Works Outing

This is my workmates and I on a staff outing, but I'm not sure of the date. I can remember my first job though. It was at Issac Holdings where my dad worked - I was an apprentice in the engineering shop. I started work on 1st January, 1939. My first week's wage was 9s 10d, but I lost it - at work!

At that time people had to train for their jobs for seven years, working as apprentices. I started working in engineering just before a lot of modern processes came in. Back then we didn't really have any special tools for the job, although we did have a blacksmith on site. I was working in the same shop as my dad, he was my boss. I thought it was terrible! If I did anything wrong he would clatter my ear! I think he singled me out a bit, because he didn't want the other lads to think he was soft with me, because I was his son. I had to walk in a very straight line! I didn't work there for very long - we disagreed too much - I decided to go my own way.

I was still only sixteen when I left Issac Holdings. I went to work for another company in Bradford which made the packing that went around the propeller shafts on ships. Because we were at war, ships were sinking every other day, so there was plenty of work. It was a boring job though, and I soon got fed up and wanted to leave. It was quite difficult to change jobs at that time, because there was a government order put out to all engineering firms which was called 'The Essential Works Order'. All the people that worked in engineering were tied - not allowed to leave their jobs. The order was issued by the government to make sure that the engineering work was done, because it was so important to the war and the country. I made a fuss and said that I was going to leave anyway. Everybody said I would get into serious trouble, but in the end they decided to send me to Jowett Cars, another company in Bradford.

I had an excellent job at Jowetts. I worked in the Breach Mechanism Department, a super skilled room. They used to make parts for guns, the sights. The sights were the parts of the gun that were used to aim the shot. If a gun sight was a fraction out, the gun could fire a hundred yards out. Being young, I was still a 'dogs body' - fetching and carrying for all the skilled men in white coats. I still didn't get the opportunity to do anything myself at Jowetts, I wanted to be a doer, not a chap following.

I got the sack from Jowetts after about a year because the foreman found me throwing pieces of sheet metal into a quarry! I got another job soon after, so I carried on earning. I gave all my wages to my parents, and they would give me something back. I spent it on ordinary things at first, but as I got a bit older I started to buy clothes, a nice suit and things. If you had a white silk scarf you were the bees knees!