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I have always been left handed and when I was at school aged 5 or 6 I was caned on my left hand by the teacher to try and stop me using it, because in the early thirties it was frowned upon.
When I began working for M. Coghlan Ltd, I was serving an apprenticeship. I was told I would have to use my right hand to plane with, because in a large workshop with lots of men planning, a left hand planer would get in the way of other workers. When I started my apprenticeship I should have been given a certificate showing my record of achievement, but I was never given one and lucky for me, I never needed it because I never changed jobs in all my 63 years of work.
Thinking back to a morning in September 1937, my first recollection is of chasing cattle from the yard which were being driven from the park to market. This was a regular Monday 8am job, for some time. Everything changed so much in the 63 years to follow!!
I was wearing the silk top hat and tailed coat at the age of 16 years. At that time the four bearers (2 carpenters and 2 painters) sat at the sides of the coffin in the hearse, wearing their toppers! The hearse of the day, being much taller, allowed top hats to be worn. I used to dread 1.30pm funerals - because of running the gauntlet of school boys in Westbury Path - when snow was around. Imagine the target for snowballs? I had my 'topper' knocked off more than once (amongst cheers!!)
Another difference with today was that we always wore white gloves for children's or Freemason's funerals.
Coffin making was hard work. They were made from solid boards, first cutting the curves for bending. These had to be 3/16th of an inch thick. One cut too many and the board would crack on bending!! The bend was helped by boiling water being poured on the curves. The boards themselves were supplied by 'Pinks' of Wickham Road and the finished coffin was then French polished. Oak coffins were wax polished with home-made polish (beeswax, linseed oil and turpentine). The inside of the coffins were sealed with 'pitch' which was boiled on a gas ring. Frederick Coghlan always said that you could sail the creek in one as it was completely sealed. The complete coffin would take one whole day to prepare by a man and his apprentice.
The coffins were taken 'home' to the family's residence after dark. If this was local then they were taken on the varnished oak handcart with oil lamps at front and rear. (I had to trim and frill these for night removals - rather Victorian!) When the coffin arrived at the house, the deceased was 'laid in state' in the front room.
I was thrown in at the deep end on removals. The first, at the age of 16, was two ladies who had gassed themselves and lay in a double bed, clutching their bank books. They were found after 4 days - a pathetic sight! Mr Charlie Coghlan used to choke us all with his pipe, to kill the smell! Apologies for gruesome descriptions. But that is how life and death was. These three cases stick in my memory being so young I suppose.
It was when pushing a coffin to St Christopher's Hospital that we were machine-gunned by a German bomber! He was so low we could plainly see the front gunner, firing from the nose of the plane. Bullets rained down in the road around us, but fortunately no direct hits! I often wonder if he had a camera fitted and what he told his mates if he ever got back. The coffin was not hit but the wheel bier was. The plane went over and Lionel and Charlie came out from their hiding place, behind the gate pillars of St Christopher's hospital and continued pushing the wheel bier up to the mortuary.
Of course, the start of the war brought many unpleasant cases especially after air raids on HMS Sultan, when Stuka Dive Bombers came back again. Being in work the next day to pick up the pieces, it was a game of 'guess work' with body parts from Portsmouth City Mortuary. (Sorry, but you just made up a set!)
My longest removals were from Shaw, North of Oldham in Lancs (this was Dr Hilton's Father), and Betws-y-coed, Wales - left home at midnight, wash and shave at swimming baths at 7am. Removal from Bangor Hospital, and home the next day. Hard going through the mountain roads, before motorways were built.
In between funeral work (early war years) I made blackout shutters to fit windows in most of the large houses in Osborn Road and West Street shops. In the evenings Mr Charlie Coghlan would visit the homes for the arrangement of funerals and I would cycle ahead with the 'black bag' to screw down the coffin. We very often had to shelter from gunfire and shrapnel during raids. The 'number one' funeral must be the Revd Frank Partridge, former Bishop of Portsmouth. Travelling from Bishopswood to Portsmouth Cathedral then on to East Meon for the interment. There had been heavy raids on Portsmouth hours before so we had to drive though bomb damaged streets in Old Portsmouth.
I then had a spell with 102 Squadron - Bomber Command, (rather noisy after the peace of funerals) then back to where I left off. Business as usual with a few changes to come. The building of the Chapel of Rest in 1954 and ready-made coffins!
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