Philip

A few notes about Philip

Philip was brought up in Coventry

There during the war he lived near the Standard Motor Car Works where they were making armoured cars.

He remembered all too vividly the day he and his brother Reg left their house on their paper round, It was early morning when all at once a Stukka dive bomber appeared from nowhere. There was a terrible screeching as it's siren screamed out it's terrible warning, then the guns opened up. They both fell to the ground and and pulled their newspaper bags over their heads for protection, when they dared to look out, from below the shelter of their bags they saw bullets, splashing down like heavy rain, tearing up the tarmac.

Then came the Coventry blitz. No one was allowed to leave Coventry. . .

Meanwhile at Ilkeston Mines Rescue Station the women and children had been taken down into the gallery, where they had sofas and mattresses, all the comforts of home. The men were up on the roof. When they came down they told everyone that Derby was taking a real hammering and judging by the glow in the sky there would not be a lot left the following day. It was not Derby it was Coventry and Philip was in the midst of it. His father got hold of a car and eventually managed to weave in and out of enough back streets to get away. They came over to Brindsley, where they had relatives.

Philip went to school in Brindsley, frequently found them selves in fights because of their funny accents and because they were evacuees.

At lunchtime they would trudge 1.5 miles (2.4Km) home for lunch only to find there wasn't any.

Joined ATC. Became very involved in it, loved it but was thrown out after stowing away on a Lancaster/Wellington during a visit to Hucknall? airport. The flight crew discovered him when the aircraft dived and he was thrown into the air. They decided to keep him up in the air. They flew him over his house; he could see his mum in the back yard.

On leaving school he became a sheet metal worker apprentice at Rolls Royce. This did not last long however as he was called up to do National Service. The RAF took him in. He had many adventures in the RAF but he remained on the ground.

On one occasion, during the terrible winter of 47 he was digging out vehicles, while digging out a coal lorry he was approached by some half starved kids, they had a bag with them, "Hey mister, let us have some coal". Philip told them he could not let them have any coal, he would be in real trouble if he did, however he also told them he was just off round the other side of the lorry for a smoke and did not expect to see them when he returned in 15 minutes later. Sure enough when he got back they had gone, although he could see the marks where they had dragged a heavy bag through the snow.

On leaving the RAF he could have gone back to Rolls Royce, but his father kept on at him that there was not enough money coming in from an apprentice but of course he was not brave enough to go down the pit. The gauntlet had been thrown down and Philip took up the challenge. The day Philip walked into the yard at Pye Hill, Brindsley his life went in a new direction.

He worked hard down the pit, so much so that he caught the eye of management, they sent him on a training course to learn how to use the new coal cutter.

When it arrived he was the only one who could use it. Because of this he was expected to do double shifts, seven days a week. Inevitably the day came when he was too exhausted to turn up for the second shift. A lorry pulled up at the door, "Come on Phil, you are supposed to be down pit." From that day on a lorry came to collect Phil, but eventually exhaustion took a grip and he told the lorry to go, he had an extra couple of hours in bed. When he arrived at the pit the manager was livid and told Phil to get down the pit and onto that machine and not to expect his bonus for the week. Without the bonus Philip said, he was not going down the pit, and he left the office. The lorry was at his front door before him.

Eventually Philip left the Pye Hill and joined the Ilkeston Mines Rescue Station and that is mainly what this site is about.