About the contributor

My name is Gordon Joseph Taylor. In 1928 at the age of 16 when I left school I was told I must do something with my hands, thus I found a job with Bassett Lowke in Northampton. This company specialised in detail models of ships and trains and buildings . During the 1938 September crisis I felt, with others, that I should do something in the role of National Service. Thinking back to my scouting youth and my love of an active life the idea of fulfilling a boyhood dream of being a fireman came to life. I joined the Auxillary Fire Service and became a part time fireman. and in the September of 1939,just after the start of the second world war, I left my job and became a fulltime fireman.

In February of 1940 after a winter of sweeping away snow from the fire station yard and not much else, I was called back to Bassett and Lowke to do work for the war office and the Admiralty. Suddenly I had important and urgent work to do, whilst still maintaining a part time role with the fire service. My work entailed making model ships called Waterline models, they were so called because all that could be seen was from above the waterline. We made all sorts of ships including the battleships Scharnhorst and the Gnausnaue from the German navy, some of these ships were so small that they could be put in in your pocket. These were used by the RAF for recognition purposes. We also made ships from other countries from Dutch to Japanese, as well as models of the ‘Bailey Bridges’ to enable engineers to recognise how the components fitted together before they worked on the real thing. There was a model of an anti tank trench digger, one of Winston Churchill’s ideas. The company was so busy that we had to move to a bigger premises and employed girls to help with the making of the models ,which was unheard of before the war. My most important project during the war years was the top secret model of the concrete casings that formed the Mulberry Harbour. It was imperative that we could prove that this was a viable idea to the Chief‘s of Staff, the Mulberry Harbour turned out to be salvation itself on the d-day landing beaches.

After the war I stayed with Bassett Lowke till 1955 when I left to go to another job. Recently my wife and I returned to the landing beaches as part of a tour. Amazingly some of the harbours are still visible. On a tour of the museum I saw the compete model, which took up the entire length of the room, underneath was the now famous name ‘Bassett Lowke of Northampton’.

It was a very satisfactory, though sad, trip, thinking of all the young fellows that died on the shores of France. I realise now that my war effort had been my work and that it had been worthwhile.