Memories from my town; voices from the past

What was happening in 1914
As the country was facing The First World War. Men marched up Bell Hill here in our town as men were marching throughout our land to places they may have been taught in their history books, when they had been little boys.

On Jan 5th Ford Motor Company announced a eight hour working day then men were paid five dollars for a days labour..
In 1914 only twenty-percent of thepopulation was middle class.
From 1900-14 unemployent was low but during the twenties there followed mass unemployment.
The main causes of poverty was low wages whilst thee main cause of extreme poverty was the loss of the main breadwinner. If dad was dead, ill or unemployed it was, of course, a disaster. Even if mum was able to get a job she'd be given a much lower wage than a man might be expected to get.

It's shocking to think of this now but in 1900 some women were making their underwear from bags that grocers kept their rice in. Poor children often didn't wear any underwear.
Some poor families made prams from orange boxes.

Following the election of a Liberal Government in 1906 reformes were introduced one of these being the introduction of free school meals.
Later, 1909, the first old age pension was introduced; five shillings a week paid but only to men over seventy but it was a start then wasn't it?

In 1909 the government formed wages councils. In those times many people worked in what we now call 'sweated industries' they generally made clothes, had to work long hours for extremely poor pay but they had no choice if they were to survive then. It was for this reason that the Wages Councils set minimum pay levels; but only for certain indutries.

In 1910 the first Labour Exchanges, where jobs could be advertised, were set up.

It was in 1911 that the government passed an act establishing sickness benefits for workers. This act also provided unemployment benefits for workers in certain trades such as the shipbuilding trade; where periods of unemployment were common.

I'm proud that so many people in my little town/village shared some of their life stories with me; in this way their voices will echo through the years; even when their last breath has gone their presence will stay on.

I visited the following contributor who welcomed me in with offer of a cup of tea, lovely, then his story began.

It will be his voice ringing clear, not mine, for I was simply the scribe on that summer day.

Mr A.G. Perkins 13.1.14
 My dad was Arthur Perkins and he was born in Spring Terrace Irthlingborough and he died of consumption when I was very small. Mum worked in a shoe factory at Tower Boot Company where she was Forewoman in the Closing Room.
I attended Finedon Junior School and Bill Taylor was the headmaster and he lived in a bungalow in Station Road.  I then went onto the Senior School on Wellingborough Road where Mr Sutton was the headmaster. You did not ask questions and you used to be hit on the knuckle with the edge of a ruler but you could not do that now.
 
I later worked at Nutts shoe factory as a clicker for forty eight hours a week which included Saturday mornings and that was for seven shillings and sixpence. You used to have to clock in then and the foreman was Freddy Denton; I am going back seventy years now.

I got married in 1936 and we were together for seventy years and my wife’s name was Daisy Dilley. We lived in the High Street   and we used to do our courting in this entry when we were sixteen. Our son Brian was born in July 1946 and he went to schools in Finedon.

During the war I first had to go to Bath then I was transferred abroad. We were only a few weeks in North Africa as the war was almost over there so we then did some training on a dukw in Malta. Next we went to Sicily and it only took thirty nine days to invade.
We then went across the Messina Straits and invaded Italy.

It was our job to unload the ships of troops, ammunition, and petrol etc and there were thirty in each company and there were two or three companies .I spent the last twelve months in Vienna waiting to be demobbed in 1946 from the Army. I got paid about eleven shillings and sixpence. I won medals including the African Star and the Italian star for invading Sicily, Africa and Italy.

When I returned home I signed on at Wellingborough Job Centre and the lady there said I could have six months off for rest but then I returned  to the house I learnt that my wife had found me a job as a packer at Tecnic shoe  company in Rushden. And I was there until I retired at 65.