My Life and Times as a BBC Engineer 1942-1945 Part 1

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Roger Marsh of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Dennis Faulkner and has been added to the site with the author’s permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

CHAPTER 1. GLOUCESTER
CHAPTER 2. CARDIFF
CHAPTER 3. MAIDA VALE, LONDON
CHAPTER 4. DROITWICH TRANSMITTING STATION
CHAPTER 5. TATSFIELD RECEIVING STATION
CHAPTER 6. CROWSLEY PARK, OXFORDSHIRE
CHAPTER 7. OUR LIVING ACCOMMODATION AT `GREAT OAKS'
CHAPTER 8. A VERY STRANGE AFFAIR
CHAPTER 9. THE LAST DAYS
CHAPTER 10. POSTSCRIPT

CHAPTER 1. GLOUCESTER.
A letter written on 28th February 1942 (my 16th birthday) by the Engineer-in-Charge of the BBC transmitting station situated on top of Churchdown (Chosen) Hill near Gloucester, asked me to go there for an interview the following day, a Sunday, at 9.OOam, ".....in order to see if I would prove suitable for the vacancy". This had been instigated by a school friend, Ron Gittings, who was employed there, and was to be posted elsewhere, thus leaving a vacancy for a 'Youth-in-Training (Transmitters)'. Ron had previously discussed this with me and asked if I would be interested. INTERESTED! I should say so!

Therefore on the Sunday morning, I prepared myself in my best clothes and cycled the six or so miles to the bottom of the lane leading to the summit of the 154m (505ft) 'Chosen Hill', so called as the result of a legend concerning The Devil and the parish church which stood up there in a very isolated place. Apparently before the Water Authority built the road, coffins had to be carried all the way up. No mean feat! I then pushed my bike up this steep narrow road and eventually reached the wire fence enclosing the two semi-underground Gloucester and Cheltenham water reservoirs. A push of the bell button brought someone down the flight of steps from a little Cotswold cottage type stone building perched on the top edge of one of the reservoirs. He asked my name, unlocked the gate and escorted me back to the little building. Once inside I was quickly introduced to Mr. A M Sellick, the EiC, and asked to sit in his tiny office and asked why I wanted to work for the BBC. I can no longer recall the details of the interview, however it was successful. The same day (March 1st 1942), Mr. Sellick wrote to me again "to confirm that the British Broadcasting Corporation offered me an engagement in the grade of Youth-in-Training (Transmitters) at a weekly wage of £1-7-6 (£1.37p) plus 3/- (15p) Cost of Living Bonus".

I was to "release myself from my present employers at the earliest possible date and inform him when I could commence my duties."
The next day, Monday 2nd March, I handed in a week's notice to the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Works. I had started there in the Electrical Department on leaving the Gloucester Central Technical School for Boys in the previous June as an unindentured apprentice to an electrician.
Our work was not however on railway carriages, but on `Churchill' Tanks. My particular job was to install the army type 19 wireless set in the turret prior to the tank leaving the production line and going on field trials. I often went with the tank, standing in the turret, wearing headphones and microphone to let the driver know of any hazard he was unable to see from his restricted viewpoint. From the works in Bristol Road Gloucester, to the testing ground at the top of Horsepools Hill on Edge Common was some six or seven miles from the city. Once there, I operated the wireless on a UHF frequency, to convey commands from the Ministry Examiner (who watched from close by) to the driver. For a youth of not quite 16, it was a very exciting job. When the tank was accepted, it was driven through town to the railway for shipment to Boscombe Down for its gun firing and hand over to the army.

One day it was announced that the factory was to receive a Royal visit, from HM Queen Mary (the widow of King George V). She was `evacuated' to live at Badminton, near Chipping Sodbury, the Gloucestershire home of the Duke of Beaufort, and so was relatively close by. She was to witness a newly completed `Churchill' Tank leave the production line and roll out under its own power. I was designated to stand in the turret as this monster moved slowly past HM. I was so awed that I was uncertain as what to do. In the event I just looked down at Queen Mary, a tall regal figure in her 76th year, and she looked up at me! Goodness knows what she thought, seeing such a young chap up there apparently "in charge" of this thundering clanking monster!

It was here at the 'Wagon Works' that I became more interested in `wireless'. As many of the electricians were 'old hands' at building wireless sets and amplifiers etc., some gave me all sorts of bits and pieces and circuit diagrams and encouraged me to build my own wireless. This I did, starting with a crystal set and progressing to thermionic valves. My interest in `wireless' was now firmly fixed and was to continue throughout my working life, becoming my profession.

I left the Wagon Works at the end of the week and was due to start with the BBC on Monday 8th March 1942. In the event I received another letter from Mr Sellick asking me to report for duty on Sunday the 7th at 9.00am until 5.00pm. "Better the day, better the deed", indeed!!

So it was that my time with the BBC started at this little Group `H' Transmitting Station perched on the top of `Chosen Hill'.

The small stone building (like a little cottage with leaded windows) was actually an access point to the reservoir underneath, and there was a continual noise of moving water, to which one quickly acclimatised. Along one side of the building was a steel protective barrier and handrail and behind it at floor level, a series of steel removable access plates to the cavernous reservoir. On one occasion, the water was emptied for inspection purposes and we were allowed to go down the long flight of concrete steps below the gratings to see this vast space, which normally held many millions of gallons of drinking water, pumped here from the extraction and purification plant on the river Severn at Tewkesbury.
On 'our side of the rails was a bench with the transmitter/modulator and a small desk, for the likes of me to sit at, with one of the two telephones. One of my duties was to answer the `phone. There was one extension to the EiC's office, and another to an underground bunker within the perimeter fence, which was manned by the local detachment of the `Home Guard'. They manned it during the evening and night and at weekends. We were unguarded during the day!
Each hour I took the transmitter logbook and carefully listed all the readings of the various meters and informed the duty engineer (the only other person on shift) if there were any notable variations from the previous readings. How exciting! There never were any. The engineer I was most frequently on shift with was a Mr. Bull (old Bull), who was an ex Merchant Navy Officer. He had an annoying habit of continually pacing back and forth for hours on end! A habit from a ship's bridge, no doubt.

The rest of the time on shift (apart from sweeping up and making tea, I spent in study on a course set for us by the BBC Training School and also a correspondence course chosen by the EiC. (The BBC paid the subscription to the British Institute of Engineering Technology). The EiC oversaw these study courses when I was on day shifts. It seemed remarkable that, in the middle of a war, one could still do a correspondence course.

Something else that proved the `power of the BBC was that when my father purchased a 150cc Velocette motor bike for me, the corporation obtained official sanction for me to use it to journey to the station 'on essential war work'. They also obtained petrol coupons. My route was specified, so I could not use the bike for other `unofficial' journeys.

During day shifts there were three people in the little house and not much room to spare. Mr. Sellick's office doubled as a tiny studio for use in emergencies and in the event of an invasion by the enemy. It was intended that `Local Government' would issue instructions to the populace from here. These low power (100watt) transmitters were all on the same frequency of 203m. (1477Kc/s., later KHz) They were sited in all large towns and cities throughout the country. In the larger cities such as Birmingham or Bristol the power was increased to 1000watts. They retransmitted the BBC Home Service, (what today would be Radio 4). When I started work there, the programme was received `off air' and rebroadcast. Later on we had Post Office music quality telephone landlines installed and the programme came in via those from another `H' station in a brick works in Worcester.

During the setting up procedure for these `music lines', a BBC Lines Engineer arrived to carry out the `equalisation', which meant visiting the Post Office Telephone Exchange in Gloucester, (where the lines were connected into the BBC's Network) and carrying out frequency tests. If necessary, 'equalisers' were made up and connected to correct any errors in the frequency response. I was despatched with him to watch and learn how he performed this task. There was also a 'tie' line (a direct telephone line to Worcester), and I spent quite a bit of time on night shifts nattering to my opposite number on duty there when our transmitters were "off the air".

I had to sign an Agreement of Employment and produce my birth certificate after a week or so. I was also given, `for information and retention', BBC Wartime Staff Instructions Nos. 61/2/3 and 90, an official BBC Pass and Badge, and a Notice concerning Official BBC Passes. I was also issued with a copy of BBC Staff Regulations, and was required to sign for all these things, plus a copy of The Official Secrets Act!

I also received a civil defence steel helmet and gas mask. Although I never actually carried them anywhere, leaving them hanging on my coat hook at the station. However, whenever I was moved to another establishment I had to take them with me.

Some while later, the EiC called me in and asked why I had put down the wrong date of birth on my original application form. Pardon? You have put down 28th February and your birth certificate shows the 20th, how do you account for this heinous crime? But my birthday IS the 28th. I will have to ask my Mum! Having not even so much as looked at the certificate given to me by my mother, I simply handed it over as requested, so what is the answer? Well ... it seems, according to her, that my father and the Registrar were friends of long standing, and he and my father had probably been "wetting the baby's head" a little too diligently, and between them had entered the wrong date in the register!! However, according to the BBC (and all those in positions of authority), my birthday henceforth would be the 20th, and that was that!! So it was and so it is. I retired and commenced to collect my pension eight days early! However I now claim to be like the Queen, I have an official birthday and a proper one!

I continued to work three shifts, days, evenings and nights up there at Churchdown. Night shifts, from 10pm to 9am, were spent on routine maintenance when the transmitter was closed down at the end of the day's broadcasting. There were laid down procedures to be followed, and over a period, every component was checked and logged. For instance, valves had a label indicating when they had been first installed. After a prescribed number of hours of use they were replaced as part of preventative maintenance.

Once per month on a specified date and time, we had to "run up" the transmitter on plain carrier, without any programme modulation. After a few minutes the `phone would ring and a voice at the other end would say, "This is Tatsfield, would you please adjust the frequency of your transmitter (this way or that) please?" This done, the voice would say, "Thank you, you may now close down, Goodnight." This was then logged in the book. This particular event fascinated me, a young and inexperienced Youth-in-Training. Who were these people at Tatsfield? Where was it? How do they do that? Some time later, I was to find out, and what is more, I would become that voice at the other end of a telephone! Magic!

In due course, someone was moved on and another vacancy occurred for a YiT at Churchdown. This time I made a recommendation, and as a result my cousin Gilbert joined the staff. He and I had been very close ever since we were children. We now spent most of our off-duty time together, and both joined the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) the part-time arm of the National Fire Service. We were both based at Gloucester 'C' Station at the `Wagon Works' Sports Ground, the home ground of the Gloucestershire Cricket Team. We were 'Messenger Boys'; whose job was to attend any incident and act not only as messengers and runners, conveying information back to the Control Room, but to assess the capacity of nearby water sources and emergency water tanks. We were issued with full uniform including a Fireman's Axe, steel helmet and gas mask (another set!). We spent nearly all our off duty BBC time at the fire station including nights. We were well looked after and the food was good too! It was exhilarating riding on a Fire Engine and often being allowed to ring the bell! It was also exciting at the scene of a fire, for a young man, but deadly serious too.

Fortunately Gloucester suffered no enemy action whilst I was in the fire service. All our calls were domestic with some forest fires in the Forest of Dean. These latter were very dirty jobs.
I did not altogether desert the Boy Scouts, as I was Troop Leader of the 1e Gloucester, (St. Paul's) Group and continued to attend as many meetings and Courts of Honour as I could, even getting in one or two weekend camps at Cranham.

So life continued, until in May 1943 I was despatched to Broadcasting House Bristol, for an interview with a Mr. P C Lindsey from the Engineering Establishment Office in London. This was on the recommendation of my EiC who had put me up for promotion, based on his assessment of my progress. This was probably the strangest interview/examination that I ever had.

Question "Do you know what so and so is?" "Yes sir." "Good. Do you know what this and that is or does?" "Yes sir." And so it went on without me actually giving an explicit answer. Later a memo from the Engineering Establishment Officer in London confirmed that I was to be promoted to Technical Assistant (Class 2) on the un-established staff at a weekly wage of £2.10.Od (£2.50) plus the Cost of Living Bonus of 4/6d (22P).

I was transferred to Cardiff Studios with effect from the 16th August 1943. This meant I had to resign from the AFS with regret, and say goodbye to cousin Gilbert and my parents. Actually when I was moved, I also received an extra allowance of 10/- (ten shillings, 50p) to help pay for digs! Later they also added a further 9/- (45p) allowance. I was now in receipt of the magnificent sum of £3.13.6d (£3.67) per week! This was actually quite good in those days.

Chapters 2 and 3 at www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2/A7157432

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