Interview with Colin Atkinson and Jean McEwan
Title
Interview with Colin Atkinson and Jean McEwan
Description
Colin Atkinson was 12 at the outbreak of war and grew up in Lincolnshire. His father was a Lieutenant Colonel in the army. He worked as a trainee reporter for the local paper and served as a messenger for civil defence; his post was on the Castle tower in Lincoln. He also played ukulele in a concert party, entertaining troops. He joined the Royal Navy aged 17 but never went to sea. He worked as a clerical assistant. His brother was excused military service but worked maintaining airfields. His mother worked at the Avro factory, at Bracebridge Heath in Lincoln. She commented on the difficult aspect of their job being having to wash the blood off the instruments before they could be repaired. He discusses VE-day in Lincoln. After he was demobbed he worked for local press in advertising. Jean Atkinson, from Louth recalled as a small child her bedroom being lit up when Grimsby and Hull were bombed (from 39:15).
Creator
Date
2018-09-03
Language
Type
Format
00:52:52 audio recording
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
AAtkinsonC-McEwanJ180903, PAtkinsonC1801
Transcription
HH: Okay. So, today is Monday the 3rd of September 2018. My name is Heather Hughes and I’m conducting an interview for the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive with Colin Atkinson in his home in Louth. Colin thank you very much for getting in touch and agreeing to be interviewed.
CA: What’s significant about this is the date. It’s the anniversary of the outbreak of World War Two.
HH: Indeed, it is.
CA: And it hasn’t gone unnoticed by me.
HH: Did, did you plan this then?
CA: No. Not at all. It was when you called and asked if I would give this interview and I said yes, and the date was mutually arranged.
HH: Yes.
CA: It only occurred to me since then.
HH: Yes. It’s the significant —
CA: This is the anniversary of World War Two.
HH: Anniversary.
CA: Yes.
HH: Indeed.
CA: Yes.
HH: Colin, you were born and grew up in Lincoln.
CA: I was born in Grimsby.
HH: Oh, you were born in Grimsby. Tell us about Grimsby first of all then and your very early years.
CA: Yeah.
HH: When were, when were you born in Grimsby?
CA: I was born, well I was born on the 6th of May 1928. My birth certificate says the 6th of June 1928. My father went in after the date had turned in to June to register the birth and he just simply said, ‘The sixth.’ And the registrar put down the 6th of June. By the time they discovered what it was they said, ‘Well, we’d have to get the midwife, the doctor, the registrar. Oh, leave it alone.’ So, I drew my pension a year, a month late. I had to stay in the Royal Navy a month longer than I should have done so I’ve got a lot to thank my old man for.
HH: No. You didn’t have two ninetieth birthdays though.
CA: No. No. No. Not really. I don’t celebrate the 6th of June.
HH: So, you celebrate the 6th of May.
CA: I celebrate my actual date of birth. Yes.
HH: Good.
CA: Which is May.
HH: Good.
CA: Yes.
HH: So, when did your family move to Lincoln then?
CA: Well, my father’s job took him to Lincoln in 1937. So that’s when we moved from Grimsby, Cleethorpes to Lincoln. I did start school in, in Cleethorpes. I went to a primary school, infant’s school and junior school called St Peter’s School and the classroom that I was in in what is now known as a primary is still in existence and it is still in use as a school. So I can still drive past that and say —
HH: Okay.
CA: Well, I was five years old when I started there. Then we moved to Lincoln in 1937. We had the Coronation of George the 6th. The death of George the 5th. The Coronation of George the 6th in Lincoln. We lived in Thesiger Street. We then moved to Monson Street where the multi-storey car park is now. But these were these tall buildings. Lucy Tower Street. We then moved to Outer Circle Drive to a council house that needed repairs to the ceiling so they moved us to Lamb Gardens. And then war broke out. I sat with a friend in his house listening to Chamberlain make his unforgettable speech, ‘We are now at war with Germany.’ Immediately went home and then as the war progressed my father immediately volunteered to go back. He wrote to the War Office and they wrote back and said, ‘You can’t volunteer. You are still in the Army.’ He was at the Battle of the Somme.
HH: Gosh.
CA: He won the military medal at the Battle of the Somme. He was then in the Territorials between the wars and that’s why they said, ‘Whether you want to come in or not we’re having you.’ So, he went back in. I’m telling you my father’s history now rather than mine.
HH: No. No. That’s good.
CA: He, he got a commission in the First World War and he went back in as a lieutenant. From a lieutenant to captain. Captain to major. He was then posted in 1940 to Mauritius and in Mauritius he was training the local people for the Pioneer Corps for the North African campaign.
HH: Gosh.
CA: For which he got the MBE. I didn’t see my father, I was twelve years old in short trousers when he left. When he came back I was with my mother standing on the station waiting for him and of course he got off the train and before anything else I had to salute him. [pause]
HH: Goodness.
CA: Because he was a commissioned officer. He was a lieutenant, acting lieutenant colonel then and I was just an erk. A rating in the Royal Navy. So I had to salute him before the handshakes and all the rest of it. So that was a long time to not see my father.
HH: And effectively the war years were your teenage years.
CA: Yes. I grew up during the war. I was eleven years old when the war started and I was, what would I be? Sixteen when it was over. Just sixteen. I went to the City School in Lincoln which was on Monks Road which is now part of the university and then I left there at sixteen. Went to work for the Lincolnshire Echo as a trainee reporter, then volunteered for the Royal Navy. My father was in the Army, I’d been surrounded by the Air Force all during the war. I wanted to go in the Navy [laughs]
HH: And how do you explain that?
CA: I don’t know. Whether it was a reaction I don’t know. I mean, I wouldn’t say I was sick of the Air Force. I was thrilled to bits with the Air Force. I was very proud of the Air Force. But I just felt I did and I want, I don’t know if it was because I was born in Grimsby. I just wanted to go to sea. I never did.
HH: You never did.
CA: I was posted to Chatham Barracks and they put me immediately, immediately on clerical work tracing documents all over the world by signals for personnel’s documents because they couldn’t be demobbed without documentation. So, they were relying on us to trace the documentation so that they could be demobbed. And every week I used to put a chit in for, for foreign posting on board a ship and each week they said, ‘Oh no. We can’t spare you yet, you know. You’re needed here.’ And then eventually they said, ‘Well, no you’re trained personnel now for documentation. We need you here.’ I never did get to sea.
HH: And how long were you, were you doing documentation for the Navy?
CA: About three years. Three years. It was a fulfilling job in as much as we were enabling men who had served all through the war years to get home and get back in to civvy street, you know. So, it had its own rewards but frustrating as well. Yeah.
HH: So can we just back pedal a little bit to your, to earlier on because it was during the war that you became a Civil Defence messenger first, didn’t you?
CA: That’s right. Yes.
HH: And what did that involve? And how did that happen?
CA: Well, we were given a membership card. We were issued with a uniform, a military style steel helmet and a military style gas mask and our job was to be in place of the telephone. In the event of a telephone breakdown our job was to deliver messages from post to post where ever on a bicycle. That was our job but they then built an Observatory Tower on the Observatory Tower at Lincoln Castle and they asked for volunteers for that. So myself and some friends volunteered for this and that’s how I finished up spending nights at the top of Lincoln Castle.
HH: So, the one post really led to the other.
CA: Yes.
HH: And at a certain point did you actually become a member of the Royal Observer Corps?
CA: No. No. Purely Civil Defence.
HH: So, you were Civil Defence but you were working with the Royal Observer Corps.
CA: In conjunction with the Royal Observer Corps at Nottingham.
HH: Okay.
CA: Yes.
HH: Yes.
CA: And in the event if we saw something, which I did with binoculars at night and swung the range finder around, pin pointed a location, picked up this telephone, telephone exchange, ‘I want an immediate P U T call to Nottingham 66684.’ And that is a fact. I’ve never forgotten that number.
HH: Amazing.
CA: And I did spot something. A light over to the east. And I did this call and I got a letter. I can’t find it now. A letter of congratulation because I reported it before Boston that it was a flare over Boston.
HH: Gosh.
CA: And I got it reported. Yeah. So, it was great fun, you know. It was lovely. But also, I was in a concert party. Also, I used to go farming at the weekends because a friend of mine, his uncle had a farm at Freisthorpe. Mr Chamberlain. I used to go farming there during the school holidays. So all in all I had a pretty busy war. All this time I’m still going to school studying for this course at Immingham.
HH: I was going to ask you how you managed to combine your work observing in Lincoln in the, in the Observatory at Lincoln Castle and school work. How did you manage to combine it all?
CA: Did it. We just did it.
HH: Because you were on duty at night —
CA: Yeah.
HH: A lot of the time, weren’t you?
CA: Yeah. And you had a sleep in one of the bunk beds that was in the shed at the foot of the castle.
HH: So, did, were you were arranged, was, was your work arranged in shifts then?
CA: Yes.
HH: And how many were on shift at any one time?
CA: I think there were always two people for two hours. Yeah. There were sufficient people that you only had one two hour shift so then you could bunk down and then in the morning you cycled home, got washed and changed, and breakfast and school. We did it. It was a war.
HH: And you did that for just about —
CA: Well, I would be —
HH: The whole war?
CA: About four, I’d have been about fourteen. Went in to the Messenger Corps and about up until the Messenger Service, the civil, the Civil Defence was virtually disbanded because the risk of air raids no longer existed so Civil Defence as such was no longer valid. But it always rankled with me that Civil Defence as such was never actually recognised with a medal of any kind. By that I mean wardens, first aid people. There were police. The police were recognised for it. The Fire Service was recognised for it. The Ambulance Service. But Civil Defence as a body never had a Civil Defence recognition. And that always rankled a bit with me because mine was easy but we had Civil Defence messengers in London cycling through the Blitz. Never recognised, you know. Yeah. Anyway, only once did I have an incident. I was living in Hewson Road at the time and the sirens went so the first thing you had to do was get your helmet on, get your gas mask on, pedal furiously up to Eastgate Control, the Civil Defence Control was in Eastgate, and I’m belting down West Parade and there’s shrapnel falling all around me [laughs]
HH: Wow.
CA: Yes. It was a plane somewhere and the anti-aircraft guns were banging away at this thing and there’s this stuff banging around me. And do you know it was silly. It’s stupid when you’re children, isn’t it? You don’t, you don’t fear anything.
HH: Lincoln was, I mean Lincoln was subject to attack in the Second World War, wasn’t it?
CA: Not very much.
HH: No.
CA: Because I think somebody at Bomber Command Centre said the Cathedral was spared because the Germans needed it as well as the Royal Air Force because I know and I said this when I was at Bomber Command that [pause] yes. In the evenings I could stand in the garden back of the house and I could see all the Lancasters all coming out of the sky with black —
HH: So, you remember.
CA: Oh yes. All coming over and going that, all coming towards the cathedral and then parting away and then in the morning from about 4 o’clock you’d hear them coming back in ones and two and you knew a lot of them weren’t coming back.
HH: Yeah. So, you remember seeing those bomber streams.
CA: Oh yes.
HH: Because there were quite a lot of airfields in the immediate vicinity of Lincoln.
CA: Every field had a [laughs] had a base. There was Skellingthorpe and all, they all had airfields all around. And when I was in the concert party we were called, we were called the Victory V’s [laughs] and we went to one or two at Coleby Grange. We went to mostly military camps entertaining the troops and we were a member of Voluntary Entertainment Service, Bomber Command. We came under Bomber Command and at the end of the war we got a letter from the general, I think it was in charge of entertainment. I think it was from Leeds or somewhere like that for Bomber Command thanking us for our services.
HH: So, tell me a bit more about what kind of entertainment you were involved in.
CA: Well, it was a concert party. There were, there were quite a few concert parties during the war years. We joined the Voluntary Entertainment Services which was a voluntary version of ENSA really. And our job was to entertain the troops in the local area and we did holidays at home during the war. We used to do concerts in, in the parks. Witton Park, Arboretum, South Park. We did outdoor concerts at those. Washingborough Village Hall I remember. And all this kind of thing.
HH: And did you play an instrument or sing?
CA: My brother and I were known as the Uke Brothers and we were a duet of ukuleles and we used to sing a lot of George Formby songs. And we were known, Byron and Colin, the Uke Brothers.
HH: Fantastic.
CA: Yeah.
HH: Did you continue playing your ukulele after the war?
CA: I haven’t played it since I went in to the Navy. I’ve still got it but I’ve never played it. No. No. It’s one of those things, isn’t it? Put it away. But no that was a lot of fun as well. In fact, I’m not sure whether it was Coleby or somewhere near there that there was an anti-aircraft establishment and we had this in a big Nissen hut, performing in there and suddenly there was a shout, ‘Action.’ And all the audience got up and ran out and started banging away with the anti-aircraft and the concert was suspended.
HH: Yeah.
CA: Then they all came back in again and we finished it.
HH: And you finished it.
CA: Yeah. Yes. It was a very eventful war. I thoroughly enjoyed it and that’s an awful thing to say.
HH: But how did you get around when you were doing your concert parties? How did you do it?
CA: There was a bus supplied by Northern Command, Bomber Command and it was fitted with a mini piano so that where ever we went if they didn’t have a piano we’d haul this mini piano out and use that. We’d rehearse in, within the bus and that was supplied by them. They paid for the maintenance and the fuel and all the rest of it and they came round and picked us all up from our homes and off we went. Yeah. And I know on more than one occasion the buses dropped me off at the Castle [laughs] to go and do my job in the tower at night time. Yeah.
HH: Gosh. Yeah.
CA: We were, we were fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years olds but I think in some respects we were a lot older. Had to be.
HH: Well, you had to grow up fast don’t you?
CA: Yeah. Yeah. Had to be.
HH: Under those conditions.
CA: Yeah. But, I mean we were also very very patriotic and you know, we must do our duty.
HH: So, do you remember Lincoln on VE day?
CA: Oh, I do.
HH: Tell me about that.
CA: My brother and I were members of what was known as the Green Room Club. That was just off the Brayford. And on VE night we all went to the Club and I think it was the only place in Louth that still had some beer left. And then when we went to the Stonebow and we marched with crowds and crowds of people. There was American Air Force officers on the Saracen’s Head balcony. And we went all the way down to the Ritz Cinema and the Ritz Cinema had a searchlight shining on the cathedral. That was quite a sight. And there was, there was some low cloud and the silhouette, the shadow of the Cathedral was on the cloud. Yes. It’s very emotional. Even today you know. Very emotional. The relief when the war was over, was oh it was incredible.
HH: I can imagine. Yeah. And tell me when, that was, that was obviously 1945. So, what happened? How does that relate to the time you were in the Navy?
CA: Well, as I say I left school in 1944. And I was with the Echo until, I suppose I was [pause] yeah 1945. Then in 1945, yes I was still at school before the war finished. Yes. And then in 1945 that was when I volunteered for the Royal Navy.
HH: So, were you on the Echo at the time of VE day then?
CA: That would be —
HH: May.
CA: May ’45, wasn’t it? 8th of May 1945. I think I’d, yes I think I had left the Echo and I was working with my brother maintaining hangars and runways and perimeter tracks and hard standings at Waddington and Scampton.
HH: How fascinating.
CA: Yes. He worked for a builder’s as a quantity surveyor. He was excused because of his eyesight from military service but he worked for this firm from Skegness who was the company that looked after the airfields.
HH: The tracks.
CA: Yeah. And that was his job and I went with him for a while.
HH: On top of all those —
CA: So, I worked at Scampton.
HH: RAF stations.
CA: And Waddington. Yes. And that was post war. More or less post war then.
HH: And then you went on to —
CA: No. The war would still be on for a while. Yes.
HH: Yeah. And then you went off to the Navy.
CA: Yes.
HH: Okay. And after the Navy.
CA: I walked in to the Grimsby Telegraph office and I said, ‘Can I see the advertisement manager please?’ They said, ‘Yes. What’s it about?’ I said, ‘It’s personal.’ So, they sent for him. He came down. He says, ‘What can I —', I was still in Naval uniform, I was on demob leave. He said, ‘What can I do for you?’ I said, ‘You can give me a job.’ And he did.
HH: So, you went and worked in Grimsby then.
CA: I went to work for the Grimsby, Grimsby, what was known then as the Grimsby Evening Telegraph.
HH: What attracted you to journalism?
CA: I [pause] my father started a newspaper up way before the war. I think it was the Cleethorpes Advertiser and he went bankrupt in that and I always had an interest in journalism. My ambition was to be a foreign correspondent for the Daily Express and that was [laughs] But then when I went into the Royal Navy and I had plenty of time to think it over and I thought there’s money in advertising. More than there is in being a newspaper reporter. So I did a course in advertising, a correspondence course, and that first step was to go in to advertising in the press with newspapers. So, although I was still with newspapers it was more on the advertising side. So, I started at the Grimsby Telegraph and then that was —
HH: Selling advertising space.
CA: Yes. And, and the best part was designing the advertisements. Going to visit clients and sitting down and designing advertising which, which was the part that appealed to me. And although the advertisement manager gave me this job it was a temporary job pending a vacancy occurring or another job coming up elsewhere. And a job did come up on the Grimsby News which is now defunct long long ago and so I took that.
[clock chiming]
HH: Oh, I think we’re going to have to stop for the mid-day chimes.
[pause]
CA: That’s it [laughs]
HH: The chimes.
CA: Yes. So, I went to work for the Grimsby News as advertising manager there which was rather a bit elevated because it wasn’t much of a job really and then part of my job was visiting all the cinemas and churches. Get the church notes, visit cinemas, discuss their advertising. And there was one manager in particular. A lovely man called Bill Connelly, Ex-Pathfinder RAF and he was the manager there and I used to sit and chat with him. And he said, oh he said, ‘You ought to have a go at, at this business.’ He said, ‘I think you’d be good for it.’ And that was cinema management so, I applied to ABC [coughs] which is what the Ritz was but at the same time I applied to the Rank Organisation, Gaumont Odeon people as well. I got interviews with both of them on the same day.
HH: Goodness.
CA: At different times of the day. I then got letters from both of them offering me a job as a trainee manager and I had to make a decision.
HH: Difficult.
CA: Which one to take. I mean people today could never believe this.
HH: No.
CA: So, I chose ABC because Bill Connelly was the man that talked me into it. So, I then went to Leicester as a trainee and then I went to Nottingham as an assistant manager. And then I came to Cleethorpes as assistant manager. My home town. With Bill. And I was there for maybe five, four years I think and I was promoted manager, full manager at a cinema in Manchester.
HH: In Manchester. That was a big move then.
CA: Well, it was in as much as I was full manager but it was a flea pit [laughs] very low. I mean it was lovely people, lovely mining, mining community but it was well, you know the bottom of the, the bottom rung of the ladder.
HH: Well, the pictures, going to the pictures in those days was still a very big thing, wasn’t it?
CA: That’s right. Yes. And it was treated as such and the district manager that had gave me the job had now become by this time a top notch executive at Head Office. I’m digressing a bit from the story, aren’t I? However —
HH: This is good.
CA: The, the top management were touring the company’s cinemas all over the country looking for an established, to establish an ABC television studio and they came to mine. I happened to be, it was, the kind of cinema it was everybody did whatever they could do and I was on my knees in the foyer painting the skirting boards with black paint. Then he said, ‘What are you doing here?’ Foolishly, I said, ‘Painting the skirting board.’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘Why? Why are you here?’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve applied for vacancies whenever they’ve come around.’ Vacancies used to be advertised among the managers. Among the assistant managers it was. And I said, ‘This is the one I got.’ ‘Oh well,’ you know., ‘Okay.’ A week later the phone rang. He said, ‘How would you like to come to my home town?’ Well, his home town was Scunthorpe.
HH: Scunthorpe.
CA: Yeah. And I said, ‘Where? At Scunthorpe?’ He said, ‘No. Windsor.’ So, I was duly appointed manager of the Playhouse Cinema and restaurant in Windsor.
HH: That was quite an elevation.
CA: That was from the bottom to the top almost. Yes. It was a real big deal that was and I was there for seven years. I got a licence.
HH: Did you enjoy it?
CA: Oh yes. I got a licence, a liquor licence for the restaurant. I applied for and got that while I was there. I lived in a caravan for five, five years, four years. One was a holiday site. I had to buy a caravan, a small one and it was by the riverside on a holiday site so by October you had to move out and I was fortunate there was an orchard at old Windsor and there was about seven or eight caravans on it. That was a lovely, a lovely site and I was fortunate in getting a site on there and I spent about four years living in this caravan and my first wife decided to start a family and I was able to sell the caravan. And what I sold the caravan for I put a deposit on a house.
HH: Gosh.
CA: And had a brand new house built at Eton Wick which is near Dorney, Dorney Common. That way. Between Eton College and Slough. Lived there for a couple of years and then the offer came up as manager at Cleethorpes. The manager was retiring and they offered it to me. So, I said, ‘Yeah. Okay.’
HH: So you came back to Cleethorpes.
CA: Came back to Cleethorpes.
HH: Gosh.
CA: I came full circle.
HH: Full circle.
CA: And then I was manager there for seven years. Lived in New Waltham. And I was getting a little anxious because it was, cinemas were closing. They were going to bingo and some of the managers were going with the cinema to bingo. I didn’t join this to be a bingo manager. So, there was a row about it. They knew that I was not happy and I got a phone call from somebody in Louth who knew somebody who worked on the Telegraph and, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘There’s a vacancy for advertising manager at the Louth Standard. Would you be interested?’ Well, yeah. ‘Yes, that would be great.’ So, in 1969 I finally it would be 19’. In 1968 I finally resigned from ABC. I was sorry to depart but I thought I’m going to depart before it departs from me. So that was when I came to Louth. In 1969.
HH: And have you been here ever since?
CA: I’ve been here ever since and I was manager of the Grimsby Telegraph branch in Louth. And I worked there —
HH: Gosh.
CA: I had problems in my second marriage. She deserted not only me, a five year old and a two year old. And I was in a bit of a problem there so I temporarily put my two girls in to foster care which was not a very nice time at all.
HH: No.
CA: They were lucky. I was lucky they had lovely foster parents at that time. And I met, I joined Gingerbread. Have you heard of Gingerbread? It’s for one parent families.
HH: Yes. Yes.
CA: Actually, while I was at the Telegraph my receptionist came in with this leaflet. She said, ‘Oh, there’s a lady in the front office wants to know if you’ll put this in the window.’ And I, like I said, ‘Yeah. Well, leave it there.’ I said. ‘We’ll see to it later.’ And then my deputy, he’d been out doing the rounds and he came in. He said, ‘What’s that boss? Oh.’ He said, ‘Are you going?’ I said, ‘Why? What is it?’ [laughs] ‘Oh no. It’s a bunch of women yabbing away. Not for me. Not my scene.’ He said, ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I think you ought to go.’ He said, you know, ‘It’s comfort. People in the same position as you.’ I said, ‘Well, I’ll give it a try.’ So I went in. I thought. No. This is not for me. And I thought well I’ll stick it out but I won’t be coming again. You know. There was one other man there and he came afterwards, God rest his soul, he’s dead now. He came over to me and he said, ‘Oh yeah, come again,’ he says. ‘I need somebody else here. Another man here.’ So, I did and one of the other members who’d had a bad marriage, as I’d had, not looking for anybody at all and we got quite friendly. We made phone calls to each and this sort of thing and then had an invitation to go to the old [unclear] dinner and dance at “The Beachcomber” in Grimsby and I got two tickets. What am I going to do? I’ve got two tickets here. So I hesitantly asked Jean would she like to go? She said, ‘Oh yes. Alright.’ So she did. We’ve lived together for forty three years.
HH: Amazing. So, it turned out well.
CA: Yes. The happiest forty three years I’ve ever had.
HH: Great. Yeah.
CA: Yeah. So that pretty well covers it all.
HH: So, you did go back. You did go back to journalism really.
CA: Well, to newspapers really.
HH: Well, to the newspaper world.
CA: Well, to the newspapers which was my first love.
HH: After your detour into cinemas.
CA: Yes. But I did twenty years in cinemas.
HH: Yeah.
CA: I loved it. Really, I did.
HH: What particularly did you enjoy about the cinema work?
CA: Just having a place that you, was under your control. The feeling of responsibility and organisation.
HH: Yeah.
CA: And welcoming the public and I mean we had to change in to dinner jacket every night. 6 o’clock you had to be on the, in the foyer. But that was only the tip of the iceberg. We had to be there for 10.30 in the morning and there was a lot of work. Maintenance, supplies, clerical work.
HH: And you had to stay for every show right until everybody had gone home every night.
CA: Oh yes. Yeah. 10.30 in the morning ‘til getting on for 11 o’clock at night. So, yeah, but I did enjoy it. There was nothing more fulfilling than standing at the back of the stalls with a full house for a comedy film with everybody laughing. You felt responsible for that you know.
HH: And did you become a bit of a film buff yourself?
CA: No. I always enjoyed the cinema. People say, ‘Oh, did you know what happened to —’ so and so. Who? Famous actor. ‘No. I don’t know.’ I’m not interested. Only interested in the presentation side of it. The showmanship side of it. Well, I got to show my certificates and submitted campaigns that you were doing. I was, I was a member of the Motion Picture Herald of America Guild of Show Business. Yeah. It was, it was a very very interesting way to earn a living and I did enjoy it. I’m sorry what happened to it and what I see of the cinemas today I would not want to be back in it.
HH: No.
CA: No. They’re, they’re cinema factories. They just churn things out. Churn people out. There’s no showmanship. There’s no reception. There’s just nothing. You just go in, you buy a ticket, you find your own way to a seat and that’s it.
HH: No human touch.
CA: No. I mean we were there greetings the patrons as they came in. They knew who to go to if they wanted to know some information. They’d come to the man in the dickie bow. And that was all part of the job. It was enjoyable. It was enjoyable. However, it was a long time ago.
HH: Yeah. And then you returned to the newspaper world largely on the advertising side.
CA: Well, I was manager.
HH: And also managing.
CA: I was the manager.
HH: The newspaper offices.
CA: Of the newspaper offices. Yes. Yeah.
HH: Yeah.
CA: Yes. So, I was in virtual charge of distribution and advertising. The whole nine yards really.
HH: Everything. Yeah.
CA: Yes. Yeah. So, I was with them from 1970 to [pause] 1955. No. No. No. 1985.
HH: Yeah.
CA: 1985. And then we both decided that we’d like to be self-employed so we bought a business. A corner shop in Grimsby.
HH: So, you went back to Grimsby for a bit.
CA: Yes. We went there. Seven years. Six or seven years we were there. We had this corner shop and then we sort of retired. Came back to Louth and came, moved in with Jean’s mother because she’d lost her husband and we moved in with her. And the first thing I did actually when we came back was go to the Volunteer Bureau as I wanted to do some voluntary work. I cannot just stay home all the time, look at walls. So, ‘Well, they want a relief driver for the Link.’ I said, ‘The what?’ They said, ‘The Link. The Link Daycare Centre.’ ‘Oh’, I said ‘what’s that?’ ‘Well, it’s for the elderly and infirm.’ ‘Oh yeah. I’ll have a look at that.’ So I did. I finished up as the senior driver.
HH: Gosh.
CA: And chairman of the committee. And that for thirteen years.
HH: Gosh.
CA: Up to I was still driving the mini bus ‘til I was eighty and the only reason we stopped was because we had, sadly we had to close down. Lack of financial support. Lack of volunteers. It was very difficult to get volunteers. But no that was that.
HH: And did you do any other sort of volunteering thereafter?
CA: Yes. [unclear] school heard about us. They had a school bus and they said they would provide a lunch one day a week at the school for people that we’d been taking to, to our organisation. But I wasn’t allowed to drive their bus because it was not our bus but I did have a licence. But one of the teachers was a driver and then we went around and picked people up for a while and then the school decided they weren’t doing it any more.
HH: Wouldn’t do it any more.
CA: So, then Jean and I used to go over to Grimsby and we used to go to a card shop. We could get cards very very cheaply. So we’d go over, buy cards in bulk, bring them back to Louth. Go to Maxey Court which is sheltered housing and sell the cards. We didn’t make much profit on them but the profit we made went to Cancer Research and Combat Stress. People don’t seem to have heard of combat stress, do they?
HH: Well, it’s a big thing.
CA: It is. Well, we got collecting boxes for them and put them in the town as well for Combat Stress and Cancer Research and then a card, The Card Factory, I don’t know if there is one in Lincoln but there —
HH: I think there is.
CA: One opened up in Louth and of course they were undercutting even what we were charging.
HH: Yeah.
CA: So that was that. Jean also worked while I was still driving the buses, she still worked at St Barnabas Hospice shop in the town. So, and Jean now knits and crochets.
HH: I can see the evidence.
CA: She does baby blankets.
HH: I can see lots of evidence.
CA: And she gives those to —
HH: Loads of balls of wool and knitting books.
CA: Yes. And she donates all this.
HH: Wonderful.
CA: Gives all this. Baby blankets. Gives it all to charity. St Andrews at Grimsby, St Barnabas in Louth. So we’re still doing a bit.
HH: Yeah.
CA: Still doing a bit.
HH: Now, you mentioned just before we started this interview, Colin that you and she had this project to visit RAF sites. Tell me more about how that came about.
CA: I’ll see if I can persuade her to come through. Can I? I don’t think she will but —
[pause]
CA: Jean.
[recording paused]
HH: So, at this point we are joined by Jean who is Colin’s partner and you’re going to tell me about this project you’ve got to visit RAF sites and historic sites. Is it just in Lincolnshire or is it further afield?
JM: Well, so far it’s just been in Lincolnshire.
HH: Well, there’s plenty to keep you occupied.
JM: Oh, absolutely.
HH: And why did you want to do this?
JM: Well, I think possibly it was because of the new Bomber Command Memorial.
CA: Yeah.
JM: We saw that. I thought I’m just as guilty as some people of not thinking about others that have died and we spoke to some friends and they thought it would be very nice to visit places where they could see something about the war and so that’s how it started.
HH: So, you’re doing this with, with others. Other friends as well.
JM: With two other —
HH: That’s great.
JM: People. And I think really what started it really, another thing was that poem by that young American.
HH: Oh, John Gillespie Magee. “High Flight.”
CA: Yes.
JM: That’s right. And I’m looking frantically for the picture of [pause] Yes.
CA: That’s the one isn’t it? Yes.
JM: That’s really —
HH: That’s, that’s taken in the field that you —
JM: That’s right.
CA: I was telling them about that. The one in the middle of the field.
HH: Gosh. That’s interesting.
JM: This lady was kind enough to send me information about it and who to contact.
HH: Where is it? Where is it exactly? Do you know?
CA: Yes.
JM: Yes. Not too far from Boston.
HH: Okay.
CA: Not East Kirkby is it? No.
JM: No.
CA: Oh —
JM: I think the information might be on that sheet that’s in there.
HH: Oh, not to worry now.
CA: So, this is something you’re going to be doing quite soon.
JM: Yes.
CA: Next month, aren’t we?
HH: Sibsey Northlands
CA: Sibsey Northlands.
JM: Yes.
CA: Sibsey.
HH: How interesting. Yeah.
JM: And we saw the, we’ve seen the graves at Scopwick.
CA: That’s right. Yes.
JM: The Canadian and the German.
HH: That’s where he’s buried? Magee.
JM: That’s right. Yes. And —
HH: Yeah. The crash site where he, the site where Magee crashed is not actually marked by any permanent memorial but if you, if you happen to be going down the A15 towards Sleaford you turn, there’s a signpost to turn right in to Cranwell village and right there there’s a sign to turn left to the Roxholme Care Home and if you go about a hundred yards down that road to Roxholme Care Home you will be at the crash site.
CA: Oh.
JM: Oh.
HH: It’s a little tiny farm road but it is possible to go down there and to turn around because there are passing places.
CA: Oh right.
HH: Where you can turn around.
CA: That’s another one now then.
JM: Yes.
HH: Yeah. Yeah.
JM: So, we continue. We’ve been to RAF Digby and had a marvellous talk.
HH: Oh, RAF Digby is wonderful.
CA: Yes.
HH: Did you see the operations room?
CA: Yes.
HH: Isn’t that special?
CA: Yes, we did. Yes. Yes.
JM: That was brilliant.
CA: Yes.
JM: And the sergeant was so good who gave the talk.
CA: Yeah.
JM: Nothing was too much trouble.
CA: He was, wasn’t he? Very good indeed. Yeah. We’d like to go again actually.
JM: Yes. It was very interesting.
CA: Yeah.
JM: And then we’ve been to various pubs seeing the —
CA: And the Blue Bell.
JM: Signatures.
HH: And the Blue Bell Inn. Yes.
CA: [unclear]
HH: Yes. Just south of Woodhall.
CA: And what’s the other one? The Red Lion, is it?
HH: Yes.
JM: Yes.
HH: Yes.
CA: The Red Lion. We’ve been there.
HH: Yes. And of course, you were at the Petwood.
JM: Well, that is where we’re hoping to go.
CA: Wednesday.
JM: On Wednesday.
CA: Yes. Yeah.
HH: Lovely.
CA: Yeah.
HH: You’ll enjoy it. It’s a great place.
CA: Well, we both like Woodhall. We like it. I mean the Dambusters Memorial there is something else, isn’t it? And then this for the hundredth anniversary year there’s an addition now, there for that. Yes. It’s a marvellous marvellous monument that is with all the names. But Bomber Command Memorial [pause] we hadn’t been and we’d been, oh, we must go, must go, must go and eventually we finally made it and it was while we were walking around I was wearing my veteran’s badge and two of the guides who were wearing veteran badges approached me and that was how this interview has come about.
HH: Good. Well, I’m pleased. I’m very pleased that it, that that’s how it came about.
CA: Yes.
HH: What did you think of the IBCC? Did you enjoy your visit?
CA: Oh yes. Well, we filled up before we even got in [laughs] Didn’t we?
HH: Yeah. Great. Good. Good. My team and I were responsible for the exhibition.
CA: Really.
HH: If you went around the exhibition.
CA: We haven’t been. We intend to go next time we go.
HH: Yeah.
CA: We intend to do it next time we go. Yes. Oh right.
JM: Well, we shall be by ourselves next time so we can.
CA: There will be just the two of us and we’re going on our own. Yes, because there’s a painting in there. Limited edition. I do hope it’s still there because we want to buy that and we weren’t in a position to get it at the time. And it was 19.99, I think, the price and it’s hanging on the wall.
HH: Is it a print?
CA: It’s a limited edition print and it’s the scene that I remember so well was all dusk. Dusk. All the Lancasters coming over and that was just as I remember it. And so that’s what we’re going to try and get on Wednesday. A copy of that because it really is. I’ve got a Lancaster up there on the top row.
HH: Yes. I can see that.
CA: The Lincoln Imp of course.
HH: Yes.
CA: Yes.
JM: I don’t think you ever forget those really.
CA: No.
HH: No.
JM: And —
CA: Well, in Louth you saw plenty around here, didn’t you?
JM: Well, yes and also this one particular evening when they were bombing Grimsby and Hull it lit up my bedroom and I was well fairly young at the time, I think.
HH: But you still remember?
CA: Oh yes. I called my mother and said, ‘It’s the end of the world.’ And so [laughs] she came through and said —
CA: The end of the world [laughs]
JM: ‘No. No.’ She said, ‘It’s Grimsby and Hull being bombed.’
HH: And where were you living then?
JM: Down Eastfield Road in Louth. And I think the other experience I remember was mother and I were visiting her sister and husband and we had gone into the garden to pick gooseberries and suddenly there was this noise and mother was pushing me in to the bush with her on top of me and this German plane had come down and I guess he was going on to North Coates. And —
HH: Crashed.
JM: No. I don’t know what happened to him.
HH: Oh, but he was, he was, yeah.
JM: He was shooting.
CA: Yeah. Machine gunning —
JM: Carried on his way. But —
CA: We had an Anderson shelter.
HH: Did you?
CA: In our garden and we had one, it was a Sunday afternoon. My mother used to go for a lie down in the afternoons. My brother and I were downstairs and the sirens went and then we heard what sounded like anti-aircraft guns going off so mother came tumbling down the stairs [laughs] we all ran out in to the garden, dived into the Anderson shelter and we had a slatted bed in there and my mother went straight through it.
HH: To carry on her lie down.
CA: Dear. Oh dear [laughs]
HH: What was your brother’s name, Colin?
CA: Byron.
HH: Myron.
CA: Byron Atkinson. B Y R O N. And it was Byron and Colin Atkinson, the Uke Brothers.
HH: The uke brothers. That’s a great story that. Yeah. Yeah.
CA: Yes.
HH: You need to get him to get his ukulele out.
CA: Oh yeah.
JM: Yes. Well, they have a ukulele group meet in town.
CA: Not the same without Byron, Jean.
HH: I’m sure not.
JM: Oh no.
HH: No. No. I’m sure not.
CA: He died. He died at fifty seven. Heart attack. The rest of the family saw old age but my brother didn’t. Yeah. I do miss him still. Yeah.
HH: There was just the two of you were there?
CA: Yes, yeah. He was six years older than me and as, as a child he used to, used to, he made a little comic up every week for me, you know.
HH: How wonderful.
CA: And even when I was, with his first job he used to give me some of the money that his wages were.
HH: Now, I also just one other thing that it would be good to talk about is I believe your mum at some point had something to do with the Avro factory in Bracebridge Heath.
CA: I think that’s probably why they approached me and then all this came out. Yes. She was cleaning instruments from aircraft, crashed aircraft, bombers, mostly Lancasters. I mean, it doesn’t sound very nice but she always told us the worst part of the job was washing the blood off the instruments before they could work on them. Oh well. We had all the family. My brother was in the Home Guard as well as the concert party. My father was in the Army. Mother was doing this war work in Bracebridge Heath.
HH: In Bracebridge.
CA: Yeah. Yeah.
HH: And did she stop doing this at the end of the war?
CA: Oh yes.
HH: Yeah.
CA: Yeah.
HH: Because the Avro factory well it was a repair shop really in Bracebridge Heath. I think that continued a while after the war but —
CA: Did it. I think when the war ended the people that had to work didn’t [unclear]
HH: Yeah.
CA: They packed up and went back to civilian jobs.
HH: Yeah.
CA: Yeah. She just went home and carried on being a housewife and mother.
HH: Yes.
[pause]
HH: That sounds like a good moment to, to say thank you very much for your time and for both of you telling these stories and and sharing your memories. It’s, it’s —
CA: Our pleasure.
HH: It will be a great addition to the interviews in our archives.
CA: That’s lovely to know.
HH: So, thank you very much.
CA: That’s lovely to know. Yes.
JM: I think —
[recording paused]
HH: Fitting for a showman we’ve now got an encore and Colin is going to tell us an interesting story about being a best man. Tell us, Colin.
CA: Well, this would be, I was still in the Navy and my cousin, that family were all from Ireland. My mother was from Ireland and my cousin Milly was getting married in London to a German prisoner of war. They met of course because German POWs were employed working on farms and she also worked on a farm and that’s where they met. The best man was to be her brother Maurice. Her brother was in the Royal Marines and he was based at Portsmouth. He couldn’t make it so they asked me if I would stand in for him. Therefore, I became the best man to a German prisoner of war whilst still in Royal Naval uniform. And he was a charming young man.
HH: Where did they live? End up living?
CA: They moved to Germany. They went to Germany then. Yes.
HH: So, she went back to Germany with him.
CA: With him. Yes. Yeah. So, it’s strange, isn’t it? I was still in Royal Naval uniform. I’m standing next to a German prisoner of war.
HH: What I love about those sort of stories is that you know being at war wasn’t really anything personal. You know.
CA: No.
HH: You know, it was people still related as human beings didn’t they?
CA: As human beings. Oh yes. Yeah.
HH: That’s wonderful. Thank you for that extra special story.
CA: What’s significant about this is the date. It’s the anniversary of the outbreak of World War Two.
HH: Indeed, it is.
CA: And it hasn’t gone unnoticed by me.
HH: Did, did you plan this then?
CA: No. Not at all. It was when you called and asked if I would give this interview and I said yes, and the date was mutually arranged.
HH: Yes.
CA: It only occurred to me since then.
HH: Yes. It’s the significant —
CA: This is the anniversary of World War Two.
HH: Anniversary.
CA: Yes.
HH: Indeed.
CA: Yes.
HH: Colin, you were born and grew up in Lincoln.
CA: I was born in Grimsby.
HH: Oh, you were born in Grimsby. Tell us about Grimsby first of all then and your very early years.
CA: Yeah.
HH: When were, when were you born in Grimsby?
CA: I was born, well I was born on the 6th of May 1928. My birth certificate says the 6th of June 1928. My father went in after the date had turned in to June to register the birth and he just simply said, ‘The sixth.’ And the registrar put down the 6th of June. By the time they discovered what it was they said, ‘Well, we’d have to get the midwife, the doctor, the registrar. Oh, leave it alone.’ So, I drew my pension a year, a month late. I had to stay in the Royal Navy a month longer than I should have done so I’ve got a lot to thank my old man for.
HH: No. You didn’t have two ninetieth birthdays though.
CA: No. No. No. Not really. I don’t celebrate the 6th of June.
HH: So, you celebrate the 6th of May.
CA: I celebrate my actual date of birth. Yes.
HH: Good.
CA: Which is May.
HH: Good.
CA: Yes.
HH: So, when did your family move to Lincoln then?
CA: Well, my father’s job took him to Lincoln in 1937. So that’s when we moved from Grimsby, Cleethorpes to Lincoln. I did start school in, in Cleethorpes. I went to a primary school, infant’s school and junior school called St Peter’s School and the classroom that I was in in what is now known as a primary is still in existence and it is still in use as a school. So I can still drive past that and say —
HH: Okay.
CA: Well, I was five years old when I started there. Then we moved to Lincoln in 1937. We had the Coronation of George the 6th. The death of George the 5th. The Coronation of George the 6th in Lincoln. We lived in Thesiger Street. We then moved to Monson Street where the multi-storey car park is now. But these were these tall buildings. Lucy Tower Street. We then moved to Outer Circle Drive to a council house that needed repairs to the ceiling so they moved us to Lamb Gardens. And then war broke out. I sat with a friend in his house listening to Chamberlain make his unforgettable speech, ‘We are now at war with Germany.’ Immediately went home and then as the war progressed my father immediately volunteered to go back. He wrote to the War Office and they wrote back and said, ‘You can’t volunteer. You are still in the Army.’ He was at the Battle of the Somme.
HH: Gosh.
CA: He won the military medal at the Battle of the Somme. He was then in the Territorials between the wars and that’s why they said, ‘Whether you want to come in or not we’re having you.’ So, he went back in. I’m telling you my father’s history now rather than mine.
HH: No. No. That’s good.
CA: He, he got a commission in the First World War and he went back in as a lieutenant. From a lieutenant to captain. Captain to major. He was then posted in 1940 to Mauritius and in Mauritius he was training the local people for the Pioneer Corps for the North African campaign.
HH: Gosh.
CA: For which he got the MBE. I didn’t see my father, I was twelve years old in short trousers when he left. When he came back I was with my mother standing on the station waiting for him and of course he got off the train and before anything else I had to salute him. [pause]
HH: Goodness.
CA: Because he was a commissioned officer. He was a lieutenant, acting lieutenant colonel then and I was just an erk. A rating in the Royal Navy. So I had to salute him before the handshakes and all the rest of it. So that was a long time to not see my father.
HH: And effectively the war years were your teenage years.
CA: Yes. I grew up during the war. I was eleven years old when the war started and I was, what would I be? Sixteen when it was over. Just sixteen. I went to the City School in Lincoln which was on Monks Road which is now part of the university and then I left there at sixteen. Went to work for the Lincolnshire Echo as a trainee reporter, then volunteered for the Royal Navy. My father was in the Army, I’d been surrounded by the Air Force all during the war. I wanted to go in the Navy [laughs]
HH: And how do you explain that?
CA: I don’t know. Whether it was a reaction I don’t know. I mean, I wouldn’t say I was sick of the Air Force. I was thrilled to bits with the Air Force. I was very proud of the Air Force. But I just felt I did and I want, I don’t know if it was because I was born in Grimsby. I just wanted to go to sea. I never did.
HH: You never did.
CA: I was posted to Chatham Barracks and they put me immediately, immediately on clerical work tracing documents all over the world by signals for personnel’s documents because they couldn’t be demobbed without documentation. So, they were relying on us to trace the documentation so that they could be demobbed. And every week I used to put a chit in for, for foreign posting on board a ship and each week they said, ‘Oh no. We can’t spare you yet, you know. You’re needed here.’ And then eventually they said, ‘Well, no you’re trained personnel now for documentation. We need you here.’ I never did get to sea.
HH: And how long were you, were you doing documentation for the Navy?
CA: About three years. Three years. It was a fulfilling job in as much as we were enabling men who had served all through the war years to get home and get back in to civvy street, you know. So, it had its own rewards but frustrating as well. Yeah.
HH: So can we just back pedal a little bit to your, to earlier on because it was during the war that you became a Civil Defence messenger first, didn’t you?
CA: That’s right. Yes.
HH: And what did that involve? And how did that happen?
CA: Well, we were given a membership card. We were issued with a uniform, a military style steel helmet and a military style gas mask and our job was to be in place of the telephone. In the event of a telephone breakdown our job was to deliver messages from post to post where ever on a bicycle. That was our job but they then built an Observatory Tower on the Observatory Tower at Lincoln Castle and they asked for volunteers for that. So myself and some friends volunteered for this and that’s how I finished up spending nights at the top of Lincoln Castle.
HH: So, the one post really led to the other.
CA: Yes.
HH: And at a certain point did you actually become a member of the Royal Observer Corps?
CA: No. No. Purely Civil Defence.
HH: So, you were Civil Defence but you were working with the Royal Observer Corps.
CA: In conjunction with the Royal Observer Corps at Nottingham.
HH: Okay.
CA: Yes.
HH: Yes.
CA: And in the event if we saw something, which I did with binoculars at night and swung the range finder around, pin pointed a location, picked up this telephone, telephone exchange, ‘I want an immediate P U T call to Nottingham 66684.’ And that is a fact. I’ve never forgotten that number.
HH: Amazing.
CA: And I did spot something. A light over to the east. And I did this call and I got a letter. I can’t find it now. A letter of congratulation because I reported it before Boston that it was a flare over Boston.
HH: Gosh.
CA: And I got it reported. Yeah. So, it was great fun, you know. It was lovely. But also, I was in a concert party. Also, I used to go farming at the weekends because a friend of mine, his uncle had a farm at Freisthorpe. Mr Chamberlain. I used to go farming there during the school holidays. So all in all I had a pretty busy war. All this time I’m still going to school studying for this course at Immingham.
HH: I was going to ask you how you managed to combine your work observing in Lincoln in the, in the Observatory at Lincoln Castle and school work. How did you manage to combine it all?
CA: Did it. We just did it.
HH: Because you were on duty at night —
CA: Yeah.
HH: A lot of the time, weren’t you?
CA: Yeah. And you had a sleep in one of the bunk beds that was in the shed at the foot of the castle.
HH: So, did, were you were arranged, was, was your work arranged in shifts then?
CA: Yes.
HH: And how many were on shift at any one time?
CA: I think there were always two people for two hours. Yeah. There were sufficient people that you only had one two hour shift so then you could bunk down and then in the morning you cycled home, got washed and changed, and breakfast and school. We did it. It was a war.
HH: And you did that for just about —
CA: Well, I would be —
HH: The whole war?
CA: About four, I’d have been about fourteen. Went in to the Messenger Corps and about up until the Messenger Service, the civil, the Civil Defence was virtually disbanded because the risk of air raids no longer existed so Civil Defence as such was no longer valid. But it always rankled with me that Civil Defence as such was never actually recognised with a medal of any kind. By that I mean wardens, first aid people. There were police. The police were recognised for it. The Fire Service was recognised for it. The Ambulance Service. But Civil Defence as a body never had a Civil Defence recognition. And that always rankled a bit with me because mine was easy but we had Civil Defence messengers in London cycling through the Blitz. Never recognised, you know. Yeah. Anyway, only once did I have an incident. I was living in Hewson Road at the time and the sirens went so the first thing you had to do was get your helmet on, get your gas mask on, pedal furiously up to Eastgate Control, the Civil Defence Control was in Eastgate, and I’m belting down West Parade and there’s shrapnel falling all around me [laughs]
HH: Wow.
CA: Yes. It was a plane somewhere and the anti-aircraft guns were banging away at this thing and there’s this stuff banging around me. And do you know it was silly. It’s stupid when you’re children, isn’t it? You don’t, you don’t fear anything.
HH: Lincoln was, I mean Lincoln was subject to attack in the Second World War, wasn’t it?
CA: Not very much.
HH: No.
CA: Because I think somebody at Bomber Command Centre said the Cathedral was spared because the Germans needed it as well as the Royal Air Force because I know and I said this when I was at Bomber Command that [pause] yes. In the evenings I could stand in the garden back of the house and I could see all the Lancasters all coming out of the sky with black —
HH: So, you remember.
CA: Oh yes. All coming over and going that, all coming towards the cathedral and then parting away and then in the morning from about 4 o’clock you’d hear them coming back in ones and two and you knew a lot of them weren’t coming back.
HH: Yeah. So, you remember seeing those bomber streams.
CA: Oh yes.
HH: Because there were quite a lot of airfields in the immediate vicinity of Lincoln.
CA: Every field had a [laughs] had a base. There was Skellingthorpe and all, they all had airfields all around. And when I was in the concert party we were called, we were called the Victory V’s [laughs] and we went to one or two at Coleby Grange. We went to mostly military camps entertaining the troops and we were a member of Voluntary Entertainment Service, Bomber Command. We came under Bomber Command and at the end of the war we got a letter from the general, I think it was in charge of entertainment. I think it was from Leeds or somewhere like that for Bomber Command thanking us for our services.
HH: So, tell me a bit more about what kind of entertainment you were involved in.
CA: Well, it was a concert party. There were, there were quite a few concert parties during the war years. We joined the Voluntary Entertainment Services which was a voluntary version of ENSA really. And our job was to entertain the troops in the local area and we did holidays at home during the war. We used to do concerts in, in the parks. Witton Park, Arboretum, South Park. We did outdoor concerts at those. Washingborough Village Hall I remember. And all this kind of thing.
HH: And did you play an instrument or sing?
CA: My brother and I were known as the Uke Brothers and we were a duet of ukuleles and we used to sing a lot of George Formby songs. And we were known, Byron and Colin, the Uke Brothers.
HH: Fantastic.
CA: Yeah.
HH: Did you continue playing your ukulele after the war?
CA: I haven’t played it since I went in to the Navy. I’ve still got it but I’ve never played it. No. No. It’s one of those things, isn’t it? Put it away. But no that was a lot of fun as well. In fact, I’m not sure whether it was Coleby or somewhere near there that there was an anti-aircraft establishment and we had this in a big Nissen hut, performing in there and suddenly there was a shout, ‘Action.’ And all the audience got up and ran out and started banging away with the anti-aircraft and the concert was suspended.
HH: Yeah.
CA: Then they all came back in again and we finished it.
HH: And you finished it.
CA: Yeah. Yes. It was a very eventful war. I thoroughly enjoyed it and that’s an awful thing to say.
HH: But how did you get around when you were doing your concert parties? How did you do it?
CA: There was a bus supplied by Northern Command, Bomber Command and it was fitted with a mini piano so that where ever we went if they didn’t have a piano we’d haul this mini piano out and use that. We’d rehearse in, within the bus and that was supplied by them. They paid for the maintenance and the fuel and all the rest of it and they came round and picked us all up from our homes and off we went. Yeah. And I know on more than one occasion the buses dropped me off at the Castle [laughs] to go and do my job in the tower at night time. Yeah.
HH: Gosh. Yeah.
CA: We were, we were fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years olds but I think in some respects we were a lot older. Had to be.
HH: Well, you had to grow up fast don’t you?
CA: Yeah. Yeah. Had to be.
HH: Under those conditions.
CA: Yeah. But, I mean we were also very very patriotic and you know, we must do our duty.
HH: So, do you remember Lincoln on VE day?
CA: Oh, I do.
HH: Tell me about that.
CA: My brother and I were members of what was known as the Green Room Club. That was just off the Brayford. And on VE night we all went to the Club and I think it was the only place in Louth that still had some beer left. And then when we went to the Stonebow and we marched with crowds and crowds of people. There was American Air Force officers on the Saracen’s Head balcony. And we went all the way down to the Ritz Cinema and the Ritz Cinema had a searchlight shining on the cathedral. That was quite a sight. And there was, there was some low cloud and the silhouette, the shadow of the Cathedral was on the cloud. Yes. It’s very emotional. Even today you know. Very emotional. The relief when the war was over, was oh it was incredible.
HH: I can imagine. Yeah. And tell me when, that was, that was obviously 1945. So, what happened? How does that relate to the time you were in the Navy?
CA: Well, as I say I left school in 1944. And I was with the Echo until, I suppose I was [pause] yeah 1945. Then in 1945, yes I was still at school before the war finished. Yes. And then in 1945 that was when I volunteered for the Royal Navy.
HH: So, were you on the Echo at the time of VE day then?
CA: That would be —
HH: May.
CA: May ’45, wasn’t it? 8th of May 1945. I think I’d, yes I think I had left the Echo and I was working with my brother maintaining hangars and runways and perimeter tracks and hard standings at Waddington and Scampton.
HH: How fascinating.
CA: Yes. He worked for a builder’s as a quantity surveyor. He was excused because of his eyesight from military service but he worked for this firm from Skegness who was the company that looked after the airfields.
HH: The tracks.
CA: Yeah. And that was his job and I went with him for a while.
HH: On top of all those —
CA: So, I worked at Scampton.
HH: RAF stations.
CA: And Waddington. Yes. And that was post war. More or less post war then.
HH: And then you went on to —
CA: No. The war would still be on for a while. Yes.
HH: Yeah. And then you went off to the Navy.
CA: Yes.
HH: Okay. And after the Navy.
CA: I walked in to the Grimsby Telegraph office and I said, ‘Can I see the advertisement manager please?’ They said, ‘Yes. What’s it about?’ I said, ‘It’s personal.’ So, they sent for him. He came down. He says, ‘What can I —', I was still in Naval uniform, I was on demob leave. He said, ‘What can I do for you?’ I said, ‘You can give me a job.’ And he did.
HH: So, you went and worked in Grimsby then.
CA: I went to work for the Grimsby, Grimsby, what was known then as the Grimsby Evening Telegraph.
HH: What attracted you to journalism?
CA: I [pause] my father started a newspaper up way before the war. I think it was the Cleethorpes Advertiser and he went bankrupt in that and I always had an interest in journalism. My ambition was to be a foreign correspondent for the Daily Express and that was [laughs] But then when I went into the Royal Navy and I had plenty of time to think it over and I thought there’s money in advertising. More than there is in being a newspaper reporter. So I did a course in advertising, a correspondence course, and that first step was to go in to advertising in the press with newspapers. So, although I was still with newspapers it was more on the advertising side. So, I started at the Grimsby Telegraph and then that was —
HH: Selling advertising space.
CA: Yes. And, and the best part was designing the advertisements. Going to visit clients and sitting down and designing advertising which, which was the part that appealed to me. And although the advertisement manager gave me this job it was a temporary job pending a vacancy occurring or another job coming up elsewhere. And a job did come up on the Grimsby News which is now defunct long long ago and so I took that.
[clock chiming]
HH: Oh, I think we’re going to have to stop for the mid-day chimes.
[pause]
CA: That’s it [laughs]
HH: The chimes.
CA: Yes. So, I went to work for the Grimsby News as advertising manager there which was rather a bit elevated because it wasn’t much of a job really and then part of my job was visiting all the cinemas and churches. Get the church notes, visit cinemas, discuss their advertising. And there was one manager in particular. A lovely man called Bill Connelly, Ex-Pathfinder RAF and he was the manager there and I used to sit and chat with him. And he said, oh he said, ‘You ought to have a go at, at this business.’ He said, ‘I think you’d be good for it.’ And that was cinema management so, I applied to ABC [coughs] which is what the Ritz was but at the same time I applied to the Rank Organisation, Gaumont Odeon people as well. I got interviews with both of them on the same day.
HH: Goodness.
CA: At different times of the day. I then got letters from both of them offering me a job as a trainee manager and I had to make a decision.
HH: Difficult.
CA: Which one to take. I mean people today could never believe this.
HH: No.
CA: So, I chose ABC because Bill Connelly was the man that talked me into it. So, I then went to Leicester as a trainee and then I went to Nottingham as an assistant manager. And then I came to Cleethorpes as assistant manager. My home town. With Bill. And I was there for maybe five, four years I think and I was promoted manager, full manager at a cinema in Manchester.
HH: In Manchester. That was a big move then.
CA: Well, it was in as much as I was full manager but it was a flea pit [laughs] very low. I mean it was lovely people, lovely mining, mining community but it was well, you know the bottom of the, the bottom rung of the ladder.
HH: Well, the pictures, going to the pictures in those days was still a very big thing, wasn’t it?
CA: That’s right. Yes. And it was treated as such and the district manager that had gave me the job had now become by this time a top notch executive at Head Office. I’m digressing a bit from the story, aren’t I? However —
HH: This is good.
CA: The, the top management were touring the company’s cinemas all over the country looking for an established, to establish an ABC television studio and they came to mine. I happened to be, it was, the kind of cinema it was everybody did whatever they could do and I was on my knees in the foyer painting the skirting boards with black paint. Then he said, ‘What are you doing here?’ Foolishly, I said, ‘Painting the skirting board.’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘Why? Why are you here?’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve applied for vacancies whenever they’ve come around.’ Vacancies used to be advertised among the managers. Among the assistant managers it was. And I said, ‘This is the one I got.’ ‘Oh well,’ you know., ‘Okay.’ A week later the phone rang. He said, ‘How would you like to come to my home town?’ Well, his home town was Scunthorpe.
HH: Scunthorpe.
CA: Yeah. And I said, ‘Where? At Scunthorpe?’ He said, ‘No. Windsor.’ So, I was duly appointed manager of the Playhouse Cinema and restaurant in Windsor.
HH: That was quite an elevation.
CA: That was from the bottom to the top almost. Yes. It was a real big deal that was and I was there for seven years. I got a licence.
HH: Did you enjoy it?
CA: Oh yes. I got a licence, a liquor licence for the restaurant. I applied for and got that while I was there. I lived in a caravan for five, five years, four years. One was a holiday site. I had to buy a caravan, a small one and it was by the riverside on a holiday site so by October you had to move out and I was fortunate there was an orchard at old Windsor and there was about seven or eight caravans on it. That was a lovely, a lovely site and I was fortunate in getting a site on there and I spent about four years living in this caravan and my first wife decided to start a family and I was able to sell the caravan. And what I sold the caravan for I put a deposit on a house.
HH: Gosh.
CA: And had a brand new house built at Eton Wick which is near Dorney, Dorney Common. That way. Between Eton College and Slough. Lived there for a couple of years and then the offer came up as manager at Cleethorpes. The manager was retiring and they offered it to me. So, I said, ‘Yeah. Okay.’
HH: So you came back to Cleethorpes.
CA: Came back to Cleethorpes.
HH: Gosh.
CA: I came full circle.
HH: Full circle.
CA: And then I was manager there for seven years. Lived in New Waltham. And I was getting a little anxious because it was, cinemas were closing. They were going to bingo and some of the managers were going with the cinema to bingo. I didn’t join this to be a bingo manager. So, there was a row about it. They knew that I was not happy and I got a phone call from somebody in Louth who knew somebody who worked on the Telegraph and, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘There’s a vacancy for advertising manager at the Louth Standard. Would you be interested?’ Well, yeah. ‘Yes, that would be great.’ So, in 1969 I finally it would be 19’. In 1968 I finally resigned from ABC. I was sorry to depart but I thought I’m going to depart before it departs from me. So that was when I came to Louth. In 1969.
HH: And have you been here ever since?
CA: I’ve been here ever since and I was manager of the Grimsby Telegraph branch in Louth. And I worked there —
HH: Gosh.
CA: I had problems in my second marriage. She deserted not only me, a five year old and a two year old. And I was in a bit of a problem there so I temporarily put my two girls in to foster care which was not a very nice time at all.
HH: No.
CA: They were lucky. I was lucky they had lovely foster parents at that time. And I met, I joined Gingerbread. Have you heard of Gingerbread? It’s for one parent families.
HH: Yes. Yes.
CA: Actually, while I was at the Telegraph my receptionist came in with this leaflet. She said, ‘Oh, there’s a lady in the front office wants to know if you’ll put this in the window.’ And I, like I said, ‘Yeah. Well, leave it there.’ I said. ‘We’ll see to it later.’ And then my deputy, he’d been out doing the rounds and he came in. He said, ‘What’s that boss? Oh.’ He said, ‘Are you going?’ I said, ‘Why? What is it?’ [laughs] ‘Oh no. It’s a bunch of women yabbing away. Not for me. Not my scene.’ He said, ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I think you ought to go.’ He said, you know, ‘It’s comfort. People in the same position as you.’ I said, ‘Well, I’ll give it a try.’ So I went in. I thought. No. This is not for me. And I thought well I’ll stick it out but I won’t be coming again. You know. There was one other man there and he came afterwards, God rest his soul, he’s dead now. He came over to me and he said, ‘Oh yeah, come again,’ he says. ‘I need somebody else here. Another man here.’ So, I did and one of the other members who’d had a bad marriage, as I’d had, not looking for anybody at all and we got quite friendly. We made phone calls to each and this sort of thing and then had an invitation to go to the old [unclear] dinner and dance at “The Beachcomber” in Grimsby and I got two tickets. What am I going to do? I’ve got two tickets here. So I hesitantly asked Jean would she like to go? She said, ‘Oh yes. Alright.’ So she did. We’ve lived together for forty three years.
HH: Amazing. So, it turned out well.
CA: Yes. The happiest forty three years I’ve ever had.
HH: Great. Yeah.
CA: Yeah. So that pretty well covers it all.
HH: So, you did go back. You did go back to journalism really.
CA: Well, to newspapers really.
HH: Well, to the newspaper world.
CA: Well, to the newspapers which was my first love.
HH: After your detour into cinemas.
CA: Yes. But I did twenty years in cinemas.
HH: Yeah.
CA: I loved it. Really, I did.
HH: What particularly did you enjoy about the cinema work?
CA: Just having a place that you, was under your control. The feeling of responsibility and organisation.
HH: Yeah.
CA: And welcoming the public and I mean we had to change in to dinner jacket every night. 6 o’clock you had to be on the, in the foyer. But that was only the tip of the iceberg. We had to be there for 10.30 in the morning and there was a lot of work. Maintenance, supplies, clerical work.
HH: And you had to stay for every show right until everybody had gone home every night.
CA: Oh yes. Yeah. 10.30 in the morning ‘til getting on for 11 o’clock at night. So, yeah, but I did enjoy it. There was nothing more fulfilling than standing at the back of the stalls with a full house for a comedy film with everybody laughing. You felt responsible for that you know.
HH: And did you become a bit of a film buff yourself?
CA: No. I always enjoyed the cinema. People say, ‘Oh, did you know what happened to —’ so and so. Who? Famous actor. ‘No. I don’t know.’ I’m not interested. Only interested in the presentation side of it. The showmanship side of it. Well, I got to show my certificates and submitted campaigns that you were doing. I was, I was a member of the Motion Picture Herald of America Guild of Show Business. Yeah. It was, it was a very very interesting way to earn a living and I did enjoy it. I’m sorry what happened to it and what I see of the cinemas today I would not want to be back in it.
HH: No.
CA: No. They’re, they’re cinema factories. They just churn things out. Churn people out. There’s no showmanship. There’s no reception. There’s just nothing. You just go in, you buy a ticket, you find your own way to a seat and that’s it.
HH: No human touch.
CA: No. I mean we were there greetings the patrons as they came in. They knew who to go to if they wanted to know some information. They’d come to the man in the dickie bow. And that was all part of the job. It was enjoyable. It was enjoyable. However, it was a long time ago.
HH: Yeah. And then you returned to the newspaper world largely on the advertising side.
CA: Well, I was manager.
HH: And also managing.
CA: I was the manager.
HH: The newspaper offices.
CA: Of the newspaper offices. Yes. Yeah.
HH: Yeah.
CA: Yes. So, I was in virtual charge of distribution and advertising. The whole nine yards really.
HH: Everything. Yeah.
CA: Yes. Yeah. So, I was with them from 1970 to [pause] 1955. No. No. No. 1985.
HH: Yeah.
CA: 1985. And then we both decided that we’d like to be self-employed so we bought a business. A corner shop in Grimsby.
HH: So, you went back to Grimsby for a bit.
CA: Yes. We went there. Seven years. Six or seven years we were there. We had this corner shop and then we sort of retired. Came back to Louth and came, moved in with Jean’s mother because she’d lost her husband and we moved in with her. And the first thing I did actually when we came back was go to the Volunteer Bureau as I wanted to do some voluntary work. I cannot just stay home all the time, look at walls. So, ‘Well, they want a relief driver for the Link.’ I said, ‘The what?’ They said, ‘The Link. The Link Daycare Centre.’ ‘Oh’, I said ‘what’s that?’ ‘Well, it’s for the elderly and infirm.’ ‘Oh yeah. I’ll have a look at that.’ So I did. I finished up as the senior driver.
HH: Gosh.
CA: And chairman of the committee. And that for thirteen years.
HH: Gosh.
CA: Up to I was still driving the mini bus ‘til I was eighty and the only reason we stopped was because we had, sadly we had to close down. Lack of financial support. Lack of volunteers. It was very difficult to get volunteers. But no that was that.
HH: And did you do any other sort of volunteering thereafter?
CA: Yes. [unclear] school heard about us. They had a school bus and they said they would provide a lunch one day a week at the school for people that we’d been taking to, to our organisation. But I wasn’t allowed to drive their bus because it was not our bus but I did have a licence. But one of the teachers was a driver and then we went around and picked people up for a while and then the school decided they weren’t doing it any more.
HH: Wouldn’t do it any more.
CA: So, then Jean and I used to go over to Grimsby and we used to go to a card shop. We could get cards very very cheaply. So we’d go over, buy cards in bulk, bring them back to Louth. Go to Maxey Court which is sheltered housing and sell the cards. We didn’t make much profit on them but the profit we made went to Cancer Research and Combat Stress. People don’t seem to have heard of combat stress, do they?
HH: Well, it’s a big thing.
CA: It is. Well, we got collecting boxes for them and put them in the town as well for Combat Stress and Cancer Research and then a card, The Card Factory, I don’t know if there is one in Lincoln but there —
HH: I think there is.
CA: One opened up in Louth and of course they were undercutting even what we were charging.
HH: Yeah.
CA: So that was that. Jean also worked while I was still driving the buses, she still worked at St Barnabas Hospice shop in the town. So, and Jean now knits and crochets.
HH: I can see the evidence.
CA: She does baby blankets.
HH: I can see lots of evidence.
CA: And she gives those to —
HH: Loads of balls of wool and knitting books.
CA: Yes. And she donates all this.
HH: Wonderful.
CA: Gives all this. Baby blankets. Gives it all to charity. St Andrews at Grimsby, St Barnabas in Louth. So we’re still doing a bit.
HH: Yeah.
CA: Still doing a bit.
HH: Now, you mentioned just before we started this interview, Colin that you and she had this project to visit RAF sites. Tell me more about how that came about.
CA: I’ll see if I can persuade her to come through. Can I? I don’t think she will but —
[pause]
CA: Jean.
[recording paused]
HH: So, at this point we are joined by Jean who is Colin’s partner and you’re going to tell me about this project you’ve got to visit RAF sites and historic sites. Is it just in Lincolnshire or is it further afield?
JM: Well, so far it’s just been in Lincolnshire.
HH: Well, there’s plenty to keep you occupied.
JM: Oh, absolutely.
HH: And why did you want to do this?
JM: Well, I think possibly it was because of the new Bomber Command Memorial.
CA: Yeah.
JM: We saw that. I thought I’m just as guilty as some people of not thinking about others that have died and we spoke to some friends and they thought it would be very nice to visit places where they could see something about the war and so that’s how it started.
HH: So, you’re doing this with, with others. Other friends as well.
JM: With two other —
HH: That’s great.
JM: People. And I think really what started it really, another thing was that poem by that young American.
HH: Oh, John Gillespie Magee. “High Flight.”
CA: Yes.
JM: That’s right. And I’m looking frantically for the picture of [pause] Yes.
CA: That’s the one isn’t it? Yes.
JM: That’s really —
HH: That’s, that’s taken in the field that you —
JM: That’s right.
CA: I was telling them about that. The one in the middle of the field.
HH: Gosh. That’s interesting.
JM: This lady was kind enough to send me information about it and who to contact.
HH: Where is it? Where is it exactly? Do you know?
CA: Yes.
JM: Yes. Not too far from Boston.
HH: Okay.
CA: Not East Kirkby is it? No.
JM: No.
CA: Oh —
JM: I think the information might be on that sheet that’s in there.
HH: Oh, not to worry now.
CA: So, this is something you’re going to be doing quite soon.
JM: Yes.
CA: Next month, aren’t we?
HH: Sibsey Northlands
CA: Sibsey Northlands.
JM: Yes.
CA: Sibsey.
HH: How interesting. Yeah.
JM: And we saw the, we’ve seen the graves at Scopwick.
CA: That’s right. Yes.
JM: The Canadian and the German.
HH: That’s where he’s buried? Magee.
JM: That’s right. Yes. And —
HH: Yeah. The crash site where he, the site where Magee crashed is not actually marked by any permanent memorial but if you, if you happen to be going down the A15 towards Sleaford you turn, there’s a signpost to turn right in to Cranwell village and right there there’s a sign to turn left to the Roxholme Care Home and if you go about a hundred yards down that road to Roxholme Care Home you will be at the crash site.
CA: Oh.
JM: Oh.
HH: It’s a little tiny farm road but it is possible to go down there and to turn around because there are passing places.
CA: Oh right.
HH: Where you can turn around.
CA: That’s another one now then.
JM: Yes.
HH: Yeah. Yeah.
JM: So, we continue. We’ve been to RAF Digby and had a marvellous talk.
HH: Oh, RAF Digby is wonderful.
CA: Yes.
HH: Did you see the operations room?
CA: Yes.
HH: Isn’t that special?
CA: Yes, we did. Yes. Yes.
JM: That was brilliant.
CA: Yes.
JM: And the sergeant was so good who gave the talk.
CA: Yeah.
JM: Nothing was too much trouble.
CA: He was, wasn’t he? Very good indeed. Yeah. We’d like to go again actually.
JM: Yes. It was very interesting.
CA: Yeah.
JM: And then we’ve been to various pubs seeing the —
CA: And the Blue Bell.
JM: Signatures.
HH: And the Blue Bell Inn. Yes.
CA: [unclear]
HH: Yes. Just south of Woodhall.
CA: And what’s the other one? The Red Lion, is it?
HH: Yes.
JM: Yes.
HH: Yes.
CA: The Red Lion. We’ve been there.
HH: Yes. And of course, you were at the Petwood.
JM: Well, that is where we’re hoping to go.
CA: Wednesday.
JM: On Wednesday.
CA: Yes. Yeah.
HH: Lovely.
CA: Yeah.
HH: You’ll enjoy it. It’s a great place.
CA: Well, we both like Woodhall. We like it. I mean the Dambusters Memorial there is something else, isn’t it? And then this for the hundredth anniversary year there’s an addition now, there for that. Yes. It’s a marvellous marvellous monument that is with all the names. But Bomber Command Memorial [pause] we hadn’t been and we’d been, oh, we must go, must go, must go and eventually we finally made it and it was while we were walking around I was wearing my veteran’s badge and two of the guides who were wearing veteran badges approached me and that was how this interview has come about.
HH: Good. Well, I’m pleased. I’m very pleased that it, that that’s how it came about.
CA: Yes.
HH: What did you think of the IBCC? Did you enjoy your visit?
CA: Oh yes. Well, we filled up before we even got in [laughs] Didn’t we?
HH: Yeah. Great. Good. Good. My team and I were responsible for the exhibition.
CA: Really.
HH: If you went around the exhibition.
CA: We haven’t been. We intend to go next time we go.
HH: Yeah.
CA: We intend to do it next time we go. Yes. Oh right.
JM: Well, we shall be by ourselves next time so we can.
CA: There will be just the two of us and we’re going on our own. Yes, because there’s a painting in there. Limited edition. I do hope it’s still there because we want to buy that and we weren’t in a position to get it at the time. And it was 19.99, I think, the price and it’s hanging on the wall.
HH: Is it a print?
CA: It’s a limited edition print and it’s the scene that I remember so well was all dusk. Dusk. All the Lancasters coming over and that was just as I remember it. And so that’s what we’re going to try and get on Wednesday. A copy of that because it really is. I’ve got a Lancaster up there on the top row.
HH: Yes. I can see that.
CA: The Lincoln Imp of course.
HH: Yes.
CA: Yes.
JM: I don’t think you ever forget those really.
CA: No.
HH: No.
JM: And —
CA: Well, in Louth you saw plenty around here, didn’t you?
JM: Well, yes and also this one particular evening when they were bombing Grimsby and Hull it lit up my bedroom and I was well fairly young at the time, I think.
HH: But you still remember?
CA: Oh yes. I called my mother and said, ‘It’s the end of the world.’ And so [laughs] she came through and said —
CA: The end of the world [laughs]
JM: ‘No. No.’ She said, ‘It’s Grimsby and Hull being bombed.’
HH: And where were you living then?
JM: Down Eastfield Road in Louth. And I think the other experience I remember was mother and I were visiting her sister and husband and we had gone into the garden to pick gooseberries and suddenly there was this noise and mother was pushing me in to the bush with her on top of me and this German plane had come down and I guess he was going on to North Coates. And —
HH: Crashed.
JM: No. I don’t know what happened to him.
HH: Oh, but he was, he was, yeah.
JM: He was shooting.
CA: Yeah. Machine gunning —
JM: Carried on his way. But —
CA: We had an Anderson shelter.
HH: Did you?
CA: In our garden and we had one, it was a Sunday afternoon. My mother used to go for a lie down in the afternoons. My brother and I were downstairs and the sirens went and then we heard what sounded like anti-aircraft guns going off so mother came tumbling down the stairs [laughs] we all ran out in to the garden, dived into the Anderson shelter and we had a slatted bed in there and my mother went straight through it.
HH: To carry on her lie down.
CA: Dear. Oh dear [laughs]
HH: What was your brother’s name, Colin?
CA: Byron.
HH: Myron.
CA: Byron Atkinson. B Y R O N. And it was Byron and Colin Atkinson, the Uke Brothers.
HH: The uke brothers. That’s a great story that. Yeah. Yeah.
CA: Yes.
HH: You need to get him to get his ukulele out.
CA: Oh yeah.
JM: Yes. Well, they have a ukulele group meet in town.
CA: Not the same without Byron, Jean.
HH: I’m sure not.
JM: Oh no.
HH: No. No. I’m sure not.
CA: He died. He died at fifty seven. Heart attack. The rest of the family saw old age but my brother didn’t. Yeah. I do miss him still. Yeah.
HH: There was just the two of you were there?
CA: Yes, yeah. He was six years older than me and as, as a child he used to, used to, he made a little comic up every week for me, you know.
HH: How wonderful.
CA: And even when I was, with his first job he used to give me some of the money that his wages were.
HH: Now, I also just one other thing that it would be good to talk about is I believe your mum at some point had something to do with the Avro factory in Bracebridge Heath.
CA: I think that’s probably why they approached me and then all this came out. Yes. She was cleaning instruments from aircraft, crashed aircraft, bombers, mostly Lancasters. I mean, it doesn’t sound very nice but she always told us the worst part of the job was washing the blood off the instruments before they could work on them. Oh well. We had all the family. My brother was in the Home Guard as well as the concert party. My father was in the Army. Mother was doing this war work in Bracebridge Heath.
HH: In Bracebridge.
CA: Yeah. Yeah.
HH: And did she stop doing this at the end of the war?
CA: Oh yes.
HH: Yeah.
CA: Yeah.
HH: Because the Avro factory well it was a repair shop really in Bracebridge Heath. I think that continued a while after the war but —
CA: Did it. I think when the war ended the people that had to work didn’t [unclear]
HH: Yeah.
CA: They packed up and went back to civilian jobs.
HH: Yeah.
CA: Yeah. She just went home and carried on being a housewife and mother.
HH: Yes.
[pause]
HH: That sounds like a good moment to, to say thank you very much for your time and for both of you telling these stories and and sharing your memories. It’s, it’s —
CA: Our pleasure.
HH: It will be a great addition to the interviews in our archives.
CA: That’s lovely to know.
HH: So, thank you very much.
CA: That’s lovely to know. Yes.
JM: I think —
[recording paused]
HH: Fitting for a showman we’ve now got an encore and Colin is going to tell us an interesting story about being a best man. Tell us, Colin.
CA: Well, this would be, I was still in the Navy and my cousin, that family were all from Ireland. My mother was from Ireland and my cousin Milly was getting married in London to a German prisoner of war. They met of course because German POWs were employed working on farms and she also worked on a farm and that’s where they met. The best man was to be her brother Maurice. Her brother was in the Royal Marines and he was based at Portsmouth. He couldn’t make it so they asked me if I would stand in for him. Therefore, I became the best man to a German prisoner of war whilst still in Royal Naval uniform. And he was a charming young man.
HH: Where did they live? End up living?
CA: They moved to Germany. They went to Germany then. Yes.
HH: So, she went back to Germany with him.
CA: With him. Yes. Yeah. So, it’s strange, isn’t it? I was still in Royal Naval uniform. I’m standing next to a German prisoner of war.
HH: What I love about those sort of stories is that you know being at war wasn’t really anything personal. You know.
CA: No.
HH: You know, it was people still related as human beings didn’t they?
CA: As human beings. Oh yes. Yeah.
HH: That’s wonderful. Thank you for that extra special story.
Collection
Citation
Heather Hughes, “Interview with Colin Atkinson and Jean McEwan,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 27, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/10082.
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