Uniformed Services

Bevin Boy, miner and publican (1941-1987)

Peter was a Bevin Boy who stayed on working in the mines and ended up as a publican. I was fourteen years old when I left school in 1941. My first job was an ironmonger’s errand boy for six months before I went to work for a baker on a bread round. I delivered bread […]

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Firefighter and more (1970s-2014)

Colin was an artificer apprentice in the Navy, had many jobs in London, then worked as firefighter in London, Cambridge and Norfolk, and ended his career working for the probation service. Engineering training at Wymondham and the draw of the Navy I went to Wymondham College the year that they moved the last house out […]

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From banking to music (1940s-1960s)

Peter began work at the Midland Bank at 16 before the war. At the same time, he was the compere of a concert party playing for the troops. He took part in the Normandy invasion. Eventually he became a professional musician on the London scene in the 1960s. My first job was as a clerk […]

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Giving as a guiding principle (1947-2015)

Frank was leisure manager at the Norwich Union sports park at Pinebanks. His motivation: ‘I like to do things for people that they enjoy. And I’ve been doing it for years, even when I lived in Thorpe.’ Frank is motivated by the principle of, ‘If you give, you receive; because the Lord said that, and […]

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