About the contributor

I was born in 1930, while my Father was serving in the Birmingham Fire Brigade and I lived in various Fire Brigade Houses and Flats around the City until his death in 1945. He had been injured whilst carrying out a recue of trapped persons at a fire in the Jewellery Quarter, which had been started by bombs during an Air Raid in 1941.
I know that the Fire Service, both Regular pre-war Firemen and the Auxiliary Fire Service, were not held in very high esteem until the bombing raids started with the resultant fires spreading across large areas of the City, when they all became valued members of the Rescue Services.
The pay for Regular Brigade men (pre-war Firemen, known as RBs - and also an allusion the the red braces they were issued with to keep up their waterproof leggings), and also for the AFS, was then very low and the hours of work were extremely long, generally 48 hours on duty and 24 hours off.
There is no doubt that the men employed in the large Cities did a wonderful, selfless but dangerous job during the Blitz especially, of course, those in London which suffered the greatest losses of life and injuries.
I write with some feeling about this as I know the worry that was endured by my Mother everytime there was an Air raid, particularly in the period after my Father's injuries.
I am also fully aware that a similar or greater worry was endured by families of men and women in all branches of the armed forces, not knowing where their family members were or what they were doing.
The good thing that came out of the War was standardisation of all Fire Service training and equipment throughout the country which eased the problems at work of other members of my family who are or were in the Fire Service, my Husband. Son, three brothers-in-law, three nephews, Uncle, sister-in-law, as well as myself until marriage.
What a pity it is that the present problems in the Fire Services (2003) can't be solved without industrial strife.