George's Story
(as told to Bernadette Camish in the 1970's for a school project)
Born 19/8/1898 in a town called Saltaire next village to Shipley, Yorkshire, England. Died 26 March 1976
His father was a postman in Yorkshire for 20 years and he died in 1919. His mother was Mary Elizabeth Wood nee Clarke, she was a weaver in England, she came to Australia in 1923/24, died in 1952 and is buried in the Preston Cemetery, George had an older brother called John, and a brother Edward Albert who died aged 7 years in 1906.
Most of the children in the industrial parts of England where George lived, went to work in the mills at a very early age. Children started work half time, i.e. half day at school and half day at work in the mills. George attended the St. Mary's & St. Walburga's Primary School. When they were 12 years old the stipulation was you had to have attended school a fixed number of days for five years. If this rule was not met ,you had to stay at school till 13 years old. At 13 years old , they could leave school and work in the woollen mills . Work started at 6.15 a.m. every day, Monday to Saturday. Breakfast was at 8.00 a.m. to 8.30 a.m. then work to 12.15 then lunch till 1.00 p.m. then work to 5.30 p.m. On Saturday work continued till 12 midday. George's wages for 55 hours was five shillings (50 cents). He did this for 1.1/2 years, before losing his job because he was getting old and would have to be paid a higher wage
After leaving the mill he got a job in a cloth finishing and dye works. The hours of work were a little better here, 50 hours, a week and a wage of 7 shillings and sixpence per week (75 cents). After about 6 months in the factory he wanted to learn a trade. Technical knowledge was not necessary in those days, it was a case of knowing someone who could give you a job, and George was lucky as his father knew someone in the engineering line and George was apprenticed to a firm as an apprentice fitter.
George's mother worked every day at the weaving mill, so the boys had to do all the shopping of groceries etc., and mother would come home about 6 p.m. and do her housekeeping and cooking then.
After 3.1/2 years the First World War was on and George wanted to join the navy as an apprentice Engineer. After making application , he was sent to the Naval dockyard to do a trade test , in which he passed and accepted into the Royal Navy. (5/2/1917) He was in the Navy till December 1919, during this time he served on a Destroyer HMS "Llewellyn" as a fifth class engineer. This boat was on patrol in the English Channel. After ten months he was drafted to HMS " Princess Royal" a battle cruiser of the main fleet in the North Sea. George served on several ships during the war and was on the "Princess Royal" when the war came to an end and saw the German Fleet surrender in the North Sea, and escorted them to the Firth of Forth which is in Scotland , and later this German Fleet was escorted to Scarpa Flo in the north of Scotland. He then left this ship and returned to Portsmouth but was returned to Scotland to join in sweeping mines. The minesweepers were of a fleet which had to clear the North Sea of mines that had been laid to protect the British Coast. For this job they called for volunteers and George applied and served in the clearing service for about 8 months, he was then discharged.
During this time he had been courting Hilda Daire and work was very difficult to find in England so they applied for a free passage to Australia for himself and his new wife. They were accepted and sailed on the "Ovita"- a six week trip to Australia.