More of James' Adventures...

Here's the final part of James' story. He talks about becoming a fireman and life in the prison service...

When I left the Marines I had to learn how to adapt back into civilian life. I didn’t know what the hell to do. I was twenty three years old. For a while I did some labouring on a building site, then I met a friend and he told me they needed people for the Fire Brigade, so I went there and signed up for that.

We had three months training at the fire station in Oldham, learning how to operate the big ladders, driving, tying knots. I already knew about knots. We moved to Burton on Trent, Millie and I, and lived in two rooms with a Miss Winchester, a very staid and orthodox Scottish lady. We started saving for a cottage on Stanford Road. There was an end cottage that we liked, on sale for £800. So we went to a solicitor, Mr Hicks, he was recommended by Mr Lowe the postmaster. Millie’s parents gave us £120 cash as a down payment, and then we paid the rest in instalments.

I remember one particularly terrible fire, it was the Ind Coope Brewery. The hops were set alight and we went in with our breathing apparatus, but then we had to come out because the bobbing barrels came tumbling down on us. My friend was with me, Arthur Adams, and his breathing apparatus came off. The whole building was lost.

Some time after that I left the Fire Service and started working in a hospital, helping the elderly, getting bathed and dressed. I had a wonderful interest in people. Then one day, there was a man with a fracture and I was taking the plaster off for him. One of the nurses saw me and said to go down to orthopaedics, so I could learn all about plaster. I did that for a while then, until somebody else suggested I try out working in prisons.

I decided to work in prison hospitals, and I was sent to St Thomas’ Hospital in London for training, a few hundred yards away from Wormwood Scrubs, where I was smartly dressed in a white uniform. After training I went to work in Lincoln Hospital for a while, about seven years, I think.

I nursed a lot of patients who were seriously ill with psychological problems. Some of them were quite dangerous, they could be paranoid and suspect you, they could turn violent. Others were placid and easy to manage.

There was a doctor there, and he saw my work, and he said, “You’re wasting your time here.” He thought I should go into the probation service. I met a probation officer, Mr Simpson, and I went for the interview. I got into the service, but first I had to go for training to university, and by the end of it I was highly trained.

The work I did was important because it helped them, otherwise you could go to prison and not be seen by anyone. I would talk to employers too, try and get some work lined up for the men when they left. I remember one chap who was serving time, but when you looked at his past, his father had mistreated him. And that was how he treated women, gave them a bit of thump.  So I found work for him with Mr Field, as an apprentice tuner and fitter on a trawler engine, and he did that when he came out of prison. Then one day I saw him, and he’d brought a girl. “We’ve been going dancing,” he said. They ended up getting married, and I was his best man, and they were very happy together.

There were some who couldn’t cope with life on the outside. There was one fellow, when he got out he stole some rope, just so he could get sent back to prison.

Then there were the escapees. The Thompson family, that was one, prisoner by the name of Fred. He got away and nobody knew where he was. We went to his house and the officers were searching everywhere and they couldn’t find him. I said to his wife, “Come on Hilda, where’s Tommo?”

“I’m not telling you,” she said, looking at me contemptuously.

Eventually they found him, down the road, in a pub in Victoria Street, having a drink. He’d gone up into the loft of his house, then moved along into the next loft and the next, gone down into the house of another criminal family. I think he’d stolen a Vienna clock from a shop.

I’m always telling young people about how I was helped in my life and how they should always aspire to something more, try and progress, and to look for people who can help them, help them get to the next stage.