CONTENTS Chapter 1 Forebearers & Early Life 1700 to 1935
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CONTENTS Chapter 1 Forebearers & Early Life 1700 to 1935..................................................... 1 Chapter 2 Prewar Schooling 1935 to 1939.......................................................... 7 Chapter 3 War & Evacuation 1939 to 1943......................................................... 14 Chapter 4 Apprenticeship & last years of war 1943-48................................................. 20 Chapter 5 Hawkers D.O. 1948 to 1952 ............................................................ 29 Chapter 6 To Canada 1952 to 1955................................................................ 36 Chapter 7 - Interlude in England 1955-56........................................................... 45 Chapter 8 Return to Canada...................................................................... 49 Chapter 9 Marriage 1964 to 1968 ............................................................... 57 Chapter 10 Trip around the world 1968 ............................................................ 62 Chapter 11 The family grows 1968 to 1975 ......................................................... 69 Chapter 12 Ottawa - working for the government 1975 on.............................................. 74 Chapter 13 The variety of employment 1983 to 1991................................................. 82 Chapter 14 Approaching Retirement 1991 ......................................................... 85 Chapter 15 The next years - Japan after 24 years ..................................................... 88 Chapter 16 An added chapter - Animals in my life.................................................... 90 Chapter 17 Retirement?......................................................................... 93 MASTER COPY iii Comments on Biography I decided to write my biography as a retirement project after thirty-eight years in the aircraft industry, followed by more than ten years in the nuclear field. I planned to rough out the contents before I retired, but unfortunately, I got interested in the text and was finished long before I retired. Still, there are plenty of other jobs to be done, and hopefully even other chapters of this book to be written. The purpose of writing, other than to fulfil an urge to try my hand at writing, was to put down on paper what I had done. In this way, I hoped that my children could learn something of my life before it was "Dad, can you lend me twenty dollars.".. I don't think either of the children are at present interested, but maybe when they slow and settle down, they may wonder "what did Dad do when he was my age." I have tried to set some of the aspects of life which are different now. In a way, I hope to indicate the differences in attitude, living conditions and material things that the affluent society of today has not experienced. In some places, where I have mentioned actual people, I have only given the initial of the surname, just in case anything I have written could cause embarrassment to them or their families. In a couple of cases I have completely altered the name. Of course, both family and very close friends have been fully identified. Much of the earlier occurrences was either told to me or I have had to rely on memory. I have a large number of photographs, many of which were notated, which has helped keep the record straight. I have kept a diary for more than forty years and even before, made a journal on the longer holidays. So I believe that my record is fairly accurate both in date and detail. However, if there is any mistake, please bare with it and treat it as the way I remember things. I hope that the reader will get some enjoyment from this book and a wider appreciation of the values of the middle and latter part of the twentieth century. Don Joseph Dedicated to Madeleine, and all wives who live in the shadow of computers This version of my biography has been revised to include some illustrations, which I hope will increase the enjoyment of the reader. They are not generally family photos, but are relevant to the adjacent paragraph. Other chapters have been added to bring newer happenings in. NOTE: the word “contents”at the end of each chapter is used in the computer version to return to the contents page, in the WordPerfect version. iv IT'S A GREAT LIFE AND THE ONLY ONE I HAVE. Chapter 1 Fore bearers & Early Life 1700 to 1935 This is the autobiography of Don Joseph. You may ask why someone who is unknown and has not done anything out-of-the-ordinary should have a biography. Well, I have lived through some very interesting times, but I am writing because I want to. Before I say anything about myself, a little about my family. The Joseph family and the Davis family (my Mother's) were both originally Jewish families that came to England from Europe in about 1700 and 1650 respectively. I know little of their early history, except that my great-grandfather was a toddler at the time of Waterloo (1815). My paternal grandfather was born in 1848 and my father, Harry, was the eleventh of 13 children and was born in 1896. My mother's father was a wealthy jeweller, and her name was Frances (known as Frankie). She was the youngest of seven children and was born in 1900. Jews in England in the latter part of the 19th century were beginning to be completely assimilated in to British society. Before this, few jobs were open to them and many had employment in traditional work like tailoring, running pawn shops, and money lending. However, after the example set by Benjamin Disraeli, who became Prime Minister of Britain in 1874 and was later Lord Beaconsfield, many established Jewish families moved in to other fields. My father's siblings went into a number of trades. Several stayed in the jewellery business, one went into the merchant navy, two went in the forces (Navy & Army). Two went into companies in London (Stationary & Wholesale Hardware) and were on the board of directors of their respective companies before they retired. On my mothers side one brother was a bookmaker, another ran a small grocers shop, Her sister was in the leather trade (both wholesale and manufacturing shoes, luggage and accessories). The first world war broke out in August 1914 and changed social ways in England completely. My father was apprenticed in a candy factory, but on the declaration of war, he and a friend enlisted immediately in the army, joining the London-Scottish Regiment. Fortunately, his friend was not accepted because of medical reasons. My father didn't want to go alone, so he went to the navy recruitment office and joined the Royal Navy instead. Being the senior service, there was no trouble with the earlier enlistment, strictly speaking he could have been listed as a deserter. I say fortunately because the London-Scottish Regiment suffered decimation in Flanders the next year, and it would have been unlikely he would have survived the war unharmed. Instead he became a mechanic in the Royal Naval Air Service, which had just been formed. His service number was 792, within the first thousand of the many, which eventually became the Fleet Air Arm. After three weeks training, he joined the crew aboard HMS Empress that was one of the first seaplane carriers, and given sort of on-the-job training afloat. On Christmas day 1914, he was in the North Sea on HMS Ben-Ma-Creeafter launching the planes for the world's first naval air raid on a port facility. While returning to their home port, Harwich in England, the ship had to dodge bombs from a Zeppelin sent from Germany to sink them. The damage from both the raid and the bombing was a big zero, but war in the air had started! Later, Father served on both HMS Ben-Ma-Cree, & HMS Ark Royal while in Wing 2 in the Aegean Sea and Gallipoli. During 1916, the RNAS became short of trained personnel during the Gallipoli campaign so they asked some Petty Officers to volunteer. Dad did so, and was one who became a pilot. The training was marginal, he soloed after 3½ hours and obtained his wings at 16 hours. There was little war action, and his main duty was acting as pilot in a rebuilt Sopwith one and a half strutter doing observation flights. In 1917, he came home and after the RNAS & the RFC were combined into the RAF. He spent the rest of the war as a flight sergeant at Turnhouse air station, which protects the Firth of Forth and Edinburgh. My mother started work at the old age of 16, many kids at that time worked at 12. She was in the Ministry of Supply, and to quote her, spent the war ordering toilet paper for the forces and government. After demobilization, my father spent some time buying and selling. After the 1939-45 war, he would have been considered a bit of a spiv, but after getting a little money behind him, he went into a partnership in a jewellery shop. It was successful and they soon opened a second shop, the partner ran the first and Dad PO Harry Joseph RNAS & his brother ran the second. He then took over a public house and got married to Mother. 1 A public house is an English creation and although it has the same purpose as a Canadian tavern, it is completely different. In some ways it is more like a community centre or working man's club and in this period. It was a main entertainment for the middle and lower class men & women. The first pub he took was the "City Arms" in Tidal Basin. The pub was in the London Docks and consequently had special opening hours. Unlike other London pubs it opened at 6am for the dockers' breakfasts. In fact Mother spent the first year of her married life cooking breakfasts & dinners for 70 hungry dockers. The City Arms was right on the river, with steps from the yard at the back of the building leading to a landing stage on the water. The front was on a street of the type that runs parallel to the river and had a railway line (track) running down its centre.