LIFESTYLE - SUMMER 2017

The life and times of Accrington author and historianWalter Holmes

Earl Whiaker an original Accrington Pal fromZ Company ByWalter Holmes

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ged 14Walter lewhat was then calledWoodnook Council School (nowWoodnook Primary School) and started working at Lang Bridge & Co on Exchange Street, Accrington, as a paern maker. "It wur quite technical work," recallsWalter. "It wur said if you served your time at Lang Bridges you could work anywhere making anything in the world. "Biggest thing we ever worked on wur for Steiner's – a 24 colour printer. It took both furnaces going and each furnace could do five tonnes of molten metal. We wur making paerns for it for nigh on 12 months." Even as an apprenticeWalter's thirst for facts and accuracy was geing him into bother with the boss. Walter recalls: "I was always falling out with the gaffer. We had special contraction rulers and

he always measured things up with normal rulers and guessed the contraction. And if it didn't meet up with his guess he'd start bloody moaning. I'd chuck the contraction ruler across the bench and say – bloody measure it with the ruler it wur bloody made for! "So he'd say ‘when tha gets to 21 tha's sacked!" And that wur every week until I turned 21 and my apprenticeship was over. He couldn't sack me until then! "He wur a da old bugger. Antiquated. As soon as he got to be a gaffer he stopped thinking fur himself. I transferred to Bulloughs and started there on the following Monday. Worked there in the paern shop for five years until the company started to get paerns made cheaper elsewhere."

Walter worked for a while at the same factory as his father, at the Bristol Aircra Company in Clayton, as it was once known, before joining the fire brigade on June 6th, 1957; the start of a 30-year-long career. But was a maer of weeks before he was delving into fire service records and rewriting them! Tapping his computer, Walter says: "This contains a list of every fireman who ever served in Accrington from the first one in 1853 to the day I retired. I like to know these things! "Sometimes we would get turn outs and couldn't find the place, so I got all the records from all the fire stations in our division and put them all in one book. There were 940 odd farms, small holdings and remote properties in our division and I documented them all. "Aer I retired they got a fancy computerised directory on their machines. They were swanking about with it so I had a go and beat the computer seven times out of 10 with the book. The new system used postcodes, and not every place around here has postcodes. Walter also memorised the legendary ‘blue book' – which contained the conditions of service. "First thing I did when I joined the fire brigade wur to memorise the book because I knew it wouldn't be long before I wur in bother. Aer seeing me win so many arguments, the other blokes got together and appointed me as their union rep, which I did for 18 months short of 30 years." During his time in the fire brigade, Walter had many scrapes and lucky escapes. He recalls: "I have heard angel wings rustling more than once and managed to escape out of buildings that were collapsing. It never bothered me, I had no fear. Some blokes, when we got back to the station would be shaking. I would say to them ‘When you see me worreting that's when you panic!" Although never officially diagnosed, Walter shows signs of having CIP, a rare condition in which a person does not feel physical pain. He says: "There was this one time when an old shop wur on fire, so Lurch here grabs a sledgehammer, knocks off the lock and goes inside. Next thing I knowmy colleagues are spraying me with water. Me tunic was on fire and I didn't even feel it! "If you jabbed me with a pin I wouldn't feel it. The doctor sent me away to be tested and they couldn't find out what was up. I'm always bruising and bleeding and I don't know until someone points it out." Luckily forWalter's family, his historical research is a lot less dangerous. These daysWalter has several projects on the go including an encyclopaedia of Accrington, redrawing maps and translating Church Latin text. That's right, not bog standard Latin. Church Latin. I've always been interested in finding ‘the why' in everything," saysWalter. "I see these historians with fancy leers aer their names...well, I'mWalter Holmes... SUIB – which stands for Scruffy, Untidy, Insubordinate, Ba$*&^d!"

Conflicting reports reached home in March 1918 that Earl could be a wounded POW. (Earl had previously been wounded on July 1st 1916). This led to his wife going to Etaples in France in November 1918 to search for her husband. Now just think about that for a minute. A woman wi a portmanteau (a large travelling bag), loaded with female essentials, travelling from Accrington to France, alone. First she has to go to the 3rd E.L. Depot at Saltburn near Plymouth, and then get across the Channel. The war has just ended and thousands of troops and POW's are being ferried back and forth. She has to find transport to Etaples, (money, food, toilets, privacy etc) and at Etaples she has to find Infantry Baalion Depot 30, amongst several hundred military camps in the area. This great woman set about questioning the camp commanders, returning prisoners, asking: ‘Have you seen Earl Whiaker?’ Eventually she had to come home, she had three daughters to look aer. For the rest of her life she never believed her beloved Earl was dead. His name is on the Arras Memorial. She must have thowt a lot of Earl, an she must a been a hell of a woman.

I've always been interested in finding ‘the why' in everything

Left: Walterholdinghis FreedomofBapaumeand Puisieuxaward.Pictured withRuth, thewifeofhis late researchpartnerand friend,BillTurner.She is shownholdingThe AccringtonPals CommemorativeDVDand PresentationBox.. Right: Epitaphwrittenby WalteraboutAccrington PalEarlWhittaker.

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