George Staples
War Time to Leaving School
History starting out to work.
Instrument maker, Watchmaker, Jeweller.
War Time 39/40
Early 1940 I remember us having to attend the local centre to be issued with gas masks we were also issued with a tin of gas ointment Anti-Gas No2 which should be applied freely to affected portions of the skin in the event of a gas attack .
This Ointment was manufactured by BDH (British Drug Houses) in September of 1939 which you can see from the tin that was issued to me pictured below.
Left Front of Tin/Right back of Tin
Mr Allen my Headmaster, asked me what I would like to do when I left school (I left school age 13 and six months) and suggested I should be an instrument maker as I was interested in tools. He was aware of a company of instrument makers Griffin & Tatlock in Kemble Street, Kingsway, High Holborn, London and arranged for me to go to see Major McKinnon –Wood who was the managing director on meeting him he said that I should see their inventor Mr Saunders in what they called their test room.
Mr S Saunders would invent products for laboratories and then the
tools that had to be made to produce them. After seeing Mr Saunders and visiting the
test room he said they would welcome me to their firm and that as I was under
school leaving age they would arrange for my headmaster to release me and that I
would be required to attend the Keeley Street, Technical Institute which was just round
the corner.
Starting
work
Major
McKinnon-Wood arranged with Mr Allen my release from school so that I could go
to work at Griffin & Tatlock at Kemble Street, Kingsway, London, they were a
firm of scientific Instrument makers and in due course I signed an
apprenticeship agreement and started work, I was under the supervision of Mr S
Saunders “Sammy”
A
Griffin & Tatlock Scale with brass centre column on cast iron base. Pan with
cantilevered pointer. We had a
glassblowers department, coppersmith’s workshop, Instrument workshop, and
machine shops for making various laboratory instruments. There was a showroom on
the ground floor. We also had clay and pottery ware jars
.
School
Laboratory Scales. In glass and wooden cases.
The scales were made by 'Griffin & Tatlock Ltd,
We made various items of Laboratory equipment and our glass blowing section made all sorts of test tubes and pipettes and laboratory glassware.
An
early Bakelite case set of brass laboratory weights made by Griffin &
Tatlock with pincers and microid metric weights. Pincers normally had ivory
tips; in later years the weights were made in stainless steel, for the cased
sets and for the Laboratory Scales.
William Joyce-- Broadcaster (nicknamed) Lord Haw Haw
Although it was illegal to listen to his broadcasts in Britain they became very popular with British listeners. They always began with the words "Germany calling Germany calling," which sounded like: "Jarmany calling, Jarmany calling." During his heyday William Joyce had almost as many listeners as the BBC – he caused alarm with his tales of a Fifth Column in Britain and his talks on how to treat bombing wounds. He caused panic with his apparently accurate descriptions of Town Hall clocks that had stopped and how many steps there were in a particular church steeple. He made his final broadcast on 30 April 1945. William Joyce was executed for Treason on the 8th January 1946.
I travelled up to London each day on the District Line underground train, the windows of the trains were sealed with a shatter proof material just in case of blast, it was on some occasions a bit difficult when they had to switch of the electric current. We then had to get out of the train by stations to take shelter due to Messer Schmitt aircraft machine gunning the trains, I was always relieved when we reached Bow Road, where the train went underground.
At about 04.15 on the
morning of June 13th, a member of the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) in Kent saw
what he described as a bright yellow glow in the dark, coming from the engine at
the back of the V1 it was, the first Buzz Bomb (the V1) (doodlebug) commonly
called the “Flying Bomb” to hit London on June 13,1944 (a week after D-Day),
and lasted until 20th March1945. The V-1 was developed on the Baltic
Island of Peenemünde by the German air force. The V-1 was guided by a
gyroscopic automatic pilot monitored by magnetic compass. Its dive on its
target, which was at a measured distance, was determined by the revolutions of a
small propeller. (click on doodlebug to listen what they
sounded like then wait for a
while)
By
the end of the month they averaged around fifty a day. They could fly at speeds
estimated between 300 to 450 miles per hour at an altitude of about 2000 feet,
and it would take them about twenty five minutes to reach London.
Their
speed and low altitude made them difficult targets to hit. For Londoners, the
added danger of being struck by shrapnel from bursting anti-aircraft shells,
added to the problem. Orders were given that anti aircraft guns no longer would
fire at them -- allowing the buzz bombs to fly onward and hopefully crash and
explode in the open countryside instead.
They
were easily spotted from the air; the long launching ramps were hidden in
forests but were rapidly bombed by the RAF. The Germans switched to mobile
ramps, which they then moved around the Pas-de-Calais area.
The
War department soon learned that the only defense against them was our fighters
and the cables hanging from the line of barrage balloons, quickly relocated
Southeast of London. The Germans soon countered this tactic by attaching steel
cable-cutting wing edges of the doodlebugs.
Flying at their high speed, they would cut through the cables of the
barrage balloons, causing them to drift causing additional danger.
The
first rocket to hit England fell on Chiswick, West London, on 8 September 1944,
killing three people and injuring another 10. Its flight from the Hague in
Holland took about four minutes as it travelled through the atmosphere with the
speed of a rifle bullet to reach London.
The
V-2 campaign reached a climax in February 1945, when 232 hit southern England.
In all, 1,115 fell, 517 in the London area.
We
were finally getting some relief from the constant bombardment by the flying
bombs when this new threat appeared. There was no defense against it. This
rocket missile had the ability to climb into the atmosphere and then dive to the
ground from sixty miles up. There was no warning -- just a sudden explosion as
it hit the ground, leaving a huge crater as well as destroying everything in the
vicinity.
My Boss
“Sammy”
was a very interesting person designing all manner of things, thermostatic ovens
for analytical labs and universities, we made everything from tools to press out
the metal ovens, making steel moulds to bake “bakelite” switch fronts,
making and winding all the heating elements etc.
All these ovens went into the paint shop, were then spayed white, then
returned to us for final assembly and checking.
We
made a variety of tools and jigs so as to make many different products, as of
course neither the tools nor jigs could be bought. One day I made myself during the lunch hour a brass
petrol lighter from some brass tubing made the round tube into an oval shape,
soldered on top and bottom a brass plate, made the brass screw that went into
the bottom of the lighter, so that you could then fill the lighter with lighter fuel and then screw
it up. Made the flint wheel from
some hard steel rod, cutting the flint grooves and then using
“case nit” which was a powder mixed with water, you heated the steel
wheel until it was cherry red and then quenched it in the “case nit” this
hardened the steel. I eventually
covered the lighter in leather and gave it to my father.
One
of the duties at Griffin & Tatlock was that of fire watch on the roof, we
were situated on the corner of Kemble Street and Kingsway, this was called
‘Pen Corner’ there was a shop on the corner selling Swan pens, we had a view
across Kingsway looking toward the Stoll Theatre right down to the Aldwych, the
Government Stationary Office was on the same side of the road as us. We had to
watch out for incendiary bombs and phosphorous bombs that would be dropped in
night time raids or whilst German aircraft were over flying on there way up
north but being intercepted by Spitfires or Hurricanes, they then dropped
their loads to escape. One night
there was a funny noise like silver paper rustling, the German aircraft had
dropped tons of rolled strip foil so that on its way down it all unrolled, this
was to avoid radar detection and the silver inside strip interrupted signals.
Fire Watch
We
all had to take this fire watch duty in turn, sometimes I was returning home
nearer to midnight on the last underground train from the Temple station.
We
clocked in before 8am. I
went to my bench and the foreman came over to me and gave me some steel turning
work that had to be done on the lathe that morning. We also had girls in the
test room they seemed to be busy in the laboratory with their white coats on.
I attended the Keeley Technical Institute, which was just round the corner from Griffin and Tatlock.
I
spent my days at the Keeley Street Technical Institute, learning technical
drawing and studying for the RSA Examination (Royal Society of Arts) it was an
interesting institute, the teachers were very keen to see everyone progress, we
could ask for any help and they would be only to pleased to assist.
There was also very nice engineering workshop at the institute, I was able to make a number of small tools that I would need in the coming years as an instrument maker; the tools also formed a part of my trade test.
The
test room girls were all in the laboratory using silver nitrate which is used to
silver the inside of glass, they were silvering a large batch of thermos items
for one of the universities, and the lab was closed when in operation.
I
finished the steel turning work that I had been given, and handed the work in.
Sammy said we were going to make some small instruments and that these
needed ‘small’ electrical coils, When wound they were about an inch long by
just over half an inch wide
and just under an eighth of a inch thick, we made a special former to wind
them on each layer of fine wire needed to have shellac painted on to seal the
wires to stop them coming undone each coil had to be measured in ‘Ohms’ and
when the required amount was registered, the coils were cut and sealed ready for
connecting to instruments, I spent days on this and it became very boring,
but I think that I became an expert in coil winding, I think I must have
wound well over a 1000.
Wiring
up offices/Oxford Street.
Sammy, gave us many jobs to do, and one day asked us if we would like to go
with him to some offices just behind Oxford Street, he had been instructed to
install 60 fluorescent light strips, it was one big open plan floor, this was an
interesting job. I had never connected up or installed electric lights before,
he said now is the time to learn and he will be there to assist us, after many
weeks, we eventually got all the lighting to work ok, I had learnt something
that would be of use for many years to come, I hoped.
We
attended many evenings, fire watching duties on the roof of the building
(known as Pen Corner) which overlooked the whole of Kingsway right down
to the Aldwych, and to the river beyond, you could see for miles, when bombs
dropped in the distance you could see the explosions and various fires caused
which we had to report although distant, we needed to give information as to
approximately the situation or location of the fires.
On arrival home one evening I called in to see my father in his Air Raid Wardens post, he asked me to assist him, they had called the bomb disposal unit, but a phosphorus bomb had dropped near by, it had gone through the roof on the corner of a house smashed through the toilet and was laying in the hallway downstairs, he gave me a stirrup pump and a bucket and said please keep it well watered until the bomb disposal chaps turn up
It
was a bit hairy at times on the underground train going to work with Messer Schmitt
aircraft strafing the railway.
Damaged
buildings
There were
buildings damaged around us, one day we had building inspectors crawling all
over the place, the firm had all the really big capstan lathes on the top floor
5th and 4th floors our workshops (The: Test Room) were on the 3rd
Floor.
Inspectors said the
building was unsafe, so the firm had to move, just before moving to the new
premises I heard on the BBC News of this massive fire, it turned out to be the
new premises that we were going to move to!!!
When I went to work
in the morning, they told me the news that I would no longer be able to work
there.
Finding
new Place to work
The
Managing Director of Griffins, knew a Donald DeCarle F.B.H.I. (Fellow of
the British Horological Institute) who was a leading author of
Horological books, he took me to see him in a black taxi cab, in his office in
112 Regent
Street, London,W1, just near to Piccadilly Circus. Well that was it, they
settled up my apprenticeship agreement and asked Mr DeCarle how much I would
need for some tools, they gave me the monies to go to Clerkenwell eventually. to
buy some.
Starting work at the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company,
112 Regent Street,London,W.1.
I started at the Goldsmiths in 1946 just age 16
I went through all the motions at the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths and Donald DeCarle seemed to like me and showed a lot of interest in my work. Donald DeCarle F.B.H.I. encouraged me to become a craft member of the BHI and did and thus was entitled to use after my name CMBHI.
I
remember one of the girls in the watch sections "June", she came out
to ask Jock, who was one of the watchmakers when a particular watch would be
ready, he replied it "will be ready, as soon as he can get the chain on the
boiler fixed” she relayed the info to the 'nerd' salesman in the showroom who
told the customer, well the customer asked to see the Manager. Mr DeCarle went
down to the showroom and came back up to see Jock, he did not think it was
funny, like Jock did.
But that was Jocks humour.
As an apprentice the watchmakers required materials for watches and glasses fitted, I was required to go to a material shop to get parts, we were in Warwick Street on the corner of Regent Street, the shop Benford & O'Shea was a short walk along Brewer Street to the end of the street through a small alleyway until you came to Dean Street the shop was on the corner of the Alleyway and Dean Street. The watchmakers played tricks on me, asking can you get a small rubber hammer so that it did not mark the plates of the watch!!! please get for me a left hand screwdriver size 6, could you please order a gross of endshakes, Well Alfred the assistant in the shop said they are playing tricks on you and remarked to his wife Nancy give George the order form to say they have been ordered, when in fact these items did not exist, I later learned that "endshake" is the very small minute distance that the balance staff shakes between the jewel holes and endstones. There were no rubber hammers or left hand screwdrivers. However this material shop had a massive collection of materials, mainsprings, balance staffs, glasses etc. Alfred and his Wife Nancy who always wore a blue overhaul fitted many glasses to bezels for watchmakers and apprentices like me who called upon them for supplies for other watchmakers. Alfred & Nancy were ballroom dancers often competing in various dance championships, and I decided that I would have a go and joined a ballroom of which Doreen Freeman a world ballroom champion run, and I had the opportunity of dancing with her many times during training sessions, of the Waltz, Quickstep and Foxtrot..The George Benford & O'Shea business closed in May 1983.
Mr
DeCarle introducing French watchmakers at Goldsmiths
Mr
DeCarle wanted to bring over French Watchmakers and one day said to me, would I
like to meet with him a French watchmaker who would be arriving at Victoria
Station, I said yes, and we went to the Cinema on Victoria Station whilst we
were waiting for the train to arrive from Paris. We met a Pierre Dubois, and I
said to him where are you staying, to my amazement Mr DeCarle had not fixed up
any accommodation for this chap arriving from Paris, I said you are welcome to
come home with me and stay until you can fix up some accommodation.
Well he stayed with us for well over a year.
I
spent many days learning about watches and fitting new glasses to a variety of
different shapes of watch bezels. I had to make tools that I could use as part
of my apprenticeship.
I had to learn how to clean and overhaul watches and was given first of
all pocket watches to handle so that I could gain more experience.
1947
Swiss
Watchmakers.
Throughout
1947 there were a number of new watchmakers coming over from Switzerland, like
Hans from Zurich, Roland from Soloturn, Gerard from Grosshochstetten, Nr Bern,
etc. They were able to
get me for me some tools that were difficult to obtain in London,
I
made various tools that I would be using, the first tools I made were
hand levers to remove hands from the watch as this would be one of the most used
tools, I also made cutters for that would be used in turning other items, and a
champhering tool seen here:
The
top two are cutters for working on a small lorche lathe or a pair of turns. The
third one down is a domed head punch, the pair with curved ends is for lifting
hands from the dial of a watch, whilst the lowest item with the knurled end is a
three corner-chamfering tool this makes neat edges to holes that have been
drilled. The plates to the right are a roller remover and a brass plate for
using shellac or to place luminous on watch hands, the other very small tool is
a centering pin to go into a balance-correcting tool.
The
round item to the left is a shellac arbor used in the lathe or a pair of turns.
You shellac an item to the plate that you cannot get into the lathe, so that you
can work on it.
The
item which can be seen of two plates together is unfinished and is for holding
watches in, whilst you work on repairing them, it would have had two holes
drilled in one plate through which would have passed two pins, it would then
have had a center hole with a threaded screw so that you could open and close
the plates according to the size of watch you were going to work with.
To
the left is the balance-truing tool this can be seen next to the brass plate
from which I cut the tool. I made all the screws the knurled adjuster set into
the middle of the tool, drilled holes into the ends and the sides of the pins
that slide into each end to take the balance staff pivots. In the earlier
picture above is the spare adjuster pin made for this tool.
1948
Pierre
was staying with us at my Mothers, on my 18th Birthday I received a
'buff coloured envelope' it was my call up papers to go into the Army, I took
them into Mr DeCarle who said to me, you cannot go into the Army now as you are
more valuable here serving your apprenticeship and eventually we want to put you
on government work repairing watches for the armed services.
Mr
DeCarle wrote to one of the very high ranking ministers a Sir Walter Monckton,
K.C.M.G., K.C.V.O., M.C., K.C., to
obtain my exemption papers up till I was 21. This arrived and I was exempted
from the services for a while.
Walter Monckton was not only one of the half dozen leading advocates of his day but also (twice) a Cabinet Minister. During the War, he was Minister for Munitions in Churchill's War Cabinet. After the War, Churchill persuaded him to take on the important but very difficult job of Minister of Labour. He ended his career as a highly-regarded chairman of Midland Bank, and in recognition of his outstanding public services he became Viscount Monckton.
I
found the work at the Goldsmith & Silversmiths Company very interesting carrying out
all sorts of work on watches, also having to go out and purchase watch materials
from material houses in Clerkenwell Road.
In
the due course of time I was given smaller watches for repair and always handed
them into Mr DeCarle for inspection when finished, he seemed to be very happy
with my work.
There
was a polishing department in the basement, I always took the cases of the
watches down there for polishing and learnt how to do it myself.
I always felt that when a customer received his or her watch back it was nice to see it all clean, it was pride in ones work. The customer who received a dirty looking watch case back did not know if the watch had been cleaned, but at least if it was received back all looking clean they knew something had been done to it, and they would probably be happier. Providing the watch did not stop of course!!
At
work
I
progressed with work on many different types of watches, Mr Donald DeCarle was pleased
with my progress, I was entrusted with watches other than pocket watches, and
was now repairing various men’s wristwatches, some waterproof, which also
required testing for waterproofing.
They
now provided me with my own cleaning machine, so that I could use it when
required, to use this machine the watch had to be totally taken apart and all
the parts such as plates and bridges went into the bottom basket, smaller
delicate parts such the pallet and balance and train wheels, went into smaller
compartments as did the screws etc. This basket was then clipped to the machine,
and lowered into the Cleaning Machine using “National” cleaning fluids,
eventually being spin dried and warmed to make sure all parts were dry before
re-assembling the watch.
We
had a number of Paul Buhre watches which Mr Donald DeCarle had started importing from
Switzerland, which were required to be fitted into silver cases, these were
entrusted to me, for what we called “case up’s, we were starting a long
service presentation department
Whilst at the Goldsmith & Silversmiths Company, 112 Regent Street, London, W1.
I repaired Buren, Omega, Patek Phillipe, Ulysse Nardin, Jaeger le Coultre, IWC (International Watch Co) and many other quality watches. I was entrusted with diamond watches owned by Princess Elizabeth, by many celebrities, singers and crooners, dance band leaders like Vic Lewis. Mike Hawthorn the racing driver (who unfortunately was killed in a car crash in later years), overseas Princes, Maharajahs and Maharani’s, watches owned by King Farouk of Egypt,watches owned by the Shah of Persia etc, it was an exciting time, also very nice to handle all these prestige watches. I was nicknamed the Royal Watchmaker by the other watchmakers, who could see the work that I was handling.
A couple of exciting years had passed, I started to repair service personal watches, and these were watches worn by pilots and navigators, various officers in the services. Many of these were Omega and were a very nice quality watch to repair, the “Omega30” they all had to be cleaned and overhauled and the timing very crucial down to the second. The other very high quality watch was the IWC manufactured by International Watch Company in Schaffausen, Switzerland, I went to Switerland to see these being made and timed. I tested these watches in various positions over approximately a month then I had to take them to the Royal Observatory, for timing and certification before being returned to the units that they had come from with “official timing certificates”. Mr Donald DeCarle also owned one of these "Omega 30" watches and was very fussy about it’s timing, always checking it.
The
1950’s
It was 1950, the beginning of a new decade. The
Second World War was becoming a memory now, men’s and ladies fashions were
getting into gear not only in the high street but also on the road.
Ford Motors had been turning out a vast number of
black, cheap, working-class cars – like the “Popular” and the
“Prefect” with the odd Ford “V8 Pilot” thrown in, this “V8 Pilot”
was a very nice motor car and one that was exhibited in their showroom in Regent
Street, just around the corner from us.
But the launch of a new design at the London Motor
Show in October 1950 turned Ford’s, almost overnight, into a design-conscious,
avant-garde fashion house. They launched the new styled 6 cylinder
Zephyr and Zodiac Models available for the first time in colours. I liked these
cars very much and was very interested in getting one of these after I came out
of the services.
On Demob
As I said I liked these cars, and indeed acquired two models one the Zephyr Six and the other my lady model girl friend!!
Later
I bought
a brand new Zodiac Mark11 
Operatic Society
The Goldsmiths Company had their own Operatic
Society called the “Argennon Operatic Society” shows were put on like
"No No Nanette" at the
small Rudolph Steiner Theatre situated near to Blackfriars.
Many of the girls at work in the different departments, like the pearl
stringers, packing department, silver polishers, military department, girls in
the watch sections and offices were members of the Society as singers and
dancers. I would go to the Rudolph Steiner to help set up props etc when they
rehearsed.
Workshops.
I
worked in the main workshop with all the other watchmakers, there was quite a
lot of chatting and frivolity that went on between them. My bench was at the
rear and people used to walk behind me to get to the stores, the clock
department and the office at the rear where the girls were on the sections, the
floor also vibrated as people walked along.
I
said to Mr DeCarle that as I was now specializing in cleaning all the service
watches and timing was essential for these, I could not concentrate working on
the rear bench. He said there is a room upstairs on the top floor on the way to
the directors and managers dining room and he would see what he could do to
acquire this for my use. After some
weeks, he came out to me and said would I go upstairs with him to look at the
room, to see if I liked it. Well it was a room all on it’s own and the
entrance was through the Jewellers cloakroom up in the roof with sloping glass
windows. It was a very bright room, I liked it, he had it painted in a
nice light green and all cleaned out, also new flooring laid, he ordered three
new benches and these were installed. I took the one up in the corner, another
watchmaker “Fred” (He had a Ford V8 Pilot) occupied the one next to me, the
one next to him was occupied by “Ron” There were only the three of us and it
was nice and quiet, the other two watchmakers were repairing customers watches,
whilst I was on Government work.
Piece
Worker
I
was now on ‘piece work’ paid by the amount of work you can complete. So that
I could earn more money I worked late in the evenings, sometimes I would not
leave work until 10pm in the evening arriving home 11pm and after.
I
worked many hours so that my pay packet was well above average at the end of
each week, I was required to complete a work book entering up the number of each
watch completed, and list what it had been done to it.
At the end of each week I handed the work in with Mr Donald DeCarle signing the
book, so that I would be paid the following week.
Working ‘piece work’ also meant that I
did not have to be in at work at any special time, this enabled me time to go
out and purchase spare parts so that I could do “Private” repairs for
neighbours in the road where I lived, word soon travelled and I was getting
quite a lot of work come in, which of course I could charge more for. I had to
work quicker whilst at the same time produce quality timing and repairs on
Government work.
Gerard one of the Swiss watchmakers, asked
Mr DeCarle if he could go on holiday for around 3 weeks as he would like to go
to Devon and Cornwall. As of course he was on piece work it did not really
matter. Since I was very friendly with Gerard he asked me if it was possible for
me to go with him which I did and we went to Exmouth by train and worked our way
around the coastline ending up in Bude before catching a train back to London..
1952 Garrards the Crown Jewellers were taken over by the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company of 112 Regent Street, London, Cecil Mann was the Official "Crown Jeweller"
Amalgamated with the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company of 112 Regent Street, London. And the name was changed from that of the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company to that of Garrards.
I received my call up papers and duly travelled to Honiton, Devon.
To
join REME -- Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.