Harry Yeadon Interviewed by Tom Lean: Full Transcript of the Interview

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NATIONAL LIFE STORIES AN ORAL HISTORY OF BRITISH SCIENCE Harry Yeadon Interviewed by Thomas Lean C1379/82 1 IMPORTANT © The British Library Board. Please refer to the Oral History curators at the British Library prior to any publication or broadcast from this document. Oral History The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB United Kingdom +44 (0)20 7412 7404 [email protected] Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this transcript, however no transcript is an exact translation of the spoken word, and this document is intended to be a guide to the original recording, not replace it. Should you find any errors please inform the Oral History curators. 2 British Library Sound Archive National Life Stories Interview Summary Sheet Title Page Ref no: C1379/82 Collection title: An Oral History of British Science Interviewee’s Yeadon Title: surname: Interviewee’s Harry Sex: Male forename: Occupation: Civil Engineer Date and place of 28th May 1922 birth: Accrington, Lancashire Mother’s Father’s occupation: Electrical Engineer occupation: Dates of recording, Compact flash cards used, tracks (from – to): July 30 [1-2], August 31 [3-4], October 29 [5-8], November 26 [9-10], December 19 [11- 14]. (All 2012) Location of Interviewee's home, Lytham. interview: Name of Thomas Lean interviewer: Type of recorder: Marantz PMD661 on secure digital Recording format : WAV 24 bit 48 kHz Total no. of tracks 14 Mono or stereo Stereo Total Duration: 14:22:36 (HH:MM:SS) Additional material: Copyright/Clearance Sections of track 9 [between 25:19-25:25 and 1:23:27-1:23:42], : track 13 [59:53 – end of track] and track 14 [21:30 – 21:37] closed until 2032; interview otherwise open Interviewer’s comments: 3 Harry Yeadon Page 4 C1379/82 Track 1 Track 1 I’d like to start off, if you could introduce yourself please, Harry. My name’s Harry Yeadon. I was born and brought up in Accrington in East Lancashire, which was a town of about, I suppose, 40,000 plus, very much a – a textile town, with mills, both weaving and spinning. And the – the largest employer, the biggest employer, in the town was a firm making textile machinery. It was reputed to be the biggest organisation of its type in the world, exporting plant all over the place. My father worked for that firm. He was the electrical engineer. And I used to go into the place with him, particularly at weekends, when he used to call in, because in those days all the drive for the machinery was belt driven from a big sort of steam engine, and gradually over the years they converted to electrical power, of course, and they built their own power station, etc. So it was quite – it was quite a big setup. So having left school at the age of seventeen, which you could do in those days – I went up to university when I was seventeen. That was just when the war started. Am I alright for carrying on? It’s good. It’s giving me a nice overview. I’m going to come back and ask some sort of specific questions. Right. And that was at Manchester. And the – the difficulty, of course, with the war having started, one was always liable to call up at the age of – it was eighteen in those days. But if you joined the senior training corps, you were required to have a day’s training every week, in uniform, and you became a very – you became a very proficient [laughs] infantryman. There was no technical part to the SDC in those days. But I’d already joined the local defence volunteers, which was founded in 1940, when the – the risk of being invaded, if you remember, was very prevalent. And – and that became the Home Guard and the SDC was in effect a Home Guard unit and our role was supposed to be to – to go up onto the moors over – into the Pennines if there was any landing in that area, places like beyond Oldham and so on, over towards – towards Yorkshire. That never happened, of course. And then in 1942, when I graduated, we were invited to go for interviews, prospective officer material, and if 4 Harry Yeadon Page 5 C1379/82 Track 1 you were successful in those interviews, in due course you – you joined a – a pre-op unit and then a lot to [ph] officer cadet training unit, and eventually be commissioned in – in 1943, when I joined various units of different types, until I was – joined an organisation, which was involved with reinforcements, I suppose you’d call it, to Italy, because the invasion in North West Europe had already started. And of course they weren’t getting the resources in Italy, as North West Europe did. [04:50] And so I found myself in Italy, joining an armoured engineer regiment, which was quite unusual, ‘cause we had all these gadgets of mobile bridges and – and the like, primarily concerned with the crossing of water courses in Northern Italy. I mean, the war had – had moved north of Rome by this time. And so this was quite unusual. But it was interesting in the sense that I’d find myself – because I’d – I’d been sent on a course, dealing with communications and training operators with our units – that’s where I found myself. Because one of the things, as I’m sure you’ll appreciate, was that in – in forward areas, the enemy, the Germans, were always trying to find out where various units were. That was the whole business of strategy, I suppose. This is part of the Eighth Army, which was on the east side of the country, whereas on the west it was essentially the Americans. And we had all the allies, like New Zealanders and people like that. And so it was of considerable interest that you – in any radio communications, which the enemy could pick up, that you didn’t give away what your unit was or where you were, and so on. This was highly important, particularly with the specialist equipment that we had, which of course would have given an indication where we intended attacking, because of course at that stage we were very much on the offensive, not the defensive, until the – the war finished – or the war there finished. We finished actually on the 2nd May, whereas VE Day in this country, because of North West Europe, is always looked on as being 8th May. So we’re rather proud of the fact that we finished early [laughs]. And so that – that was the background and then, of course, soon after the hostilities finished, we handed over all this equipment and we – we became a normal sapper unit and joining the other organisations, very much involved in the replacement of – of bridges, which had been demolished as part of the – the war itself. So we spent some time on that, until I came 5 Harry Yeadon Page 6 C1379/82 Track 1 – came home. I could give you a lot of detail about what the circumstances were if you wish, because it was a bit – a bit tricky in relation to the activities of Tito, who you probably know all about. Was that in Yugoslavia? Because Tito – the Yugoslavs were trying to get to Trieste and take over Trieste before we got there. I don’t mean just we, I meant the Eighth Army as such. And of course our lines of communication were extended, very much so. So the New Zealanders went forward and got into Trieste and then it was a sort of sitting there looking at each other across the river [laughs] into Tito’s lot. And eventually, of course, the United Nations became involved and – a place called Pola, which you may – might mean something to you, or Pula [ph] – we found ourselves down there with the unit, which was an isolated – very much an Italian city. And of course they wanted to take over that as well as – as Trieste, so deals were made. And so they didn’t get into Trieste but they were – they got Pula [ph] and the Italians were given the opportunity of pulling out. So that was the background until I came home on release. And that was in early 1947, when the – the UK was in a bit of a mess at that time, because – a shortage of everything and severe rationing and – I remember travelling up by tube train from Calais, because we came across Europe by train, coming up from – crossing to Dover and coming up on a train up to London, with an engine driver on the train sort of saying, ‘I don’t know what you’ve come back here for [laughs]. It’s awful.’ By that time, of course, the – the King and Queen had gone off to South Africa anyway [laughs]. Anyway, that’s by the way. That’s a lovely summary. I think – I think that sort of timeframe is what we should try and cover today in more depth before we go any further. Right. [10:55] So what I’d like to do now is take you all the way – right back to the start. 6 Harry Yeadon Page 7 C1379/82 Track 1 Yes. When were you born? 1922, 28th May 1922, hence the ninety years a couple of months ago. Where? Where? In Accrington. I’ll tell you more about Accrington if you wish.

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