1 Spring 2016 - London Fire Brigade Retired Members

ROUNDTHREADS
LFB RETIRED MEMBERS ASSOCIATION MAGAZINE
WWW.LFBRMA.ORG
Issue No.21 2016
SUMMER EDITION
News ~ Reviews ~ Letters ~ Stories
London Fire Brigade
150th Anniversary
Dear Retired Members
Well another year is upon us and what an interesting year it is going to be or has been already. Doom and gloom is the topic of
the day! You only need pick up a paper or switch on the telly to see what is going on. Still, a turning point may arrive on the 23rd
June; either way we will be part of a chapter in the history of the world!
Now back to our 'Roundthreads' magazine. A bumper issue this time celebrating a number of anniversaries. Please don't expect
further issues to be this big as this bumper edition was hard enough to do! Luckily we don't have to worry about the printing and
postage costs because at our last AGM you voted to end the costly diaries so more pennies in the coffers!....Well done retirees!!
In this publication we have a feast of articles from all areas and some captivating stories, so a big thank you to you all who
contributed. I would also like to take this opportunity in thanking Dave Pike, who has helped me out on numerous occasions with
editorial, and Paul Wood, who I can rely on for photographs.
Please note that on page 6 (Diary of Events) some of the listings have limited numbers available so book your place early or face
disappointment. Have a great year and enjoy the publication.
London Firefighters Retirees:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/197736493636016
UK Fire Brigade History:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/493965617330354/
Firefighters Fun Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/544211325595689/
have been a source of some of the photos and articles in this publication.
Hardcopy to: Cherryrose House, Shop Street, Worlingworth, Suffolk IP13 7HX
Email: [email protected]
Edited & Designed by
Chris Reynolds
E: [email protected]
Pearl Editorial
Sarah Freshwater
E: [email protected]
W: www.pearleditorial.co.uk
Printed by
Maypole Press
Unit 7 Blackall Industrial Estate
Hamberts Road
South Woodham Ferrers
Essex CM3 5UW
Tel 01245 323130
All material contained within this
publication is strictly copyright and all rights
reserved. Reproduction in any form
without permission is prohibited. Every
care is taken by the publishers in compiling
the contents of the 'Roundthreads' but no
responsibility is assumed for any injury,
loss or damage arising from any article or
advertisement contained within the
publication. The views expressed within
this publication do not necessarily reflect
the views of the publishers or editor of the
'Roundthreads'.
The LFBRMA reserves the right to
edit articles or emails submitted for
inclusion to the magazine.
(All photos in this magazine are suject to
copyright of FR/PIX, LFBRMA & Paul
Wood)
Cover Picture:
The Davies Rescue (see page 17)
2
Retired Members Association Structure
Committee and Officers of the Association
Ron Dobson CBE QFSM President
Martin Coffey OBE Chairman
Frank David O St. John QFSM Vice Chairman
Gerald Clarkson CBE QFSM BA (Hons) President Emeritus
Barry Sargent MBE Secretary
01268692675
[email protected]
Ellie Stocker Treasurer
[email protected]
Harry Paviour Membership Secretary
[email protected]
Chris Reynolds Editor
[email protected]
Keith Sefton Ass.Editor & Ass. Membership Sec.
[email protected]
Barry Shilstone Web Manager
[email protected]
Andy Poole RMA FFCharity rep.
[email protected]
Branch Sec.
Mick Rollings
Fred Freeman
Barry Hammond
Roger Stevenson
2
4
5
3/6
Dave Ealing
Andy Phillps
Colin Elve
Ken Martin
Mel Dix
Ellie Stocker
8
10
11
13
14
15
BRANCH
B & E Divisions
[email protected]
D & G Divisions
[email protected]
H Division & Kent
[email protected]
C,F & L Divisions / Overseas home & other Counties
[email protected]
West Country
[email protected]
Essex & East Anglia
[email protected]
A & J Divisions and Herts.
[email protected]
Sw Area & Surrey
[email protected]
Sussex
[email protected]
Ladies
[email protected]
Jeff Potter Chaplain
[email protected]
Norman Paulding (Standard Bearer)LVP [email protected]
David Bradbury (Deputy Standard Bearer)
London Fire Brigade Retired Members Association
CONTENTS
Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Letters to the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Letter from the Chairman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
A Brief Summary of LFBRMA Accounts for 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
LFB RMA Diary of Events 2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
150 Years of LFB History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8
The Great Fire of London. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-13
Crystal Palace Destroyed by Fire ~ November 30th 1936. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-15
The Changing Style of the LFB HELMET over the last 150 YEARS. . . . . . . . . . . 16
Remembering Frederick Davies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The Fire Service Cartoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-19
A Story From Way Back. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-21
The Book Signing! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
In Memory of Gordon White 1946-2016 Editor London Fireman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
New Online Book of Remembrance for Firefighters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Second Great Fire of London . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-25
Thank you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Old LFB Firefighters head for “them thar hills” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-27
Happy 150th Birthday LFB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
LFB Anniversary Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Fitness First. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
TL240 Preservation.....Update!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
A Story From the Heart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Lambeth Public Display ~ The Classic Drill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Old Timer ~ Poem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
LFBRMA Application Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Celebrations in New York. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Dinner & Dance application form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3
Letters to the Editor
Have you got a story to tell or something amusing while serving in the LFB? Then I want to
hear from you!
Dear Editor
Having retired some 18 years ago I was recently honoured to be appointed as Secretary of Branch 2 of the Retired Members Association.
The current Secretary, Colin Hart, decided it was time to hang up his fire gear after 20 years and take a well-earned rest. I have been
an active member of the RMA during all of my retirement and was very excited at the chance to give something back. What I found was
a Branch in excellent health with about 250 members.
What did surprise me was how few of the members take an active part in the annual programme of events. Our General Secretary,
Barry Sargent, works tirelessly, (no, he didn't pay me to say that!), to produce an excellent list of events and activities throughout the
year, all excellent value.
From the Thames river cruise to Trooping the Colour, Christmas Lunch, Ceremony of the Keys, and, what is probably the highlight of
the year, the Battlefield Tour. We have the services of, probably, the best battlefield tour guide in the country, Mark Smith, who is also
a Medals and Militaria expert on the Antiques Roadshow. And on top of all that we have our AGM/Reunion where you can meet all
those blokes you hated working with on the Fire Station! It's funny how when you meet them in retirement you realise they are not as
bad as you thought! All of these events are always finished off with good food, lots of drink and excellent company.
But when you look around at all these events it always seems to be the same faces that are attending. I realise that younger members
are still working, (and some of the old ones), but there are so many good trips to go on throughout the year, at least one or two must
be ideal. Don't worry about not knowing anybody else because, believe you me, you will soon become one of the crowd. You can always
talk to me if you are really desperate!
Let us make this a good year for participation in the Annual Events programme and fill all the places that the General Secretary has
booked. Don't forget your Committee is open to ideas from you, the members, to suggest events.
It is your Association, be part of it!!
Mick Rollings (Secretary Branch 2)
Dear Editor,
This last edition of Roundthreads brought back a few names from the past; the article about "Mandalay" mentions Sub O Stan Orton,
my very first S/O when I was posted to J31 Coombs Croft (Ex Middlesex) station prior to the GLC. Stan told all of us in no uncertain
terms that if any of us bought a Honda scooter he would smash it to pieces, so much was his feelings regarding Japan. May I ask if
Stan is still alive? If so I wish him well. These scooters were just being imported into the UK then and were becoming popular means
of transport. I can remember Roger Deans (ex J21 Edmonton), a very nice guy. I think he was on Red Watch and served with Stn. O
Massey, and he can probably remember Peter Cowland, as I do, if it’s the same Peter Cowland who was stationed at the "old" Tottenham.
I remember Peter carrying out Hook Ladder drill under the supervision of S/O "Kate Carney". We had to use Tottenham's drill tower
as Coombs Croft was an old house converted in war time as a Sub fire station between Edmonton and Tottenham (a one Pump station).
The same Peter climbed the promotion ladder. As I remember he was the duty officer who looked after myself and Steve Woods after
we were injured at a fire and he drove me home after I was released from the Hospital in a Staff car. Memories! Best regards
Roger Presswell (rtd)
Dear Editor,
How memories come back. I recall attending a Junior Officers course at Southwark in the early '80s and attending a lecture given by
Stn O Nobby Clark. He was later an advisor to the London's Burning series. He gave a lecture on the eight points of the star depicted
on the badge of the brigade. When I visited the National Arboretum and looked at the guide, they had the eight points listed. Not posing
a quiz, so this is what they are and I feel are still relevant and upheld today by those still serving and those retired. Tact, Gallantry,
Dexterity, Observation, Perseverance, Loyalty, Explicitness, and Sympathy. Not a bad outlook on life. Keep well.
Frank Nice
Dear Editor,
Could you please let our retired members know that a great number of LFB fire Stations are holding an
‘Open Day’ to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the London Fire Brigade. The list is quite long but if
you go to the London Fire Brigade website it will show all the stations and dates of their ‘Open Day’:
http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/150-events.asp
4
Letter from the Chairman
I hope you all have a really good summer and I look forward to seeing some of you at the
Association's Annual Dinner and Dance in October.
It is amazing to think that we will be celebrating the Queen's 90th birthday this summer. It seems
like only yesterday that we were celebrating her Silver Jubilee. Some of the events that have been
planned, including a massive tea party on the Mall, will make London a huge tourist attraction as
the Queen and Royal Family are very popular not only in this country but around the world.
At the Lord Mayor's Show last November the current fireboat and the war time little boat hero the
Massey Shaw gave the incoming Lord Mayor a splendid wet salute by Tower Bridge. This followed
a colourful water pageant on the River Thames involving many old and modern craft with their crews
dressed in the appropriate costumes for the period. Although it rained it did not spoil the occasion
and the incoming Lord Mayor then left to board his golden coach at the Guildhall. I believe the
London Fire Brigade will be celebrating their 150th anniversary with a leading presence at the next
Lord Mayor's Show in November 2016.
Like me, many of you will be extremely concerned about the terrorist outrages around the world, especially those closer to home in
Paris and Brussels. The emergency services have worked very hard to stop terrorist activity before it begins and to develop action plans
to mitigate damage and injury. Hopefully they will continue to be successful with their undercover actions and London will not suffer
the atrocities that we have recently witnessed on our television screens.
Many people in this country, and especially in London, seem to feel unsettled at the moment as the local and mayoral elections (and
particularly the referendum on our membership of the European Union) approaches. At the moment it seems really difficult to get a
clear factual picture of the pro's and con's of membership on which to base a vote but hopefully once it is finally decided we at least
will have a clearer and more settled view on the future and the way ahead. I for one would be very disappointed if the outcome meant
more expensive flights and holidays in Europe. Some of you may be concerned about the outcome of the elections because of the
impact it could have on the building of a third runway at Heathrow and the environmental outcomes that could follow but at least we
all have the right to vote even if some of us don't use it.
It's good to see that many of the pundits see a rosier future for English football after the exciting extra time 3-2 win over Germany
recently. The English team has a much younger feel to it now but it is always sad to see some of the old stalwarts retiring from the
game and taking up new positions with teams in America.
As usual I would like to thank our Secretary, Barry Sargent, the Branch Secretaries and Committee Members for their hard work and
support during the year.
I hope you all have a really good summer and I look forward to seeing some of you at the Association's Annual Dinner and Dance in
October.
Martin Coffey OBE (Chairman LFBRMA)
A Brief Summary of the LFBRMA Accounts for 2015
RECEIPTS FOR 2015
EXPENDITURE FOR 2015
c/fwd from 2014
c/fwd petty cash
SUBS/DONATIONS
REUNION
MISCELLANEOUS
£ 9246.20
£
15.64
£18414.00
£ 2030.00
£ 748.59
AREA/COMM EXPENSES
INSURANCE
MAGAZINE
STANDARD
REUNION
ADMIN.
MISCELLANEOUS
PETTY CASH
£2204.39
£ 804.83
£7916.96
£ 500.00
£2299.40
£7468.96
£1468.41
£ 33.11
TOTAL RECEIPTS
£30454.43
TOTAL EXPENDITURE
£22696.06
BANK
£7758.37
5
LFB RMA DIARY OF EVENTS FOR 2016
Members wishing to attend an event should complete the form and return it to the Secretary with full payment,
which is required before any places can be booked. For some events dates and prices need to be confirmed and
may be subject to change; numbers for some events are limited therefore an early response is suggested. Final
details of the visits booked will be sent out one month prior to the date. Persons with mobility problems should
contact the Secretary before booking as some venues are not easily accessible. Wives/partners are welcome at
all events.
Wednesday 11th May
AGM & Reunion:- Carisbrooke Hall, Victory Services Club,
Seymour Street, London W2. Reunion Tickets available from
your Branch Secretary, lunch and cash bar available at the
Reunion. Cost £15
Sunday 21st August
Sunday Lunch Cruise on the Thames with a live band
3 Course lunch while undertaking a 2½ hour river cruise. Cash
bar available on board. Then disembark for drinks in the Civil
Service Club (which will be extra). Cost £50
Saturday 21st May
Ceremony of the Keys. Tower of London at 6:30pm
Reception in the Yeoman Warders Club with buffet and Keys
Ceremony. Cash bar available in the club. Please be aware that
it is not possible for persons under the age of 18 to attend the
Ceremony of the Keys. Cost £20. Only 25 places available
Friday 30th September
Bletchley Park Code Breaking Site.
Travel by coach and experience with a guided tour the top-secret
world of iconic WW2 Codebreaking Huts and Blocks set within
its atmospheric Victorian estate. Take a picnic lunch or enjoy
lunch in Hut 4 café (which will be extra). Coach pickup points
in Essex, East and South London (for additional pick up points
please contact the secretary). The trip is dependent on the coach
being filled and may be cancelled if this does not happen. Cost
£45. Only 49 places available
Saturday 4th June
Rehersal for Trooping of the Colour; The Colonel's Review.
Followed by lunch at the Civil Service Club (which will be extra)
A postal ballot application has been applied for, the cost and date
to be confirmed .Please do not send any money for this event
just your availability. Tickets will be limited to 2 per member.
Only 20 places available
Thursday 9th June
Beating Retreat on Horseguards Parade.
A pageant of precision drill, horses, cannon and fireworks
accompanied by music from the massed bands, pipes and drums
of the House Hold Division, Commencing at 6pm.Cost £25
Thursday 7th July
Guided Tour of the Dickens Museum
Guided tour of the Charles Dickens Museum in Bloomsbury the
only remaining London home of Charles Dickens. Step back in
time and walk the halls in the footsteps of Charles Dickens. See
where he wrote, and where he and his wife Catherine entertained
their many guests. Cost £25. Only 20 places available
Wednesday 27th July
Gin Tasting
One & half hours of tuition on gin tasting and botanicals at Mr
Foggs Tavern Covent Garden. Followed by supper in the Tavern
(if required and will be extra) Cost £45. Only 12 places available
Friday 14th to Monday 17th October
Battlefield Tour To Ardennes. Battle of the Bulge/Band of Brothers
Coach & Channel crossing, entry fees to Museums, Guided
Battlefield Tour, 3 nights B&B Hotel accommodation plus 2
evening meals and 1 lunch. Cost to be confirmed in the region
of £400. Only 49 places available
Saturday 22nd October
Annual Dinner Dance
Drinks reception followed by a 3 course meal with wine, dancing
to P'ZAZ until midnight at the Amba Hotel, Charing Cross
(formally the Charing Cross Thistle Hotel). Cash Bar available.
Cost £90
Wednesday November 9th
Ghost Tour of the Woolwich Arsenal, followed by drinks in a
local public house. Cost £15
Monday 12th December
Members Christmas Lunch at Williamson's Tavern EC4
3 course Christmas Lunch with ½ bottle of wine per person,
private dining. Cost £38. Only 50 places available.
Other events by organisations other than ourselves please see
pages 28 and 32.
Please return completed form to:
Barry Sargent MBE, General Secretary LFBRMA, 14 The Driveway, Canvey Island, Essex SS8 0AD
Tel : 01268 692675
Email: [email protected]
Name.............................................................................................Partner/Guest....................................................................
Address....................................................................................................................................................................................
Postcode....................Telephone No..................................Email.............................................................................................
Event..................................................................................No Places.............Cheque £................. payable to the LFBRMA
6
150 Years of LFB History
"Can you write a few words for the magazine?" asks Chris
Reynolds, our editor extraordinaire. "How many?" I enquire, and
"What do you want me to cover?" "I suppose a general history
and structure of the LFB to the divisions they have today," says
he. "As for words - work towards two pages of text and a page
of pictures." Well what's a bloke to do when He That Must Be
Obeyed gives you a brief, other than to get on with it? But 150
years of history in 1500 words. That equates to ten words a year!
Now the dear old, or should that now be ancient, LFB has brought
out is own commemorative booklet to celebrate this notable
anniversary - its history delivered in 150 images. The idiom "A
picture is worth a thousand words" certainly has given them a
http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/anniversary-photo-book.asp
head start over me, not that I am trying to compete. So how do
I cover this remarkable achievement, and longevity, in the page
and three-quarters remaining?
The starting point should be 1866, I guess? It's exactly 150 years
ago this year. Although, as the accuracy of the LFB's own booklet
has shown, and their belief that the Green Watch was created in
1974 rather than in 1979 when it was actually created, we just
might have to look a little deeper into our fire service history to
see what those lessons tell us.
So the timeline, I would argue, really starts with the great-greatgrandfather of London's fire brigade; a Scot brought down to the
capital in 1833 to establish the capital's first properly organised
fire brigade - the London Fire Engine Establishment (LFEE),
albeit overseen by the insurance companies. Yet in spite of London
being the country's leading city, and probably the largest in the
world then, it was Edinburgh in 1824 which brought into being
the first municipal fire brigade in Great Britain. It was led by our
James Braidwood
Massey Shaw
Scot, James Braidwood, who at the age of
only 24 was appointed as the 'Master of
Fire Engines' just two months prior to the
Great Fire of Edinburgh where he took
command of operations.
Braidwood brought to London new ideas
and original techniques for his novel
London brigade. He encouraged the
revolutionary idea of getting into a building
to fight a fire and not applying the former
insurance brigade's practice of the 'long
shot', a hose played at a distance from the
outside of the building. (Strange how things
appears to have gone full circle in recent
times!) He also insisted that no fireman
should ever enter a building alone, and that
there should always be a comrade to assist
in case of an accident or if the colleague
collapsed due to the heat or fumes. They
became the tenets that resonated with
firefighters for generations to come.
Braidwood's tragic death at the Tooley Street
fire in 1861 brought onto the scene the greatgrandfather of London's fire brigade. This
time an Irishman, Captain Eyre Massey
Shaw, who had been until then the Chief Constable and Chief Fire
Officer of the City of Belfast. He took up the vacant position of
Superintendent, but by the mid-1860s the LFEE had become, as
they would say in today's parlance, 'not fit for purpose'. London
was still expanding and the cost of firefighting was growing. The
insurance companies struggled to continue to provide an efficient
and effective fire service. It was clearly not becoming a profitable
endeavour. They were paid to provide insurance, not to fight fires.
By 1862 there was a growing interest in steam fire engines and
three examples were publicly tested at the International Exhibition
in London's Hyde Park. On land or on the river, Shaw realised
that steam power was the way
ahead for his LFEE. Shaw's
first proposals to modernise
his brigade were detailed and
thorough. He proposed the
increased usage of steam
engines for both land engines
and especially the fire-floats.
However, in the end it all
came down to a question of
money - government money. (See how little history really changes
the problems!) But Shaw had a vision and a determination to
carry it through and, finally, in 1866 London had its 'new' fire
brigade, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, which in truth was a rebranded LFEE. Shaw was appointed its first Chief Officer. The
transfer of firefighting from the private to the public sector was
not without its problems. The financial situation was dire. The
budget set for the brigade was tight, and the borrowing power of
the Metropolitan Board of Works was restricted. (So no change
there then.)
Shaw was the first of London's twenty Chief Officers. Others
would follow him - some adding significantly to the brigade's
7
history and its progress, others merely passing through, and with
one required to resign! Although the use of the word 'officer' later
became a taboo, and it's now all 'managers' and 'commissioners'
in the 21st century.
But two-tier entry, so in vogue today, has a long history in the LFB.
Many of its finest officers came into the brigade via that route.
The names of Major Cyril Morris, MC; Commander Firebrace,
RN; and Major Frank Whitford, DSO, to name but a few.
In an extract from 'Wonderful London', published in 1920, we
meet probably the grandfather of the LFB. Its comment goes:
"Today, such is the rush of modern life, it is probable only a
minority of Londoners who know the name of Mr Arthur Reginald
Dyer, the present chief officer of the London Fire Brigade. This
in spite of the claim that, of all the fire brigades in the world, the
LFB is the finest. That this is no idle boast is shown by the fact
that from all over the world fire officers come to London to learn
our methods of extinction, of organisation, of discipline."
Dyer had joined the London Fire Brigade as a direct-entry principal
officer. By 1909 he was promoted to Divisional Officer North,
taking up residence above Euston fire station. During the 191418 war he was on duty during every air raid on London. In 1917
he was awarded the King's Police Medal for gallantry following
a daring hook ladder rescue during the previous August. It was
noted that Divisional Officer Dyer "had shown conspicuous
courage on at least two previous occasions, and since his promotion
has shown marked ability". Dyer was injured, due to service, on
several occasions. Injuries which later played havoc with his
health. At the 'Siege of Sydney Street' in 1910 he was one of five
firemen seriously injured during the building collapse and was
buried under debris. With the resignation of Cdr Sladen as Chief
Officer in 1918, Dyer took over as Acting Chief before he was
confirmed in the position in 1919. We retirees are told we no
8
longer understand the complex changes or values
affecting today's modern LFB by some in Union
Street's ivory tower. What rot. There have always
been complex challenges. Dyer faced, and dealt with,
some of the most challenging such as the
mechanisation of the LFB and the largest fire station
closure programme the Brigade has ever gone
through.
Dyer retired on 31st March 1933. The 'Fireman'
magazine gave this tribute: 'A man of outstanding
courage and tact, he is an ideal leader who early
gained and has always retained the respect and
affection of his men. No British fireman has ever
more worthily upheld the great traditions of the
service and none has carried with him into retirement
as greater measure of esteem and goodwill.' Arthur
Dyer died in Sussex on 4th May 1951.
We are now the guardians of LFB history. Each, no doubt, has a
view on those that have added to our heritage or took us down
paths that left us scratching our heads, sometimes in total disbelief!
My nomination for a Chief that steered the brigade forward, whilst
being able to communicate and relate to the London firemen's
lot remains the late Joe Milner. His presentation to the Brixton
Frederick Delve
Joe Milner
Round Table on the job of a London fireman remains a 'tour de
force'.
Others, more senior in years, might nominate Frederick Delve,
the first London Chief Officer to be knighted in office and who
was at the forefront of national changes to BA procedures in the
1950s. The tenure of Gerry Clarkson saw a major shift in the
standards of fire cover and re-equipping firefighters in new, safer
fire kit post the King's Cross fire.
Today's people riding London's fire engines are significant players
in the capital's first responders. It is they who have to cope with
the Brigade's corporate language and the top-down driven
standards
and
values. But in his
19th-century book
Frank
Mundell
started the 'Stories
of the Fire Brigade'
by writing: "Fire is
a good servant but a
bad master." That
truism remains with
them today. We may
think we have
obtained
fire's
mastery but woe
betide those who
forget the nature of
the servant.
DP.
After two rainy summers in 1664 and 1665,
London had lain under an exceptional
drought since November 1665, and the
wooden buildings were tinder-dry after the
long hot summer of 1666. A fire broke out
at Thomas Farriner's bakery in Pudding
Lane a little after midnight on Sunday 2nd
September. The family was trapped upstairs,
but managed to climb from an upstairs
window to the house next door, except for
a maidservant who was too frightened to
try, and became the first victim. The
neighbours tried to help douse the fire; after
an hour the parish constables arrived and
judged that the adjoining houses had better
be demolished to prevent further spread.
The householders protested, and the Lord
Mayor Sir Thomas Bloodworth, who alone
had the authority to override their wishes,
was summoned.
When Bloodworth arrived, the flames were
consuming the adjoining houses and creeping
towards the paper warehouses and flammable
stores on the river front. The more
experienced firemen were clamouring for
demolition, but Bloodworth refused, on the
argument that most premises were rented and
the owners could not be found. Bloodworth
is generally thought to have been appointed
to the office of Lord Mayor as a yes man,
rather than for any of the needful capabilities
for the job.
Ludgate in flames, with St Paul's Cathedral in the distance
(square tower without the spire) now catching flames. Oil
painting by anonymous artist
On Sunday morning, Pepys, who was a
senior official in the Navy Office, ascended
the Tower of London to view the fire from
a turret, and recorded in his diary that the
eastern gale had turned it into a
conflagration. It had burned down several
churches and, he estimated, 300 houses and
reached the river front. The houses on
London Bridge were burning. A mile west
of Pudding Lane, by Westminster Stairs,
young William Taswell, a schoolboy who
had bolted from the early morning service
in Westminster Abbey, saw some refugees
arrive in hired lighter boats, unclothed and
covered only with blankets. The services of
the lightermen had suddenly become
extremely expensive, and only the luckiest
refugees secured a place in a boat.
The fire spread quickly in the high wind.
By mid-morning on Sunday, people
abandoned attempts at extinguishing the fire
and fled; the moving human mass and their
bundles and carts made the lanes impassable
for firemen and carriages. Pepys took a
coach back into the City from Whitehall,
but only reached St Paul's Cathedral before
he had to get out and walk. Handcarts with
goods and pedestrians were still on the move,
away from the fire, heavily weighed down.
The parish churches not directly threatened
were filling up with furniture and valuables,
which would soon have to be moved further
afield. Pepys found Bloodworth trying to
coordinate the firefighting efforts and near
to collapse, "like a fainting woman", crying
out plaintively in response to the King's
message that he was pulling down houses.
"But the fire overtakes us faster than we can
do it." Holding on to his civic dignity, he
refused James's offer of soldiers and then
went home to bed. King Charles II sailed
down from Whitehall in the Royal barge to
inspect the scene. He found that houses were
still not being pulled down, in spite of
Bloodworth's assurances to Pepys, and
daringly overrode the authority of
Bloodworth to order wholesale demolitions
west of the fire zone. The delay rendered
these measures largely futile, as the fire was
already out of control.
By Sunday afternoon, 18 hours after the
alarm was raised in Pudding Lane, the fire
had become a raging firestorm that created
its own weather. A tremendous uprush of
hot air above the flames was driven by the
chimney effect wherever constrictions such
as jettied buildings narrowed the air current
and left a vacuum at ground level. The
resulting strong inward winds did not tend
to put the fire out, as might be thought:
instead, they supplied fresh oxygen to the
flames, and the turbulence created by the
uprush made the wind veer erratically both
north and south of the main, easterly,
direction of the gale which was still blowing.
Samuel Pepys
In the early evening, with his wife and some
friends, Pepys went again on the river "and
to the fire up and down, it still encreasing".
They ordered the boatman to go "so near
the fire as we could for smoke; and all over
the Thames, with one's face in the wind,
you were almost burned with a shower of
firedrops". When the "firedrops" became
unbearable, the party went on to an alehouse
on the South Bank and stayed there till
darkness came and they could see the fire
on London Bridge and across the river, "as
only one entire arch of fire from this to the
other side of the bridge, and in a bow up
the hill for an arch of above a mile long: it
made me weep to see it". Pepys described
this arch of fire as "a bow with God's arrow
in it with a shining point".
9
By dawn on Monday, 3 September, the fire
was principally expanding north and west,
the turbulence of the fire storm pushing the
flames both further south and further north
than the day before. The spread to the south
was in the main halted by the river, but had
torched the houses on London Bridge, and
was threatening to cross the bridge and
endanger the borough of Southwark on the
south bank of the river.
Southwark was preserved by a pre-existent
firebreak on the bridge, a long gap between
the buildings which had saved the south side
of the Thames in the fire of 1632 and now
did so again; flying embers started a fire in
Southwark but it was quickly stopped. The
Evelyn lived four miles (6 km) outside the
City, in Deptford, and so did not see the
early stages of the disaster. On Monday,
joining many other upper-class people, he
went by coach to Southwark to see the view
that Pepys had seen the day before, of the
burning City across the river. The
conflagration was much larger now: "the
whole City in dreadful flames near the
water-side; all the houses from the Bridge,
all Thames-street, and upwards towards
Cheapside, down to the Three Cranes, were
now consumed". In the evening, Evelyn
reported that the river was covered with
barges and boats making their escape piled
with goods. He observed a great exodus of
carts and pedestrians through the bottleneck
Unknown artist
fire's spread to the north reached the
financial heart of the City. The houses of
the bankers in Lombard Street began to burn
on Monday afternoon, prompting a rush to
get their stacks of gold coins, so crucial to
the wealth of the City and the nation, to
safety before they melted away. Several
observers emphasise the despair and
helplessness which seemed to seize
Londoners on this second day, and the lack
of efforts to save the wealthy, fashionable
districts which were now menaced by the
flames, such as the Royal Exchange combined bourse and shopping centre - and
the opulent consumer goods shops in
Cheapside. The Royal Exchange caught fire
in the late afternoon, and was a smoking
shell within a few hours. John Evelyn,
courtier and diarist, wrote: "The
conflagration was so universal, and the
people so astonished, that from the
beginning, I know not by what despondency
or fate, they hardly stirred to quench it, so
that there was nothing heard or seen but
crying out and lamentation, running about
like distracted creatures without at all
attempting to save even their goods, such a
strange consternation there was upon them".
10
City gates, making for the open fields to the
north and east, "which for many miles were
strewed with moveables of all sorts, and
tents erecting to shelter both people and
what goods they could get away. Oh, the
miserable and calamitous spectacle!"
Suspicion soon arose in the threatened City
that the fire was no accident. The swirling
winds carried sparks and burning flakes long
distances to lodge on thatched roofs and in
wooden gutters, causing seemingly
unrelated house fires to break out far from
their source and giving rise to rumours that
fresh fires were being set on purpose.
Foreigners were immediately suspects
because of the current Second Anglo-Dutch
War. As fear and suspicion hardened into
certainty on the Monday, reports circulated of
imminent invasion, and of foreign undercover
agents seen casting "fireballs" into houses, or
caught with hand grenades or matches. There
was a wave of street violence. William Taswell
saw a mob loot the shop of a French painter
and level it to the ground, and watched in
horror as a blacksmith walked up to a
Frenchman in the street and hit him over the
head with an iron bar.
The fears of terrorism received an extra
boost
from
the
disruption
of
communications and news as facilities were
devoured by the fire. The General Letter
Office in Threadneedle Street, through
which post for the entire country passed,
burned down early on Monday morning.
The London Gazette just managed to put
out its Monday issue before the printer's
premises went up in flames (this issue
contained mainly society gossip, with a
small note about a fire that had broken out
on Sunday morning and "which continues
still with great violence"). The whole nation
depended on these communications, and the
void they left filled up with rumours. There
were also religious alarms of renewed
Gunpowder Plots. As suspicions rose to
panic and collective paranoia on the
Monday, both the Trained Bands and the
Coldstream Guards focused less on
firefighting and more on rounding up
foreigners, Catholics, and any odd-looking
people, and arresting them or rescuing them
from mobs, or both together.
The inhabitants, especially the upper class,
were growing desperate to remove their
belongings from the City. This provided a
source of income for the able-bodied poor,
who hired out as porters (sometimes simply
making off with the goods), and especially
for the owners of carts and boats. Hiring a
cart had cost a couple of shillings on the
Saturday before the fire; on the Monday it
rose to as much as £40, a fortune (equivalent
to over £4000 in 2005). Seemingly every
cart and boat owner within reach of London
made their way towards the City to share
in these opportunities, the carts jostling at
the narrow gates with the panicked
inhabitants trying to get out. The chaos at
the gates was such that the magistrates
ordered the gates shut on Monday afternoon,
in the hope of turning the inhabitants'
attention from safeguarding their own
possessions to the fighting of the fire: "that,
no hopes of saving any things left, they
might have more desperately endeavoured
the quenching of the fire". This headlong
and unsuccessful measure was rescinded
the next day.
Even as order in the streets broke down,
especially at the gates, and the fire raged
unchecked, Monday marked the beginning
of organised action. Bloodworth, who as
Lord Mayor was responsible for
coordinating the firefighting, had
apparently left the City; his name is not
mentioned in any contemporary accounts
of the Monday's events. In this state of
emergency, Charles again overrode the City
authorities and put his brother James, Duke
of York, in charge of operations. James set
up command posts round the perimeter of
the fire, press-ganging any men of the lower
classes found in the streets into teams of
well-paid and well-fed firemen. Three
courtiers were put in charge of each post,
with authority from Charles himself to order
demolitions. This visible gesture of
solidarity from the Crown was intended to
cut through the citizens' misgivings about
being held financially responsible for
pulling down houses. James and his Life
Guards rode up and down the streets all
Monday, rescuing foreigners from the mob
and attempting to keep order. "The Duke of
York hath won the hearts of the people with
his continual and indefatigable pains day
and night in helping to quench the Fire,"
wrote a witness in a letter on 8 September.
On the Monday evening, hopes were dashed
that the massive stone walls of Baynard's
Castle, Blackfriars, the western counterpart
of the Tower of London, would stay the
course of the flames. This historic royal
palace was completely consumed, burning
all night. A contemporary account said that,
that day or later, King Charles in person
worked manually to help to throw water on
flames and to help to demolish buildings to
make a firebreak.
Tuesday, 4th September, was the day of
greatest destruction. The Duke of York's
command post at Temple Bar, where Strand
meets Fleet Street, was supposed to stop the
fire's westward advance towards the Palace
of Whitehall. Making a stand with his
firemen from the Fleet Bridge and down to
the Thames, he hoped that the River Fleet
empty surrounding plaza. It had been
crammed full of rescued goods and its crypt
filled with the tightly packed stocks of the
A seventeenth-century painting showing the Great Fire of London by an anonymous artist
would form a natural firebreak. However,
early on Tuesday morning, the flames
jumped over the Fleet, driven by the
unabated easterly gale, and outflanked
them, forcing them to run for it. There was
consternation at the palace as the fire
continued implacably westward: "Oh, the
confusion there was then at that court!"
wrote Evelyn.
Working to a plan at last, James's firefighters
had also created a large firebreak to the
north of the conflagration. It contained the
fire until late afternoon, when the flames
leapt across and began to destroy the wide,
affluent luxury shopping street of
Cheapside.
Everybody had thought St. Paul's Cathedral
a safe refuge, with its thick stone walls and
natural firebreak in the form of a wide,
printers and booksellers in adjoining
Paternoster Row. However an enormous
stroke of bad luck meant that the building
was covered in wooden scaffolding,
undergoing piecemeal restoration by a then
relatively unknown Christopher Wren. The
scaffolding caught fire on Tuesday night.
Leaving school, young William Taswell
stood on Westminster Stairs a mile away
and watched as the flames crept round the
cathedral and the burning scaffolding
ignited the timbered roof beams. Within half
an hour, the lead roof was melting, and the
books and papers in the crypt caught with
a roar. "The stones of Paul's flew like
grenados, the melting lead running down
the streets in a stream, and the very
pavements glowing with fiery redness, so
as no horse, nor man, was able to tread on
them", reported Evelyn in his diary. The
cathedral was quickly a ruin.
During the day, the flames began to move
eastward from the neighbourhood of
Pudding Lane, straight against the
prevailing east wind towards Pepys's home
on Seething Lane and the Tower of London
with its gunpowder stores. After waiting all
day for requested help from James's official
firemen, who were busy in the west, the
garrison at the Tower took matters into their
own hands and created firebreaks by
blowing up houses in the vicinity on a large
scale, halting the advance of the fire.
Painting of the Great Fire of London by Philip De Loutherbourg (1740 - 1812) showing residents cowering in
terror under the safety of a bridge on the River Thames.
The wind dropped on Tuesday evening, and
the firebreaks created by the garrison finally
began to take effect on Wednesday 5
September. Stopping the fire caused much
fire and demolition damage in the lawyers'
area called the Temple. Pepys walked all
over the smouldering City, getting his feet
11
hot, and climbed the steeple of Barking
Church, from which he viewed the destroyed
City, "the saddest sight of desolation that I
ever saw." There were many separate fires
still burning themselves out, but the Great
Fire was over. Pepys visited Moorfields, a
large public park immediately north of the
City, and saw a great encampment of
homeless refugees, "poor wretches carrying
their good there, and every body keeping
his goods together by themselves", and noted
that the price of bread in the environs of the
park had doubled. Evelyn also went out to
Moorfields, which was turning into the main
point of assembly for the homeless, and was
horrified at the numbers of distressed people
filling it, some under tents, others in
makeshift shacks: "Many were without a rag
or any necessary utensils, bed or board...
reduced to extremest misery and poverty."
Evelyn was impressed by the pride of these
distressed Londoners, "tho' ready to perish
for hunger and destitution, yet not asking
one pennie for relief."
Great Fire painting, 1670s
Showing the fire from either Newgate or Ludgate with St Paul’s Cathedral in the background.
© Museum of London
Fears of a foreign arsonist and of a French
and Dutch invasion were as high as ever
among the traumatised fire victims, and on
Wednesday night there was an outbreak of
Surging into the streets, the frightened mob
fell on any foreigners they happened to
encounter, and were, according to Evelyn,
only "with infinite pains and great
difficulty" appeased and pushed back into
the fields by the Trained Bands, troops of
Life Guards, and members of the court. The
mood was now so volatile that Charles
feared a full-scale London rebellion against
general panic in the encampments at
Parliament Hill, Moorfields and Islington.
A light in the sky over Fleet Street started
a story that 50,000 French and Dutch
immigrants, widely rumoured to have
started the fire, had risen and were marching
towards Moorfields to finish what the fire
had begun: to cut the men's throats, rape the
women, and steal their few possessions.
the monarchy. Food production and
distribution had been disrupted to the point
of non-existence; Charles announced that
supplies of bread would be brought into the
City every day, and safe markets set up
round the perimeter. These markets were
for buying and selling; there was no question
of distributing emergency aid.
Only a few deaths from the fire are officially
12
recorded, and deaths are traditionally
believed to have been few. Porter gives the
figure as eight and Tinniswood as "in single
figures", although he adds that some deaths
must have gone unrecorded and that, besides
direct deaths from burning and smoke
inhalation, refugees also perished in the
impromptu camps. Hanson takes issue with
the idea that there were only a few deaths,
enumerating known deaths from hunger and
exposure among survivors of the holocaust,
"huddled in shacks or living among the ruins
that had once been their homes" in the cold
winter that followed, including, for
instance, the dramatist James Shirley and
his wife. Hanson also maintains that "it
stretches credulity to believe that the only
papists or foreigners being beaten to death
or lynched were the ones rescued by the
Duke of York", that official figures say very
little about the fate of the undocumented
poor, and that the heat at the heart of the
firestorms, far hotter than an ordinary house
fire, was enough to consume bodies fully,
or leave only a few skull fragments. The
fire, fed not merely by wood, fabrics, and
thatch, but also by the oil, pitch, coal, tallow,
fats, sugar, alcohol, turpentine, and
gunpowder stored in the riverside district,
melted the imported steel lying along the
wharves (melting point between 1,250 °C
(2,300 F) and 1,480 °C (2,700 F)) and the
great iron chains and locks on the City gates
(melting point between 1,100 °C (2,000 F)
and 1,650 °C (3000 F)). Nor would
anonymous bone fragments have been of
much interest to the hungry people sifting
through the tens of thousands of tons of
rubble and debris after the fire, looking for
valuables, or to the workmen clearing away
the rubble later during the rebuilding.
Appealing to common sense and "the
experience of every other major urban fire
down the centuries", Hanson emphasises
that the fire attacked the rotting tenements
of the poor with furious speed, surely
trapping at the very least "the old, the very
young, the halt and the lame" and burying
the dust and ashes of their bones under the
rubble of cellars; making for a death toll
not of four or eight, but of "several hundred
and quite possibly several thousand."
The Great Fire of London 1666 By Lieve Verschuier 1630-1686
The material destruction has been computed
at 13,500 houses; 87 parish churches; 44
Company Halls; the Royal Exchange; the
Custom House; St. Paul's Cathedral; the
Bridewell Palace and other City prisons; the
General Letter Office; and the three western
City gates, Ludgate, Newgate, and
Aldersgate. The monetary value of the loss,
first estimated at £100,000,000 in the
currency of the time, was later reduced to
an uncertain £10,000,000 (over £1 billion
in 2005 pounds). Evelyn believed that he
saw as many as "200,000 people of all ranks
and stations dispersed, and lying along their
heaps of what they could save" in the fields
towards Islington and Highgate.
Fire spread Sunday 2nd September 1666
Fire spread Monday 3rd September 1666
Fire spread Tuesday/Wednesday 4/5th September 1666
13
Crystal Palace
Destroyed by Fire~November 30th 1936
However, owing to the rapid spread of fire, the intense heat
and the danger of the building collapsing, they had been
forced to withdraw. Ten minutes after the Penge Brigade
arrived, the centre transcript collapsed in a spectacular and
upward spiralling mushroom cloud causing fragments of
burning glass and timber sparks to be thrown up. The other
contributing factor to the rapid spread of the fire was the
strong wind, which was fanning the flames.
At a meeting held at Penge Town Hall on Monday 4th
December 1936 the Chief Officer of the Penge U.D.C. Fire
Brigade gave details of a fire which had occurred at the
Crystal Palace on 30th November. (There was a Council
meeting on this night and, upon hearing that the Crystal
Palace was on fire, they had adjourned for 15 minutes to
go and have a look out of the windows.) In this fire, being
of a very serious nature, the whole body of the main building
was destroyed. The Supt. submitted a detailed report. It
appeared that a fire call had been received, at Penge Fire
Station, from a telephone box at 19:59 (a policeman passing
by on a bus spotted the fire). The Street Fire Alarm in
Farquhar Road was pulled at 20:00, with the alarm being
received at the L.C.C.L.F.B. West Norwood Fire Station.
The Crystal Palace did have its own firemen who had been
tackling the blaze by themselves for approximately 20
minutes before they called for assistance, and the Penge
Fire Brigade (one combination pumping appliance with a
crew of eight men) had turned out and arrived at the main
entrance of the Crystal Palace by 20:05. There they
discovered that the centre transcript was well alight. The
Brigade at once entered the building with hose-lines.
14
At 20:16 a District call was sent out with the result that the
Beckenham, Bromley, Croydon and London Fire Brigades
all attended with a total of 87 engines, and 416 officers and
men. With all the attendant problems of different equipment,
London still used screw couplings on their hoses whereas
Penge used instantaneous, which meant that the standpipe
connections were different. Water supply soon became a
problem; the Water Board had thought that a main had burst
and had shut the mains off! Eventually pumps had to be used
in relay to pump water from the lakes in Crystal Palace Park.
The Water Board was soon informed of the mistake and
turned the mains back on. However, with the drop in pressure
and then the sudden increase, several firemen manning jets
and a TL monitor were caught unprepared, and some minor
injuries were sustained. Two of the Penge firemen (Firemen
Stone and Lee) were washed off a lean-to roof, from which
they had been trying to fight the fire.
As can be guessed, communication amongst the different
brigades was, to put it mildly, somewhat strained. At one
point the Chief Officer of the LFB ordered two Penge
firemen, who were attacking the fire with a hose reel, to get
outside as the roof was too high to reach with a jet. No
sooner had they got outside and set up their hose reel to
try to drown the fire, when Supt. Goodman (Chief Officer
Penge Fire Brigade) ordered them back inside. Soon after,
the LFB Chief Officer ordered them back outside, only to
be told that their Chief had ordered them back in - whose
orders where they supposed to follow? The Chief Officer of
the London Fire Brigade, Maj. Morris, replied, "Mine"! (This
sort of incident was to occur a lot in the early days of the
Blitz when reinforcement crews from outside London
worked at fires with the LFB.) One of the bonuses of the
LFB involvement, apart from lots of appliances and
manpower (as far as the Penge firemen where concerned),
was that London had canteen vans. "It was nice to have tea
and sandwiches at a fire," one of the Penge firemen had
said.
Maj. Morris, the Chief Officer of the LFB, had taken charge
of the incident and had spent some of the evening escorting
dignitaries around the scene - the most prominent of which
was the Duke of Kent.
The Fire Brigades were in attendance at the fire until 17:00
on 2nd December. It had proved to be impossible to save
the main body of the building, which was completely
destroyed with only the two water towers being saved.
Luckily no members of the public (there were crowds of
spectators) were injured. However, several firemen
required hospital treatment for cuts and burns, most caused
by looking up as molten glass was raining down.
The Cause of Fire is listed as "Unknown".
Chris Stone
15
THE CHANGING STYLE of the LFB HELMET
over the last 150 YEARS
Since 1866, the London Fire Brigade have used 16 different styles of helmets, ranging from the first leather
helmet design through to the iconic brass Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) model and the yellow cork
helmet. If you wish to know more about each of the helmets please go on the internet and visit the London
Fire Brigade website: http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/history-of-helmets-alt.asp
Leather Helmet
(1866-1868)
Brass Helmet
(1868-1937/1938)
Red Cork & Rubber helmet
(1934)
Black Cork & Rubber Helmet
(1935-1936)
LFB Pattern Cork & Rubber
Fire Helmet (1938-1941)
LFB Steel Helmet
(1939)
Auxiliary Fire Service
Steel Helmet (1940)
National Fire Service
Steel Helmet (1941)
Early Post-War
LFB Fire Helmet (1947)
Cromwell 'LFB Pattern'
2010 Helmet (1957)
Emergency Tender
Crew Helmet
(1957-early 1960s)
Cromwell 'County Style F135'
Cork Helmet (early 1970s)
Cromwell County Pattern
Yellow Cork Helmet
(1974-1989/90)
Pacific Fire Helmet
(1990-1999)
Cromwell F600 Fire Helmet
(1999-2011)
Gallet F1 Fire Helmet
(2010-present)
16
Remembering Frederick Davies
The 5th of February 2016 marked 70 years since Fireman Frederick Davies was
posthumously awarded the George Cross. He died attempting to save two little girls from
a fire in Harlesden, North West London.
He was 32 years old and serving in the National Fire Service (London Area), now the
London Fire Brigade, when his engine was called to a fire in a flat above a shop at 01.15am
on 22nd August 1945 in Craven Park Road, Harlesden.
On arrival, the officer in charge was informed that two young sisters, Avril and Jean Pike,
were in the front room on the second floor. A ladder was immediately pitched to the
window and before it was even in position Davies ran up it and entered the burning
building. At this stage flames were pouring from the windows and licking up the front of
the building. He was endeavouring to remove his tunic, presumably to wrap around the
children, but his hands were now too badly burned for him to do so. After a short period,
he returned to the window with Avril in his arms; he handed her out of the window to
Leading Fireman Thorn. He was next seen to fling himself out of the window on to the
ladder, the whole of his clothing ablaze. Thorn held Davies under one arm and Avril under
the other, then disastrously Avril slipped from his grip and fell to the ground; unbeknown
to either fireman, she was already dead. Davies' uniform was still smouldering and he
was taken to hospital suffering from severe burns on his face, back, hands and arms. He
succumbed to his injuries the following day. Unfortunately Jean Pike also died in the fire.
Photograph of Frederick
Davies / image © Victoria
Cross Online
Location of Medal: LONDON FIRE BRIGADE MUSEUM, LONDON.
Burial Place: KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY, LONDON.
Fireman Frederick Davies' George Cross was announced on 5th February 1946. His family
were presented with the award by King George VI at Buckingham Palace later that year.
Frederick Davies' daughter, Doreen Osborne, donated the medal to the Brigade
on 19th November 2009.
His citation, in The London Gazette read:
"The gallantry and outstanding devotion to
duty displayed by Fireman Davies was of the
highest order.
"He knew the danger he was facing, but with
complete disregard of his own safety he made
a most heroic attempt to rescue the two
children. In so doing, he lost his life."
The George Cross was introduced in 1940
and is made from silver, with the words
'For Gallantry' surrounding the
centrepiece. It is the highest award for
civilian gallantry.
Painting copyright holder:The Fire Service College
The Davies Rescue
A painting by Reginald Mills depicting the fatal fire
extracts taken from:
http://www.victoriacrossonline.co.uk/frederickdavies-gc/4589090645
http://www.londonfire.gov.uk/news/LatestNewsReleases_lfb150remember-frederick-davies.asp#.VwY75ZwrKXI
17
18
THE FIRE SERVICE
CARTOONS
Retired DTSI 1986
For those of you who have collected
my pictures over the years here is the
complete collection from my portfolio.
I don’t think I have missed any but I’m
sure someone will tell me if I have!
Short on one so the Bus filled a Gap!
19
A STORY FROM WAY BACK!
Though this is not the anniversary of this fatal fire I felt it was worth going in this publication due to the
age of the firefighter that submitted it and the fact he was on one of the first appliances that attended
the scene! ~ editor.
Another Christmas was approaching and
at B32 Bishopsgate, a fire station in the
centre of the City of London, the hopes
were that there would be no fatalities in
the fires that we knew that we would be
responding to. For there was never a
night that we did not have to respond to
some fire or special service, either on our
fire ground or the fire grounds of the four
other fire stations that bordered us, and
to which we always sent our pumper and
four men whenever they were called.
It was 21st December 1951, and I am on
Red Watch at Bishopsgate. We came on
duty at 1800 hours and already had one
run, just a fire in a rubbish bin in an office
washroom (someone threw their
cigarette butt in the rubbish bin during
an office party), but we are now back in
our fire station preparing the evening
20
meal and hoping for a quiet night.
At about 1930 hours we received a call to
a fire in a building at Broad Street Goods
Depot, Eldon Street EC2, very close to our
fire station. was a large warehouse- type
building from which the fire was already
erupting from windows fronting the street.
We responded with our pumper, our
pump escape, our 100 turntable ladder
and 10 men. On arriving at the fire scene
we found this warehouse, attached to
Liverpool Street railway station on two
sides and fronting on two narrow streets,
well alight. The fire was already coming
out of windows on the second and third
floors. (Oh! How often we were to use that
expression.) This was rather surprising,
considering the early hour, for workers
must have left quite recently.
Our station fire chief immediately sent a
message to Brigade Control to "make
pumps four" (which would get the
immediate response of four additional
pumpers but more importantly, 16
additional men). I was then directed to
advance a line of hose into the side street
(about 20 feet wide) and enter the
building through a doorway, an entrance
that also served a canteen on the second
floor. As we entered we met a man exiting
who told me that he thought that there
was no one else in the building. We
advanced to the second floor and then
sent back to our pump to charge the line,
as the canteen area was well alight. Our
pumper was, at that time, already
providing two lines to cover exposures
as the street in front of the warehouse
was no more than 40 feet wide and fire
was coming from most windows on the
second, third and fourth floors of this
warehouse. Our turntable ladder had
already been extended but we did not, at
that time, have anyone to man the turret
nozzle.
Being on the inside of the building we
were too busy to know what messages
were being sent, or indeed what was
happening on the streets outside, so
perhaps I should try to describe the
warehouse, as I was to get to know it. It
was about 150 feet by 250 feet and the
rear of the building and the side of the
building seemed to be within the
Liverpool Street railway station. It was
six storeys in height and had varying floor
heights. There were few intervening
walls and all load bearing, for the floors
was taken by steel beams supported by
steel posts. The building had a flat roof
and the roof was surrounded by a low
brick wall, topped by a concrete parapet.
Movement into the building was done
mostly from the mercantile part of the
railway station.
The attack on the fire was well under way
when the front wall collapsed. This would
have been when two turntable ladders
and, perhaps, six pumpers were in
operation. I heard a line and crew coming
up the stairs behind me and I believed
that we might be able to advance our line
with a protecting spray coming from
behind. The collapsing of the front wall
leg missing and there were perhaps thirty
or forty firemen injured in varying
degrees. These were all looked after by
ambulance crews, police and other
firemen and removed to hospitals. Later,
two were declared dead.
changed everything. The fire we were
pushing exploded as the air rushed in and
our nozzle stopped flowing. However,
besides the loss of facial hair and blistered
ears, we backed out and down the stairs
safely. The scene outside was something
else! There were wrecked appliances and
bodies everywhere.
Our turntable ladder had collapsed and
the body of our turret operator was
hanging from his safety belt. Our Deputy
Chief was half under the ladder with one
With the remaining pumpers and crews,
we continued firefighting until about
midnight, when our crew was relieved.
We walked back to our fire station, as we
had lost all of our equipment, also two
of our men.
The fire in the ruins of the building was
not completely extinguished until after
Christmas and it was determined that the
expansion of the steel beams, the beams
that supported the 3-inch-thick wooden
floors, pushed the walls out. And with
the narrow street, there was no escape.
(Sometimes it is safer to be inside).
Where are you? Jumper Collins, Dave
Jones, Johnny Wheeler, Steve Maughan,
Tug Wilson, Teddy Bignold, Stan Sewell,
Alfie Hayman, Jimmy Murrell, Slinger
Woods?
Oh My! What we did for five quid and
a 60-hour week. And all after six years
of war
Gordon H Smith
Footnote to a further email I received: I will be 89 later this year, I joined the LFB in 1948 after three years in the Royal
Navy, served at Bishopsgate for six years and then emigrated to Canada as a firefighter. Ended this career as the Deputy
Fire Marshal for Nova Scotia in 1988. I suppose my career as a fireman started in 1941, when I volunteered, having achieved
the great age of 14 years, as a member of the ARP and received my first training in the use of a stirrup pump, and rode
my first fire engine, a taxi towing a Godiva trailer pump. This was in the Sydenham, Catford, Lewisham area of London.
Being quite big for my age I was also a stretcher bearer when the need arose, unfortunately that was quite often.
Gordon H Smith
The Book Signing!
Dave Pike was the guest of W H Smith's earlier in the year when he was invited to promote his latest book 'London's Firefighters'. The
Barnstaple store, in North Devon, hosted him for the special book signing event and many local, former LFB retirees popped into the
store to buy their signed copy.
On hand to help, suitably attired in tunic and helmet,
was retiree Ron Layland (Islington) and amongst the
many 'old' faces wanting Dave's moniker on his copy
was octogenarian Michael Skeet, who finished his
London career as an Assistant Divisional Officer in the
LFB's former 'A' Division.
Dave became an award winning author this April, when
'London's Firefighters' was awarded a BRONZE medal,
in the adult non-fiction category of the Wishing Shelf
Independent Book UK Awards for 2015.
All royalties from Dave's book are given to the charity
Firemen Remembered.
(Picture left to right: Michael Skeet, Ron Layland and Dave Pike.)
21
In Memory of Gordon White. 1946-2016.
Editor London Fireman
Sadly, Gordon lost the long battle with his debilitating illness in the early part of 2016. The firefighters
of Beckenham fire station (his local station); some senior officers (sorry, managers) of the Brigade; and
many retired friends and former colleagues came together say their goodbyes to Gordon at Beckenham
Crematorium in February and to extend their sincere condolences to Jo and Gordon's family.
Gordon was an extraordinary man. Why extraordinary? That's simple as whilst he may never have worn
a London Fire Brigade uniform, he was London Fire Brigade through and through. This gifted wordsmith
used his exceptional talents and skills to both promote the LFB in good times and to defend it in more
trying times. Many will be familiar with his name. He was the editor of the acclaimed in-house magazine
'London Fireman' from 1970; he also edited the rebranded 'London Firefighter'. It was finally withdrawn
from circulation in the early 2000s. His was the pen that crafted each issue's' 'The Chief Writes'.
By the 1980s Gordon headed up the whole of the Brigade's Press
and Public Relations Division. It was through his stewardship, and
diplomacy, that the Brigade was able to deliver many of its more
prominent and notable events and Brigade-wide ceremonies. They
included: Brigade Sports Days, Carol Concerts, the annual Cathedral Carol Services and numerous
medal presentation ceremonies.
His was, sometimes, a challenging role; one that required him to deliver the demands of various Chief
Officers he served under against a frequent background of limited budgets or even 'political' scrutiny some might say interference!
A pragmatist, Gordon inevitably managed to steer his dedicated
Press and PR team to success. With the support of many uniformed
and non-uniformed personnel, who acted as event stewards and
volunteers, much was achieved. He was not afraid to stick his head
above the parapet either, as when in the 1970s he was an advocate
for Southwark fire station personnel's efforts to save their station
from closure.
As a former journalist, Gordon joined the Greater London Council as a Press Officer at the age of 24.
Within a couple of months, he was with the LFB and editing the London Fireman. Among his many
notable accomplishments he delivered the Brigade's 50th anniversary tribute to the London Blitz, together
with its accompanying major exhibition 'The Blitz Remembered'. The exhibition was hosted at the
Lambeth Headquarters over two weeks, with a middle weekend of commemorative displays at Lambeth
which hundreds of veteran LFB and London AFS firemen and firewoman attended. His crafted letter
of invitation to the Royal Household won favour with the late Diana, Princess of Wales, who brought
along her two sons, the Princes William and Harry, to the Service of Commemoration at St Paul's
Cathedral where the praised Blitz exhibition had also been re-located to. The exhibition filled the Crypt
and was so successful that the Cathedral's Dean and Chapter requested it be extended for an additional week. It was.
Never one to hog the limelight, Gordon took such high profile events in his stride. His subsequent letters to the Royal Household secured
the approval of the late Queen Mother who expressed her willingness to attended St Paul's Cathedral in the early 1990s for the dedication
and the inaugural unveiling of the Blitz statue, which is now overseen by the Firefighters Memorial Trust.
One of Gordon's greatest strengths was his belief in his team to deliver the goods and of the importance of proper delegation. He used his
Press and PR team's skills and knowledge to maximum advantage. It was their individual abilities that he encouraged, targeted and rewarded.
It is best left to the Wing Commander (who acted as an advisor) of the
RoyalAir Force's Ceremonial Squadron, which oversees the elite Colour
Squadron, to sum up the Brigade's efforts at the biggest public unveiling
event in the City of London for a decade: "Damn fine job LFB. The
RAF could not have done it better."
Gordon's great love was cricket. He was an aficionado of the game.
His was a frequent face on the stands of the nearby Oval Cricket
Ground, a short distance from the Lambeth Headquarters. Gordon
retired in 2002 and for a while taught English at a Deptford college.
He dealt with the news of his illness in typically stoic fashion and, in
own his words, "I will not see old bones." He didn't. I for one deeply
mourn his passing and will miss him.
David C Pike.
22
New ‘Online’ Book of
Remembrance for Members
of the Fire Service
The Firefighters Memorial Trust is pleased to announce its new online 'Book of Remembrance', dedicated to all
those members of the Fire Service who have died in the course of their duties. As well as including all of the
names of those recorded on The Firefighters Memorial (2300 and rising), close to St Paul's Cathedral in London,
the book includes the names of the 509 'Fire Watchers' and the 1269 'Fire Guards' who did so much to fight the
air raid fires of WW2 and who are known to have died during WW2. These men and women have never been
recorded as a group before. Additionally, there are chapters dedicated to all those members of the Fire Service
who died as a result of their military duties during The Boer War, WW1 and WW2, having either been called
back as Reservists, recruited as Volunteers or having been Conscripted - 'called up'.
To date, research related to those who died in Military service, has revealed 7 from The Boer War, 583 from
WW1 and 57 from WW2. It is very likely that more have yet to be discovered. None have so far been identified
from the post-WW2 years, but the possibility still remains with the period of 'National Service', which continued
from the end the end of the War through to 1963, plus of course the periods of Territorial or Reserve Force duties.
The research continues and anyone can still help with this process. There is no central source of information.
These members of the Fire Service are listed only in local records, memorials located in fire stations, town halls,
churches, places of work etc or hidden within family histories. Most (but by no means all) are, of course, recorded
on local War Memorials but only by name plus, perhaps, the Military unit in which they served. Linking back to
any connection with the Fire Service is where the research
can be very time consuming and somewhat frustrating.
Trustee and Trust Archivist, Alan House will always be
pleased to hear of any possible addition to any of the
chapters of corrections to the recorded names already
listed. [email protected]
The Book gives details of the individuals, where they
served, their date of death, location of death etc and, in
the case of the names on the Memorial, the opportunity
for family and friends to add personal tributes. For all
names on the Memorial, there is the opportunity to submit
additional or corrected information. It is hoped that the
Book will not only serve as a place of tribute and
remembrance, but also provide a useful source of
information for family history and Fire Service history
researchers. The Trust welcomes support for its ongoing
work to Remember and Honour those who have died in
the course of their duties, both for their community and
their country. Just £1 per month would help to pay tribute
and remember, by means of their Memorial and this new
Book of Remembrance. Anyone wishing to help can do
so via the Trust website: www.firefightersmemorial.org.uk
Book of Rememberance
http://www.theonlinebookcompany.com/OnlineBooks/FirefighterMemorialTrust/Content/Filler
23
Second Great Fire of London
The 1940 Blitz Remembered
time, 75 years to the minute, that the bells
first "went down" on 29 December 1940.
The appliances visited all those parts where
the major fires took place, including
Cannon Street, Bank, Moorgate, Finsbury
Square, Barbican, Cheapside, Mansion
House, Gresham Street and Guildhall. The
circuit concluded at St Paul's Cathedral.
On Tuesday 29 December 2015 the Fire
Service Preservation Group (FSPG) held an
event to mark the 75th Anniversary of the
biggest "Blitz" raid on London. A
progression of World War II fire appliances
was on show to the public outside St Paul's
Cathedral, that iconic building for which
Winston Churchill gave the directive to the
London Fire Brigade and Auxiliary Fire
Service to "Save St Paul's".
To mark this commemoration, FSPG
Member Mike Hebard pitched Soho's old
Turntable Ladder in front of the cathedral,
much to the delight of all the observers
fireboats, Firedart, with whom she played
the "I have a bigger monitor than you" game!
The Massey Shaw not only took part in the
Dunkirk evacuations in May 1940 (her crew
credited with saving over 500 lives) but
served London throughout the Blitz. On 29
December 1940 she supplied water for land
crews ashore, thus helping to prevent fires
spreading to St Paul's Cathedral on a night
when the Thames was at low-tide.
At 1230hrs a short ceremony was held at
the "Firemen Remembered" Memorial to
the late Auxiliary Fireman Holder to be
found outside the Goldman Sachs building,
in Peterborough Court at 133 Fleet Street.
Fm Holder had been killed when a wall
collapsed during that fateful night.
present. Other appliances were on show at
Dowgate Fire Station in the City, whilst the
old London Fire Brigade fireboat Massey
Shaw gave a salute and pumping display on
the River Thames. She was later
accompanied by one of the LFB's current
24
However, the highlight of the day had to
be the "Blitz Turnout" in the evening. At
1805 hours an air raid siren was sounded
in Dowgate Fire Station and this was
followed ten minutes later by police
escorted circuit of the City of London by
the vintage appliances. This was at the exact
To respectfully conclude the day a short
service of remembrance and a wreath laying
ceremony, lead by Neil Bloxham and the
Rev James Milne, took place at the
Firefighters National Memorial in Carter
Lane, near St Paul's.
The vintage fire appliances on view that
day were :
BPM 212 1939 Dennis Light Four Pump
(Hurstpeirpoint / Cuckfield RDC)
DGJ 309 1937 Leyland Metz Turntable Ladder
(LFB Soho Fire Station)
DVF 765 1940 Albion Pump
(Diss Urban District Council FB / Norfolk)
FYH 104 1939 Bedford Heavy Pumping Unit (Home Office AFS
BFH 972 1937 Leyland Turntable Ladder (Old Gloucester)
GJJ 12 1941 Fordson Heavy Pumping Unit (Home Office AFS)
St Paul's Cathedral at the height of the Blitz
Ave Maria Lane,
City during the Blitz
GXA 750 1943 Austin K2 Escape Carrying Unit
(Home Office NFS)
25
THANK YOU!
The LFBRMA would like to take this opportunity in
giving a big thank you to Paul Slade who has donated
one of his superb models plus a LFB 150th
Anniversary gift set to our organisation. These
excellent gifts will be auctioned off with the monies
raised going straight to the LFBRMA.
Vice Chairman Frank David with Chairman Martin Coffey and
Secretary Barry Sargent with the Paul Slade model.
ADVERTISEMENT
PAUL SLADE, FIRE BRIGADE MODELS,
15 GRENNELL CLOSE, SUTTON, SURREY, SM1 3LU
Tel 0208 644 8730
www.firebrigademodels.net
All prices advertised include vat and posting.
1970P
1980
F600
1960P
Cold Cast Bronze Figurines
Approximately 10 inches in height including the base
£90.00 each inclusive
Limited number have been painted but still the same price.
Available with CA tally on the base with an added cost of £15.
The 1960’s Fireman (Black helmet 1960P) is available with LCC or
GLC helmet badge.
26
VFP
VFB
FFGLOVE
MFF AXE
MFF HOOK
MFF HOSE
150th Anniversary set of 6 Diecast
London Fire Engines
Special price of
£65.00 includes P&P
“OLD LFB FIREFIGHTERS
HEAD FOR "THEM THAR HILLS"”
Retired LFB bikers Gil Luke, Malcolm (Grumpy) Whitbread,
Trevor Barnwell and Pete Cowland are currently preparing
for a Memorial Ride in the USA to help mark, and attend
commemorations for, the 15th (yes the fifteenth!) anniversary
of the attacks on the USA in September 2001.
Starting in Boston, from where they will collect Eagle Rider
Rental Harley Davidson Motorcycles, the ride will follow a
route through Rhode Island and New York State to
Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. Here they will visit the Civil
War Battlefields and tour the local area, moving off the next
day to Hope in New Jersey. They will then join in the "massive"
ride (several thousand bikes expected) into Brooklyn and
Manhattan in time for the Commemorations on September
11th (9/11).
There ends the trip for most, who will return via Boston to
fly home, whilst some of the more (fool) hardy will take off
"west" for a three-day ride into Colorado Springs to visit
the American Firefighters National Memorial and take part
in their Annual Service of Remembrance on 17 September.
P. Cowland
With hundreds of FDNY and other USA Firefighters, serving
and retired, they will stand to order in respect of the 343
New York Firefighters, Police Officers and Port Authority
staff who lost their lives "on duty" on that fateful day.
Remembering too, all those civilian lives lost at the same
time. (If you can do that without shedding a tear folks, "you
are a better man than me Gunga Din!").
Having spent the day in New York, and maybe taking a little
refreshment as well, the next day will be given a bit of R & R
in which to take in the sights. A visit to "The Bubba Gump
Shrimp Factory" in Times Square should end the day off nicely!
Limited Edition
London Fire Brigade Monopoly Game
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Fire Brigade, the Welfare Fund is bringing to you a special London
Fire Brigade-themed limited edition of Monopoly. Not only this, the Welfare Fund is giving you the opportunity of
placing an advance order, thereby guaranteeing you will have your own edition of this specially produced iconic game.
Ordering couldn't be simpler
Just call the Office on 020 7407 3964 and pay a non-refundable £15 deposit per game by debit or credit card.
Prices range from £30.00 for members to £35.00 for non-members, plus postage & packaging.
We anticipate a massive amount of interest in this offer, so don't delay in making that call.
Website: http://lfbwelfarefund.com/limited-edition-london-fire-brigade-monopoly-game/
27
As you know, we want to ensure that the LFBRMA are included in as many of our events as possible this year - be that
through the participation of a 'Retired Members Team' at the Brigade games in June, or by joining our entry into the
Lord Mayor's Show this year. Below is a list of events that the RMA can participate in:
LFB ANNIVERSARY EVENTS
Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th June: Brigade Games at the Copper Box Arena, Olympic Park.
Opportunity for RMA members to participate in the games, by entering team/teams.
Opportunity for RMA members to volunteer to assist with staffing the games.
Contact: Liz O'Hara ([email protected])
Saturday 20th August: 'Safe in the City'- large-scale, free public event focussing on community safety and
showcasing the Brigade's modern-day capability. Held at the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, which surrounds
the Imperial War Museum, Southwark.
Opportunity for RMA members to volunteer to assist with staffing the event.
Opportunity for RMA members to have a presence in the 'History Zone' at this event, to showcase their
association with the LFB.
Contact: Hazel McGrouther ([email protected])
Saturday 12th November: LFB entry into the Lord Mayor's Show.
Opportunity for limited number of RMA members to volunteer to participate in the parade.
Contact: Sabera Bhimani ([email protected])
Tuesday 20th December: LFB Carol Service at St Paul's Cathedral.
Opportunity for RMA members to request tickets to the service.
Opportunity for RMA members to volunteer to act as stewards at the event.
Contact: Hazel McGrouther ([email protected])
Tel No: 020 8555 1200
28
Retire, Renew, Refresh, Review & Rewind
LONDON FIRE BRIGADE RETIRED MEMBERS ASSOCIATION
Fitness First
2016 AGM & REUNION
You've retired, so why should you continue to donate to The Fire
Fighters Charity? It's a commonly asked question, with a simple
answer; the Charity is here to support both serving and retired
firefighters and their families and, as costs increase, we need all
our beneficiaries to help us raise the funds we need to ensure we
are there for you throughout your life.
Thankfully we are now all living longer and, with advances in
healthcare and an increased awareness around health and
wellbeing, we can increasingly expect to do so in good health.
However, in order to maintain our quality of life and level of
function, we will inevitably require some form of input from
healthcare-related services as time goes by. The Fire Fighters
Charity provides rehabilitation support to thousands of retired
firefighters and fire personnel, helping them to maintain their
independence for longer.
Of course, the benefits of maintaining good levels of fitness into
older age are immeasurable and beneficiaries attending one of
our centres can expect to be guided through a tailor-made exercise
and rehabilitation programme to maximise their potential
function. Whether walking, swimming or working out in the gym,
our team of exercise therapists will explain the physiological and
psychological benefits of exercise. However, no matter how well
you do or how hard you work on your rehabilitation at a centre,
it is vital you are able to continue your increased levels of activity
at home in a fun and safe manner.
TO BE HELD ON
WEDNESDAY 11TH MAY 2016
COMMENCING AT 2:30pm
IN THE
CARISBROOKE ROOM, THE VICTORY
SERVICES CLUB
63 SEYMOUR STREET LONDON W2 2HF
BAR OPEN FROM 1pm TO 2:15pm
TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE
FROM YOUR BRANCH SECRETARY
A FULL CASH BAR AND SUPPER WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE REUNION
Our teams consequently signpost beneficiaries to appropriate
activities in their local areas, explaining the benefits that can
come from joining a local gym; cycling; walking; bowls; aqua
fit; Tai Chi; Pilates or yoga, to name a few.
By continuing to donate to the Charity after you have retired
from service, you are going to assist us in being able to provide
these important support and signposting services for people
throughout their lives, helping them to live independent,
physically fit and active lives for longer.
There are countless ways you can support and donate to The Fire
Fighters Charity in your retirement. You can continue to regularly
give with a recurring Direct Debit donation, you could play the
lottery - and win a life changing amount of money - fundraise in
countless creative ways, or take part in a sponsored event.
Whatever you can give, and however you can support, your help
is appreciated by everyone at the Charity and all our beneficiaries.
To find out more visit www.firefighterscharity.org.uk/donate
29
TL240 Preservation Group
...update!
It's been fairly quiet over the winter period. The main
task has been to try and keep the weather off the old
girl. Initial attempts at sheeting up either end of the
shelter were scuppered by the incredibly strong winds
that we had in November last year. The tarpaulins
were then "wrapped" around the cab and the rear end
to try and keep out the worst of the weather. Peter
and Colin made several visits throughout the winter to
ensure that the worst of the weather was kept out.
Off site, work has continued apace on those items
such as lockers and fittings which can be worked on
under cover. The rear lockers have been rebuilt and
reskinned. Ladder pawls have been refurbished; the
ladders themselves are still off the vehicle ready for a
repaint.
As spring is approaching and the weather improves,
more working parties are planned and the pressure is
on to get the TL back on the road; not only so that she
can take an active part in the Brigade's 150 year
celebrations but because there may soon be a need
to move her to a new site. I can't say too much about
this at the moment as the details are yet to be finalised,
but it's an exciting move which could end the need for
winter struggles with tarpaulin!
As always, nothing would be possible without the
guidance, expertise and enthusiasm of Colin
Farrington and Trevor Barnwell. Our members are
just as happy to get stuck in and, without the
contributions of everyone, we would not have been
able to make such amazing progress.
The next task is to get the ladders painted and back
on, the body work fitted to a degree that she is
roadworthy and then the millions of other tasks, great
and small, that seem to present themselves endlessly!
Our website, initially ably set up and managed by Bob
Wilkinson, has now been taken on by the ever
industrious Pete Weight. If you want to keep up with
the restoration and history of the TL, you can visit
www.tl240flm.co.uk.
There you will see lots of
photographs of the appliance both during her
operational days and during restoration, so please visit.
If you want any further information please get in
touch.
30
Garry Warren,
Group Secretary,
[email protected]
A STORY FROM THE HEART
In July 1969, I walked through an archway that immediately
took you back over a hundred years. It led to a cobbled yard,
which was worn to a shine by the hooves of horses, metal
rims of the wheels on one-ton wooden escape ladders and
the leather soled boots of thousands of Firemen as they
skidded into position.
Their uniforms changed in style, the horses now in their
hundreds, fed by petrol and diesel, and emitting clouds of
poisonous fumes as they were continuously stopped and
started by the turn of a key, push or pull of a button. This
continuous, repetitive training seeing the basics literally
drilled into these Future Firemen.
Initially to reach the required level, that would see many
leave and take up their hard- earned positions at stations
scattered across London, to all points of the compass N, S,
E, and W.
There would be many whose journey took them no further
than the Station, joined as if by the hip to one side of the
arch. Their training would continue in this yard, and their
boots still adding to the polished finish that, when wet, saw
their reflection mirrored back; but not alone, the ghosts of
so many gone before staring back.
That forensic CSI examination in your brain, what if we'd
done it this way? Turned left instead of right? Gone to the
bathroom instead of the bedroom. If only the driver had
ducked to the left instead of the right! Those questions could
never be answered, we had made our decisions, those
involved theirs and we had done our best.
They never told of the bonds you would form with the most
unlikely. The loyal trusted friends, you would make for life.
The characters, that you would never forget.
The quiet men, whose actions truly spoke louder than any
words, in fact they ROARED!
They never told, nor imagined, that we would continue to
relive being part of this Band of Brothers, across a virtual
mess table, sit in front of a keyboard and communicate with
those we share one common denominator with, mostly
never having met. That experience of having been Firemen
in the LFB!
Stay safe one and all, long may you feel the sun on your
back, the wind in your face and remember those memories
are always ours, and nobody can ever take them away. All
in all, Happy Days!!
Kevin Wright
I knew nothing of this place, its history, or the Brigade I
was to be part of. I looked in awe, suddenly excited and
fearful at the same time, and never knew then whether I
would stay 12 weeks, let alone 32 years.
During those weeks, I heard about this fire, that rescue,
every type of incident imaginable, above and below ground,
involving all forms of transport, public and private.
Heroic deeds carried out by the Heroes of those relaying
these boys own tales. London needed me and my fellow
recruits as soon as!
It was a disaster zone, if I didn't get out soon there would
be nothing left; it would have all burned down, no forms
of transport left.
The reality was different; these tales were the result of
accumulated years of experience. I was to find out the LFB
didn't need me, I needed it.
They told their tales; every word I hung onto like a kid in
a sweet shop. I couldn't get enough, but there was so much
they never said.
They never told of the highs I would experience. I'm not
sure there's a drug that could ever replicate those moments
of pure joy that you all understand, but we could never
explain.
They never told of the lows that would see you wishing there
was another way. That drug, if available, would have been
an easy choice.
They never told of the times you would return to the Station,
so drained, yet so full of life. That joy of being "so alive" at
that moment, with those around you. The banter as you
serviced the sets, replaced the hose, all of the things that
were now automatic, second nature. They never told of how
you would fight a thousand fires, free a thousand trapped,
physically only once, but mentally a hundred times more,
as you tried to get that sleep that your body ached for.
31
Developer Appointed for the Old Headquarters
The redevelopment of Lambeth Fire Station and a new home for the LFB museum moved a step closer on
17 March when LFEPA made the decision to appoint U and I Group Plc (U+I) as development partners for
the old headquarters building at 8 Albert Embankment.
Brigade officers and the developer will now work with local planners, residents and other stakeholders to
prepare a planning application for this site which includes the old headquarters, the former workshop building
and a car park.
Rehousing the Brigade's museum in a purpose-built space will mean we can modernise our exhibits, host
more school visits and encourage more families to come and learn about our history and about fire prevention
which is a key part of our community safety work.
If members would like to keep up to date with the latest information about the LFB Museum they are invited
to sign up to the museum mailing list:
http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/london-fire-brigade-museum.asp
Friday 17th June @ 11am
Highgate Memorial Service
Highgate Cemetery, Chester Rd Gate N19 5DH
followed by refreshments at Kentish Town Fire Station.
For information contact the LFB Events Team on
020 8555 1200 ex 30768 or
Nick Ginty at [email protected]
Sunday 11th September @ 12:30pm
FFMCT National Memorial Service
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, Holborn Viaduct EC1A 2DQ
Members wishing to attend should be seated by 12:30pm;
followed by Wreath Laying Ceremony at the National
Firefighters Memorial Carter Lane Gardens at approx. 1:40pm.
For further information contact:
The FFMCT Secretary Paul Settle on 01233 732348
or email: [email protected]
150 years of the London Fire Brigade in pictures.
Images from the commemorative book to tour small, local museums.
1st March - 31st May
London Museum of Water and Steam, Richmond-upon-Thames
1st June - 31st July
Valance House,Barking & Dgaenham
6th August - 27th August
Havering Museum
1st September - 31st October
Islington Museum (local History Centre)
1st November - 31st December
City Hall, Southwark
(The pictures shown illustrating this article are not necesssarily the
pictures on display or part of the book.)
32
Friday 11th November @ 10:00 am
Remembrance Service City Hall:Service of Remembrance for LCC/GLC members who made
the ultimate sacrifice during World War 1, 2 and other
conflicts. Tickets available from the General Secretary.
Tuesday 20th December
LFB Carol Service to be held in St Paul's Cathedral:For tickets contact the LFB Events Team on
020 8555 1200 ex 30768 in September
FFMCT Annual Thanksgiving Service:Following the start of various works at the National Memorial
Arboretum, the Trust has reluctantly decided not to hold a
Thanksgiving Service in 2016.
The matter will be further reviewed during 2016 so that matters
can be sorted out ready for 2017.
A Lambeth Public Display
(The Classic Drill)
We are rolling in, past the recruit training classrooms, past the
china factory, past the area where we lined up, three deep, and
to be marched by either Sub Officer "B" or Sub Officer "K" to
our various training sessions in the drill yard. No, this time I am
driving a "big 4 Dennis" Pump Escape and I am part of the public
display that we put on every Saturday.
Leading Fireman Wheeler is ringing the bell; Firemen Jones and
Collins are sitting on the wooden seats; and I, Fireman Smith,
am driving this beautiful vintage appliance - and beautiful it is.
The brass is polished, the chassis is shining, as is the 50 foot
escape ladder, the tyres are polished with boot polish and the
steel drop arms to the steering are burnished. We are a picture of
what the public expect.
Perhaps the term "burnished" is no longer used, but I must point
out that, in those days, it was a finish that was aspired to by every
senior officer when steelwork was exposed. I had acquired my
burnisher from an older ex-soldier (what am I talking about, he
was on my watch) who had served His Majesty on the Indian
frontier, and could tell you about punkahwallahs and sh-t wallahs.
(I am getting away from this current topic.) Anyway, the steel
was burnished. A burnisher is a piece of chain mail, which is
attached to a leather backing and rubbed back and forth over the
steel. It is cupped in the hand and rubbed up and down (Oh! How
this reminds me of laying in my hammock in a Royal Navy
destroyer.) Never mind, let's get back to our entry into the public
view of our Lambeth audience. We speed in, perhaps 20 miles
per hour, the bell is ringing, the audience is excited, I turn to face
the drill tower, and Leading Fireman Wheeler jumps up, releases
the gallows wire and pushes the escape ladder upwards. With
this push, the escapes slides down the "Z" bracket and starts
rolling toward the tower. All three firemen now jump off the
appliance to catch up with this rolling ladder, and I pull up quickly,
out of the way, but close enough so that we can easily ship the
ladder when our display is finished.
By now, Fireman Jones is pumping up the ladder, ratchets purring,
Fireman Collins is winding up the carriage and Leading Fireman
Wheeler is steering the escape ladder to the third-floor, righthand window. I should now belatedly point out that for the last
two minutes a victim on the sixth floor of the tower, and with
smoke pouring out of the window around him, has been screaming
for help. He is a victim to our audience but to us the "junior
buck". I served in that position for one year and can attest to the
distress that one of those smoke bombs, with incandescent
particles dropping down your neck, can generate. Not to mention
the smoke and carbon. I checked that I had arranged the rescue
line in nice loops that would pay out nicely; that the loop around
my chest was identified by a "Turk's head", to indicate that this
loop was made on the standing part; and that the leg loop was
spliced in. (Thank goodness half of our men were ex-navy.) But
I digress. Leading Fireman Wheeler has steered the ladder to the
right window and has now jumped onto the still rolling Pump
Escape to remove the hook ladders, and I have shouldered the
rescue line - it is 150 feet long and coiled into a leather strap
arrangement. It looks good but has been scrubbed and bleached
so often (for display purposes) that I wouldn't trust it to rescue
a cat. I now run to the escape ladder, it is still rolling, and start
climbing. It hits the third-floor window sill as I pass over the
first-floor ladder. (If I have lost you now, you are not a
"Roundthreader".) I now take a leg lock and raise the first-floor
ladder and place the bottom hooks on a convenient rung of the
escape ladder.
Thankyou to the National Emergency Services Museum for use of the picture
the ladder as Johnny Wheeler climbs past with a hook ladder on
his shoulder. Many times I have been fast enough to tie off the
ladder before he mounts it. This is where I can have a little fun.
I tie it loosely so that, when he is level with me, I release my
hold and it falls back about 12 inches. Now this really makes for
excitement. The first time I did that Johnny just about s-t a brick;
I think Freddy and Charley, our senior officers of that time, also
did. But later we added this little thing to most of our displays,
as it excited the viewers.
When Johnny had passed me and ascended to the fourth floor, I
followed him up and we continued on up with our hook ladder
to the sixth floor. I then dumped my dummy rescue line and,
pretending the line was under my foot - it wasn't really, it was
under a large cleat - we lowered the victim and then "made up".
Many of you may wonder why the first-floor ladder was used in
this drill. It could easily be done just by hook ladder from the
third floor; however, this drill was thought up to impress the
public and, following my little trick with a loose "round turn and
two half hitches", and the excitement it added, it was continued
in that form.
Gordon H Smith
I then take the 25-foot line that is attached to the head of the
Escape and tie off the first-floor ladder. Sometimes I just hold
33
OLD TIMER
When firemen gather, tales are spun
And they are not devoid of fun.
The grimmer side, not taken lightly,
Gets boring when regaled nightly.
Our predecessors get the huff
And say they're made of sterner stuff.
Let's not forget the things they saw,
They ate the smoke, went back for more.
Long hours they worked for little pay,
Not like the blighter of today,
Who seem to think that it's their due
To live on more than fire-boot stew.
Yet nothing's changed, when on a shout,
We're running in, they're running out.
And flame still clutches, smoke still kills,
We still perform the same old drills.
Old man with tinted glasses, gazes,
Remembering times he went to blazes.
Forgets like us, he played the clown
Off guard until the bells went down.
Don't worry Dad, we're all the same,
It's still a mucky, dangerous game.
Let's brew some tea, relieve the tension,
Hang up your axe and draw your pension.
From a book of poems, written by Maurice
Sturgeon, a fireman at Sidcup, from 1964 - 1980.
LONDON FIRE BRIGADE RETIRED MEMBERS ASSOCIATION
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM
Surname:.....................................................................Forenames:.........................................................
Home address:.........................................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................
Post Code: ................................
Telephone: ................................Email:....................................................................................................
Branch Preference:* .....................................................Welfare Member..................Yes..........No...........
* (If known - See attached List of Branches & Secretaries on inside front cover)
Date & Place of Birth: .................................................Last day of Service: ...........................................
Last LFB Posting: .......................................................Watch: ................................................................
LFB Pension No: E.............................................
Armed Forces & or your LFB Service History (Including any service in other Brigades/Fire Dept.):
.................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................
Date Joined LFB & First Posting: ...........................................................................................................
Next of Kin & their Contact Details: ........................................................................................................
Date: ...........................................................................Signature: ...........................................................
BRANCHES:
Branch
Branch
Branch
Branch
Branch
Branch
Branch
Branch
Branch
Branch
34
No.2
No.3
No.4
No.5
No.6
No.10
No.11
No.13
No.14
No.15
B & E Divisions LFB
C, F & L Divisions LFB
D & G Divisions LFB
H Divisions LFB & Kent
Home & Other Counties
Essex & East Anglia
A & J Divisions LFB & Herts
SW Area & Surrey
Sussex
Ladies
Return completed application form to:
LFB RMA Membership Secretary
8 Ingledene Close
Gosport, Hampshire
PO12 3TY
[email protected]
PS: Don't forget to attach your £10 joining fee
(Cash or Cheque)
PLEASE COULD YOU EMAIL YOUR
BRANCH SECRETARY SO THEY CAN HAVE
YOUR EMAIL ON FILE. Thankyou
Celebrations in New York
In mid-November, my wife Gill and I travelled to the Big
Apple to celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary and my
59th birthday. This was my first time in New York and, like
many of you who have travelled across the pond, I had my
list of places to visit and things to do. On mine was a visit
to the 9/11 memorial and the New York City Fire Museum,
both of which are quite close together and hold a special
place in the heart of a
firefighter.
I started the day with a
visit to the New York Fire
City Museum, which is
situated in the former
FDNY Engine Company
30 Fire House built in 1903
on Spring Street. The
ground floor of the
building has a number of
exhibits including a
Steamer, Chief's horsedrawn carriage and lots of
pictures and artefacts that
explain the history of the
department. Off the main
bay there is a very moving display depicting those
firefighters that had lost their lives at the Twin Towers. On
the walls around the central display, there are various items
of memorabilia which were given to the Fire Department
by individuals and organisations. These include a Les Paul
guitar, a model fire house and a collection of other items
all supporting the efforts of the Fire Department during the
dark days of 9/11.
On the first floor, the museum houses a great display of
early hose carts, paintings and other objects from the early
20th century. It is interesting to note the number of families
that have been connected with the Fire Department for
many generations - a tradition that is still carried forward
today. The top floor of the museum has been developed
into a conference/social function area which can be hired
by personnel from the Fire Department to hold functions.
Apparently, the space is used on a regular basis and is a
way of keeping current personnel linked into to their
heritage. Perhaps this idea could be incorporated into the
new London Fire Museum?
The staff at the museum were very friendly and whilst we
were there a local school group were having session
learning about the current Fire Department and its past.
Hopefully some of them might decide to become firefighters
in the future. After a break for some lunch, we continued
downtown to the Ground Zero Memorial in Greenwich
Street, close to the World Trade Center.
The story of the events which took place on the 9th
September 2001 is still very vivid in many people's
memories, including my own. I remember being on duty
at Poplar Fire Station and being called over to the TV to
be told that a plane had crashed into one of the Towers;
then a few minutes later I saw the second plane hit the
other building. Much later we heard that this was a terrorist
attack which had claimed the lives of some 2,977 people
and cast a shadow over New York for years to come. As
Gill and I walked towards the memorial building we passed
the Fire House and the beautifully crafted mural which
depicts the events of the attack and carries a tribute to the
fallen. On entry into the memorial you are struck by the
size of the structure that once supported the Towers, as
you are taken down to the foundations. The displays are
quite graphic and you are warned that some of the material
is of a sensitive nature, but this doesn't fully prepare you
for some of the exhibits, like the broken ladder truck which
was crushed by the falling building. At the end of our tour
we were invited to visit the newly completed theatre space
to listen to a talk by two of the people who had been directly
affected by the terrorist attack and now volunteered at the
memorial. The first guy was a former NYPD officer who,
along with many of his colleagues, had taken part in the
bucket chain that removed rubble and bodies from the
debris. In his account, he explained that the event was still
having an effect today, as he had recently lost a colleague
to asbestosis breathed in at the 9/11 site.
The second speaker was the son of a firefighter killed at
the site. He told us how his father had originally been
reported to have been injured at the incident and taken to
a local hospital. The family had gathered together and gone
to the hospital only to find out that their loved one was not
there. Meanwhile his father's company were working on
the bucket chain and found his father under one of the
collapsed columns. The family were grateful that his body
was found complete, as many of the others were
dismembered and took many months to identify. Both men
were glad that they now had the opportunity to tell others
their story as it helped to give them some closure. Gill and
I left the exhibition in a very reflective mood and headed
off to the metro to find our way back to our hotel.
A day of mixed emotions, but both places are well worth a
visit next time you visit the Big Apple.
David Rogers.
35
London Fire Brigade Retired Members Association
Annual Dinner Dance
The Amba Hotel (Formerly the Charing Cross Hotel)
Saturday 22nd October 2016
5.30pm For 6:00pm Tickets £90each
Dancing to P’ZAZ
(Dress: Dinner Jacket with Decorations, Lounge Suit acceptable Carriages at 00:30am)
Members & Guests attending are invited to a pre Dinner Drinks Reception at 5.30pm
LFB RMA ANNUAL DINNER DANCE
Please reserve for me ..................... places at £90 per person for the RMA Annual Dinner Dance at The Amba
Hotel, Charing Cross on Saturday 22nd October 2016
I enclose a cheque for £........................Made payable to the LFB RMA
Payment can be either made in full, by instalments, or by a deposit with full payment made by the 1st October.
No refunds can be paid to cancellations made after this date.
All members and guests who are attending are invited to a pre Dinner Drinks Reception from 5.30pm.
Name:........................................................................ Partner/Guest Name:.............................................................
Address:.....................................................................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................................Postcode:.....................................
Telephone No:-...........................................................Email.....................................................................................
If possible I should like to be seated with:..............................................................................................................
If you would like to order a vegetarian meal or if you have any other dietary requirements please contact the Secretary.
Double and Twin rooms with breakfast are available at the hotel
To reserve a room please contact the hotel on 027 747 8445
For more information please visit the hotel web site at:- Amba Hotel Charing Cross.
Confirmation of times and your Tickets will be sent to you at the beginning of October.
Please return completed form and cheque to:B.J.Sargent MBE, LFBRMA General Secretary, 14 The Driveway, Canvey Island, Essex SS8 0AD
Tel & Fax:- 01268 692675.
Email: [email protected]
IF UN-D
DELIVERED PLEASE RETURN TO
5 ELM ROAD, SOUTH WOODHAM FERRERS, ESSEX, CM3 5QE.