A policeman's lot.

My parents lived in Newcastle upon Tyne during the first 2 years, or so, of WW2.
They married about 6 months before the war started, and like many couples in the area my father worked at Swan Hunter’s shipyard and my mother was a full time housewife.

The shipyard was working flat out to produce naval vessels and my father, like many others, was required to work many hours of overtime. Having done that, it was also expected that voluntary work would be undertaken to support the war effort. In my father’s case he became a special constable and patrolled his beat on a number of nights each week.

The ‘black out’ was something of an obsession at the time. This meant that windows were blacked out either with paint or by fitting very heavy curtains. Air raid wardens and the police would shout ‘get that light out’ towards any chink of light that showed on to the street as it might assist the bombers in identifying that they were over an inhabited area. In fact it was a criminal offence to show light at night.

My father was patrolling his beat one evening.
He came round a corner to see a crowd gathered at the front of a house, which clearly had a light on without having drawn the curtain.
The householder was not in the house.
The crowd quickly saw the policeman and summonsed him to deal with the problem.
My father had been taught by his sergeant than in this situation it was often best to slip away before the crowd saw you and allow the situation to resolve itself, but he just was not quick enough on this occasion.
The crowd were getting more and more excited with some individuals suggesting that this was not the first time that this person had failed to keep to the black out. Someone started to talk about the householder possibly being a German agent!
The air raid warden arrived and was drawn into discussion with my father about what they could do.
They could not break into the house without proper reason, so they both started to sniff loudly, and then solemnly declared that they thought they could smell a gas leak. Again, this was a ploy recommended by the station sergeant.

The air raid warden and my father pushed against the door and eventually the catch gave and the door swung open. At this exact moment, the woman householder arrived home and went berserk. She was extremely annoyed at her door being broken into and proceeded to hit the intruders with her umbrella, handbag and anything else she could lay her hands on.
My father tried and tried to calm her down and warned her if she didn’t stop he would have to arrest her and report the whole matter — the crowd thought this was the least he should do. Despite all his pleas and warnings, the rain of blows continued and he had to lead the poor offended woman off to the police station.
In due course the case appeared before the magistrate in Wallsend, this involving my father in taking time off work to attend, and beforehand to briefed by the station sergeant on how to present his evidence etc..
The case was heard on the afternoon, straight after lunch.
It seems that the magistrate had a rather pleasant lunch as he appeared to ‘nod off’ while my father was giving his evidence.
Not appreciating the lack of attention to his evidence, my father stopped speaking.
The court sergeant instructed him to proceed in giving his evidence.
My father said he would not give evidence to someone who was asleep.
The noise of the ensuing argument between the court sergeant and my father wakened the magistrate, so his evidence was then given, and the woman was duly fined a token amount for breaking the black out regulations.

After the case was completed, the court sergeant proceeded to give my father a good telling off for daring to presume that the magistrate was asleep. He was apparently ‘resting his eyes’.
He went as far as threatening to sack my father from the police force and thus destroy his burgeoning career as a law enforcement officer. Something of an empty threat given that my father was a volunteer purely as a result of the war.

My father remained a special constable for the duration of the war, and for some years afterwards. Having learned from this experience he managed to conduct the remainder of his service in such a way that he was never again called on to give evidence in court!

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