by John Yates
Chapter 9: Return to Civilian Life
After a few weeks searching I got word that the English Electric Company on the East Lancashire Road in Liverpool were starting manufacturing domestic appliances i.e. fridges, washing machines etc. I decided to have a go. Even if I did get a job there, I knew it was quite a distance from home to travel, but the employment situation around Skem was pretty grim. I made my way by bus to Ormskirk, caught the electric train to Aintree and found out the number of the Bus that went by the factory. On arriving I went to the employment office at the front of the factory and asked if there were any vacancies. They asked me the usual questions, including what type of work I had previously done. I said I had spent the last five years in the R.A.F. and had just been demobbed. I said I had driven all types of vehicles, carrying both heavy goods and light goods. This seemed to interest the interviewer and he said he thought he could fix me up, starting on internal transport. He said he would ring the transport manager and he would get somebody to take me through the factory to his office. I went with this chap through the front offices and across the ring road and into the factory. I was amazed at seeing large areas of empty space, where machines doing war work had been cleared. Further down the factory floor people were getting lines ready for appliances to be manufactured for civilian output. Now that the war was over the company, like many others, was able to return to manufacturing/industry. I later discovered that this particular ‘shop area’ went under the name of D shop. We carried on through D shop and into C shop, where a similar sight met me, a large area of empty space where machines had been cleared and a further section, where people were busy installing machinery to manufacture domestic appliances. Obviously the whole factory was in the process of moving over from wartime to peacetime. There was a small office in the centre of the shop, which had three small Hillman vans still painted in their wartime camouflage parked outside. I was introduced to the transport manager Mr. E. Webster. I seemed to get on well with him and he pointed out that the factory was indeed in the process of returning back to normal after the war. I was told that as it would be a while before they got into full production, I would be spending most of my time picking up items needed on the lines. He said he had only two drivers and a couple of office girls working in the transport section at that time but when the factory got into full production, the transport department would have a much bigger workload. He then changed the subject and asked me how I proposed to get to work seeing that I lived so far out. I said I didn’t think it would be a problem and explained the way I had got to the factory this morning, after considering this, he said that, as long as I thought I could handle the distance, I had got the job. I started work in February 1947 and I soon realised that I would have to get my own transport. Three changes on public transport was not convenient. Getting to and from work was taking too much of my time. I started to look around for other means of transport and I finally bought a new 98cc James auto-cycle. To be able to use this I would need some warm clothing. During my service days I had ‘obtained’ a lovely leather R.A.F. aircrew coat that was lined with a thick lambs wool and would keep me really warm. There were plenty of shops selling war surplus stock and I managed to get some leggings together with a warm pair of gloves. From then on I plodded along, on my little auto-cycle at about 20 miles per hour. It took me around 35-40 minutes to get to work through the country roads so it was much better than the lengthy public transport route. I carried on with the auto-cycle for about two years but around every 3 months I had to remove the small engine from the bike and replace the two bearings on the drive shaft when they started to get noisy.
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