sort of, I mean I wouldn’t sponge myself on something because I liked it I’d do it in moderation, even those I don’t like I do in moderation.

The other thing there you were growing boys, a family of six boys did you ever feel hungry during the war?

I shouldn’t think so, no because we never had it before the war!

Music, thinking about music and making your own entertainment?

That’s another story. 1938 the five boys had an audition with Carol Levis have you heard of Carol Lewis?

Well you tell me.

Carol Lewis Discoveries….and he was in Birmingham and because my Mum was….

Can you say more about this because children wouldn’t know what Carol Levis Discoveries was? It was a radio programme was?

It was a car that used to go round the country picking up talent, he used to interview, he was an entertainer in his own right but he used to be, he used to get entertainments and he used call it Carol Levis Discoveries. When he discovered them if they were any good, there were quite a few I think Tommy Handley was one. Anyway we had this interview in ’38 but when the war broke out because there was no…. Mum used to call us the Five Woodbines and we used to dress up in white shorts white socks and a red beret!

This was the fag….

The Woodbines cigarettes!

What kinds of things did you do?

Ballet dancing, singing, choral singing, choir.

What close harmony stuff, you weren’t accompanied?

Mum used to keep us company on the piano you see and the ballet dancing, I used to do ballet dancing, ballesque not palais de dance but it was ballesque. We used to go up to the side of the curtain and we were looking at the audience and suddenly a chair would come into my hands because me brother would be in the curtains like, waiting. And then carry it away and go to the other side and then throw it away, I wouldn’t look where I was throwing it because another brother would be catching it. We’d do hypnotics a swell because there was fellow who used to come round, hypnosis like. I was the one that used to spread across two chairs, ankles on one, space another chair… me brother used to stand on a chair and just step onto me! Then get off. I said, ‘Get off grmmm!!!’ He wouldn’t sort of look down at you because he was actor you see, you’ve got your audience you see. ‘Are you alright our kid?’ ‘No I’m bloody…….’

Where did you do these performances in the local villages, the local halls. Unpaid was it?

Unpaid, definitely! We used to have an artist, Beckett he used to do the scenery he were a sign writer he was. He made his living like but we never had anything.

But when you did this it was your, the five of you and your Mum on the piano was it a whole evening or was it just an act in a concert party? You were the whole entertainment were you?

Sunday after church we’d come home, get behind the piano, Dad would be sitting at the fireplace smoking his Woodbine. Mum would be at the piano, ‘Are you ready boys?’ We used to practise entertaining Dad you see, ‘I am the Music Man’ we used to play for him.

What did you play then?

All sorts of instruments.

Did you go to lessons or were you all self taught?

Yes. My mother was a trained musician. Our only trade was our voice, choir. We had singing lessons like.

Did you have a kind of favourite song?

‘I’ve got sixpence, jolly jolly sixpence’ . I’ve got sixpence I can spend it all my life I’ve got tuppence to spend tuppence to lend and tuppence to take home to my wife! Oh and there was Gilbert and Sullivan as well you won’t expect me to sing all those will you! From the operettas, Mikado and all that?

Yes, yes.

The war if you like ended all that did it?

Not in effect but because we all went our different ways.

But as that kind of group?

Yes. Yes. The group actually never went on stage together again after ’39.

When the war was on although you were working, with those talents did you ever do concert parties?

No they tried to but we weren’t interested. I think it was one thing in mind actually that we were at war and that was it.

The other thing I was just going to ask about the actual factory itself, what work were you doing there at the factory?

Undercarriages for Hurricanes, Mosquitos bits and parts it wasn’t an aircraft itself.

Where did they go afterwards to be made up, where were they assembled?

And off they went, yes. Presumably because it was an aircraft factory it was a target… It wasn’t an aircraft factory it was Birmingham Guild it used to do all the Guild working for India.

No, really!The factory was just taken over…

It wasn’t taken over it given jobs to do.

A completely different job to what it was doing before.

Oh definitely, yes. Eventually before I had four women under me riveting these undercarriages.

What was the attitude of the men to the women coming in and doing what was effectively…

I wouldn’t know because I was a young lad but I don’t think, there was an age gap between us and the men as you might say because the twenties, thirties and forties were all in the forces. You had your old people who were due for retirement that were in their element because they were in charge and they’d never been in charge before!

The other thing do you have any special memories of the end of the war?

End of the war? No because I was overseas then.

Oh you were overseas then you weren’t at…

I wasn’t at home no.

Again when the war is on you’re a young man, a teenager, what about war time dances and things like that. Wee they any different to the pre war dances?

I never used to go dancing before the war, I was busy up on the stage making a fool of myself! I never met my wife until after the war.

But you didn’t actually live that far away from each other?

No, no. About two-hundred yards or so. She came from the centre of Birmingham into the ‘elite’ part. (We moved in 1939, we went from Hockley which is east Birmingham, south – wife) Edgebaston, that wasn’t far from there.

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But you were living in Solihull?

No, Shirley.

(I’ll tell you what my mother used to say, ‘Kippers and curtains!) The very first book that I involved in collecting memories was called Pianos and Herrings, was the phrase round here. (Kippers and curtains, we went from an ordinary house to quite a posh in comparison, it was quite expensive and it had a garage and it was semi-detatched and it was quite big, very nice really – wife) Her uncle never used to come up because he said that Fred had gone up in the world. (That was my uncle that worked in the, panel beater wasn’t he and they bought a house and it wasn’t very big and so they had to build a piece on to get everything in! – wife)

Any other particular memories that you’ve got of life on the Home Front?

Petrol rationing.

Did you have a car then?

Motorbike.

Presumably that was all right because it does lots of miles to the gallon? Did that affect you?

You only had half a gallon a week. You couldn’t keep any coupons because you’d spend the dam things. I ran out of petrol once I was up in Smethwick and I took the tram back and it cost me half a gallon of petrol and I went on the tram with it all the way back to get me bike! You weren’t allowed to carry petrol on a public vehicle, you’re not even these days.

Things like the blackout and so on…

That was wicked, terrible that was.

Well you knew the way but nobody else did. The busses, you used to have some drivers that was their first time on the route. ‘Are you all right?’ The passengers would say ‘Oh you’re all right, turn right here, right not straight on!!!!’

Because there were no road signs were there? The road signs were taken down, there was no light…

(We used to have smokescreens along Stratford Road – wife) Another thing when we used to have an air raid we used to have a, you know litter bins those great big things we have nowadays well we used to have dustbins every so often. I think it was the police’s job it was, if there was an air raid they’d light them up and there’d be clouds of smoke.

To put off the aircraft or just to cover over where you were?

Yes, yes.

How interesting.

That was in the suburbs. Also they used to have the pig bins as well, collection of the pig bins.

Any waste, peelings or so on.

Yes.

Your wife was saying that was carried on, ‘waste not, want not’ ….

It does stick in your mind, yes. You think ooh, I can make that useful….. yes. Brilliant.