| Bill was born
in 1920 in the small town of Atherton, Lancashire
and was the son of a coal miner. He was from a
large family where the boys went to work in the
coal mines and the girls found employment in the
cotton mills. Bill worked in the pits from the
age of fourteen but, being high spirited he
decided to join the army. (He had a manic lust
for fires, explosives and women though not
necessarily in that order). When war broke out in
1939 this served to quench his thirst for all
three and he drank deeply from the pool. As a boy he
attended Lee Street School, Atherton, and was
beaten every day with a stick by a headmaster
known as Daddy Evans. He later left Lee St and
attended Hesketh Fletcher School. This treatment
was to stand him in good stead in later years
when he was captured by the Japanese as it
enabled him to survive the constant beatings he
received in P.O.W. camps. To quote Bill "I
thought about me Mam's potatoe cakes all hot and
smothered in butter. Yer don't feel the pain when
yer thinking about yer Mam's cooking". When
he went to war the Lasses and Landlords went into
mourning whilst the local constabulary heaved a
sigh of relief.
The Lasses of Lancashire
they Wept.
|