Goodbye to the tank.

In early September 1937, large metal cylinders similar to torpedoes in shape and size, appeared alongside the First world war tank near the war memorial in Bargate, followed by the appearance of two workmen. These proved to be employees of Thos. W. Ward, Ltd., of Sheffield, who had recently bought the tank and the German field gun from the council as scrap metal at the price of £56.
The workmen said that the large tubes were part of the oxy-acetylene plant with which the tank and field gun would, within the course of that week, be taken to pieces. Oxy-acetylene burners they said would bore their way through the side plates of the tank, one side of which would be removed first, and the weapon would be gradually taken to pieces suitable for handling by the workmen. The field gun would also be taken to pieces in the same manner. The work was expected to last the week and on the morning of September 2nd. the work was being watched by an interested crowd.
Two years later we would be at war with Germany again and probably some of the scrap metal went into building arms for the new war effort but personally I wish we still had the tank and field gun. Not many pictures have survived of the tank or field gun, in the one below which was taken in 1921 at the unveiling of the war memorial the tank can just about be seen under the crowd of children sitting on it!! In the next one the tank is just visible.

George Bass.

George Bass was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet about 20 miles from Boston. His father died in 1777 when Bass was 6 and he and his Mother moved to Boston. He attended Boston Grammar School and later trained in medicine at the hospital at Boston. At the age of 18 he was accepted in London as a member of the Company of Surgeons, and in 1794 he joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon.

George Bass.

 

He arrived in Sydney on HMS Reliance on 7 September 1795. Also on the voyage was Matthew Flinders. Together with Flinders, he sailed more than 18 000 kilometres exploring the coastline of Australia and proved that Tasmania was an island. Soon after they arrived in Australia, Bass and Flinders explored the coastline south of Sydney in a tiny boat called the Tom Thumb. Bass who was 24, and Flinders who was only 21 were both very adventurous. Very few people would have had the courage to sail into the open sea in such a small boat. During this trip they explored the land south of Sydney and found land suitable for settlement.

Memorial in St. Botolphs church (The Stump).

 

In 1797 Bass left Sydney in a whaleboat. He took with him 6 sailors and 6 weeks' supply of food. Before reaching Western Port, he came across a party of 7 escaped convicts and promised to rescue them on his return. He then sailed on to Western Port on the southern coast of Australia. Strong winds forced him to stay here for nearly 2 weeks. Bass suspected that there must be a strait of water separating the mainland from Tasmania (then called Van Diemen's land). He rescued the convicts on his way back and sailed back to Port Jackson, after exploring 300 miles of previously unknown coastline. In 1798, Bass and Flinders set off in the Norfolk to sail around Van Diemen's Land. The Norfolk was the first boat to be built in the colony and was built by the prisoners on Norfolk Island. Bass and Flinders discovered and explored the Tamar River. They then spent another 3 weeks mapping the north coast of Tasmania before they sailed down the west coast. They sailed down the Derwent River where Hobart now stands and then set sail for Sydney. They had proved that Van Diemen's Land was an island by sailing right round it. Flinders named the strait, Bass Strait, after George Bass. The discovery of this strait meant that ships could save days when sailing to England, by sailing straight along the south coast, rather than right around the bottom of Tasmania. This was their last voyage together. Bass sailed from Sydney in 1803 to travel to South America. He disappeared and was never heard of again.

 

Bass lived for a time at the Crown and Anchor in London Road Boston, the pub is now demolished but this sign was saved and embedded in the wall at the site.

Park-keeper Butterworth and "Sausage" Scott.

Mr. Thomas Ward was born in Boston but went to live in London in the mid 1890's, he visited the town again in 1937 and shared tender memories of his childhood days in Boston. Apparently the Corporation at one time bestowed ha'pennies upon the more agile youths of the period who frequented the People's Park (Down near the old swimming baths) and Mr. Ward explained how they did it.

The People's Park.

 

A clothes basket was balanced on a pole and across the basket sat a boy armed with a stick. He had to lean forward and knock off a ha'penny placed on a pole just within reach. If he did it without falling off. the ha'penny was his.

The Park with the General Hospital behind.

 

The man who saw that no one cheated and who placed the ha'pennies on top of the pole was Park-keeper Butterworth, often assisted by "Sausage" Scott, nicknamed because he always carried a sausage like article to chastise the bad lads that would not keep off the grass, climbed trees or picked the flowers.

Another view, with the Hospital again.

 

By 1937 the Central Park was where people went to relax and the People's Park became less and less used, it is now wasteland but I can remember even in my young days of the 1950's and 60's how you could still see the layout with its hills and bridges etc., though by then it was well overgrown and it was known to us as The Old Park,

Tom Kemp

Tom Kemp retired in March 1937 after 44 years of employment as a paver and slabber at Boston Corporation, paving the streets at the time when they were of granite slabs. He was one of the first to pass over the Town Bridge after it was reconstructed (in 1913) and helped to pull the old bridge down of which he had a memento, a piece of ironwork in the shape of a figure "8", that his wife used as a stand for the flat-iron!

The old and new Town Bridge.

 

He helped in the construction of the Municipal Buildings and one of his last jobs was near the Sluice Bridge where he helped to make the circle (the small roundabout?) near the bridge and lay the pavement from Tattershall Road up to the bridge. For 15 of those years he was transferred from the town down to the dock, and while going to work from his home in London Road one day over the Swing Bridge, wheeling his bicycle, he got almost over the bridge when a railway engine came down the line. He couldn't get away and was pinned between the bridge and the engine. The bicycle was torn in half and he was left holding the handle-bars and the front wheel.
On another occasion he was helping to trace a gas leak in West Street when he struck a pebble while shovelling out soil. The spark from the pebble ignited the leakage in a main pipe but he jumped out before any damage more serious than singed eyebrows had occurred!
One embarrassing occasion which stayed in his mind was when he had been stationed outside the Municipal Buildings when they were opened in order to take the tickets of those who had been invited. He stopped one man from going through because he hadn't got a ticket and refused to let him pass, then the Police came and told him that the man was Mr. Doughty, the M.P. for Grimsby!

Child cruelty.

It wasn't always a case of  "the good old days" in Boston. There was crime, murder, drunkeness and more, and stories like the following were more common than you'd think. In June 1923 a married woman, Maud -----,  was summoned for neglecting her children. It was said that the husband of the accused was a fireman on a steam trawler and was employed by the Boston Deep Sea Fishing and Ice Company. He had been on a boat that was sailing from Fleetwood and had been away from Boston since the previous March, he had not returned in the interval. The house in which the Mother, Father and children lived was the Almshouses in Skirbeck Quarter (most likely the Middlecott Almshouses, where Middlecott Close stands today) and there were two rooms, one up and one down.
The children were a baby girl aged ten months, Edward aged four, Gwennie aged six and Phyllis aged eight. Dr. Tuxford told the magistrates that the children were well nourished but their general condition caused them unnecessary suffering. Two pawn tickets were found on the woman and these were for the childrens frocks. It was alleged that strange men had been seen leaving the house in the evening and he was afraid she had been drinking and doing things she shouldn't have, and in the meantime the children had been neglected. Dr. Tuxford also described the scanty clothes of the children and said that the house was disgracefully filthy and in a thoroughly unsanitary condition. The surroundings, although the children were well nourished, were likely to injure their health and it was unnecessary cruelty to keep the children in a filthy state.
P.c. Dickinson said that at 11.p.m. one evening he saw a man leave the house and when he visited the house one time it was in a most filthy condition.
Police sergeant Needham said he went to the house accompanied by P.c. Chappel and they found the door locked. He found the key in a bush, and went in, where they saw the children. The eldest girl was standing near the fire, nursing the baby, and there was no fireguard to protect them. She was wearing an old filthy coat and a vest in a dirty condition. The baby had a filthy old vest on and was wrapped in an old mackintosh.
Gwennie was standing in her bare feet near the fire, and was wearing a dirty vest, with an old coat. Edward had a dirty shirt and overall, and had no boots or stockings. The house was in a dirty and filthy condition, and the stench was almost intolerable, as the windows were closed. Upstairs there were two beds, and the remains of two flock mattresses were scattered on the floor. there were also some dirty old rags and it looked as though the sanitary arrangements, as affecting the children, had not been attended to for weeks. In the pantry there were bread, eggs, tea, sugar and a tin of condensed milk. At 4 p.m. he returned to the house and the woan was still not there, he gave some milk to the baby and it drank ravenously, he gave the other children some cake and tea, which had been given by neighbours. At 4.30 p.m. she returned and was arrested.
An inspector from the N.S.P.C.C. described the condition of the house as "most horrible" and a basket of clothing in a most filthy condition, was beyond description. When she returned she had a bottle of beer and some buns and she denied she had neglected her children but when he asked if she had been visiting public houses she made no reply.

The defendant said she was very sorry and hoped that the magistrates would be lenient with her. The Chairman said it was perhaps the worst case they had had in that court concerning the neglect of children and she ought to be thoroughly ashamed of herself as a mother. They said they would give her a prison sentence simply for the sake of giving her an opportunity of pulling herself together and it was hoped that when she came out she would be a better mother. She was sentenced to six months in prison.

Before we judge the lady we should think that it was fine for the relatively well off magistrates and police to preach but how many of them, in the same circumstances would fare any better than her? It doesn't bear to think about how we, as a modern generation, would have lasted in those dark days.

Richard Leafe.

Richard (Dick) Leafe was born in Boston in 1891. He joined Boston Town but showed enough promise to be signed by Grimsby Town in the Second Division of the Football League. However, after only one appearance he returned to Boston.
In November 1910 Leafe signed for Sheffield United in the First Division. Although only 20 years old he managed to score 15 goals in 28 games in the 1911-12 season.

 

Syd King, the manager of West Ham United, was impressed by Leafe's performances and bought him as a replacement for the prolific Danny Shea who he had just sold to Blackburn Rovers for a British record transfer fee of £2,000.
Richard Leafe was an immediate success and scored in his first four matches. At the end of the the 1913-14 season he was the club's top scorer with 20 goals in 33 league games. He developed a great partnership with West Ham's young centre-forward, Syd Puddefoot. The following season West Ham finished in 4th place in the Southern League. Puddefoot was top scorer with 18 goals and Leafe managed 13 in 30 games.

Leafe's career was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. By the time competitive football returned Leafe was past his best. West Ham had been elected to the Second Division and in the 1919-20 season finished in 15th place. However, Leafe had been unable to score in his 15 games for the club. The following season Leafe scored 7 in 13 games but it was Syd Puddefoot who was now the star of the team with 29 goals.
With the arrival of Vic Watson Leafe only played in 3 games in the 1921-22 season. He decided to retire from playing but was given the job as assistant secretary of the club. He held the post until the management was forced to reduce the staff at the outbreak of the Second World War.

Richard Leafe died in 1964.

Bombing and civilian deaths in World War Two.

Many Boston folk were killed in action either in the Army, Navy or the R.A.F. This small article deals only with the civilian deaths of Boston during World War Two,  if there are any I have not mentioned and you can tell me about them I will update it immediately.

Most of Boston's bombings in World War Two occured between August 1940 and June 1942. On nine nights during this period bombs actually fell in the town but there were a few false alarms where people had to sit up, in their air raid shelters or under the stairs, sometimes for hours, because the siren had gone off. On the days after any bombs had fallen the boys of the town turned up to look for fragments of the bombs or the fins of the incendiary bombs. There was rarely more than one enemy bomber involved in each raid and often the bombs were delayed action or duds and the bomb disposal squads had to be called in. One such bomb, outside Cammack's shop in Wide Bargate, took several days to get out and two more, in open fields, are still there to this day.

 

The unexploded bomb outside Cammack's shop in Wide Bargate.

 

On the night of 12th. June 1941, a single heavy bomb burst behind West Street, near James Street. The Royal George pub, several houses and Lovely's Commercial Hotel were destroyed and when the ruins were cleared the next day it was found that there was a tragic death toll. Mr. John Faulkner, an old man in his seventies, Mrs. Nancy Harris and her three little children and two well known teenage girls, Kathleen and Audrey Loveley had all been killed. In all nine people died in what was Boston's worst air-raid incident of the war.
There was a lull of more than a year without any serious air-raids on Boston, but the town had two more serious raids to come, one in July and one in August of 1942.

Above : A Dornier 217, one of which flew across Boston in July 1942,  machine-gunning and dropping four bombs on the town.

 

The first of these was in broad daylight when a Dornier 217 dived out of thick cloud, flew across the town machine-gunning as it went, and then dropped four bombs aimed at the railway goods yard in High Street. Three of the bombs hit the railway yard and caused some damage but one bomb fell short and burst near houses in the Liquorpond Street - High Street - Bedford Place area. One old lady, Mrs. Harriet Gee was killed, several people were injured, and over 100 were bombed out of their homes.
One month later on a Saturday evening, a German bomber dropped a line of white flares near the dock and a few minutes later four bombs exploded between Main Ridge, Silver Street and Threadneedle Street. Many of the surrounding houses were destroyed and four people were killed, five injured and 150 bombed out. Among the dead were an 18 year old young man William Taylor, and his girlfriend, 15 year old Gertrude Creasey. He and his young lady were the last civilians to be buried in the war plot in Boston Cemetery. May they all rest in peace.
Fifty seven high explosive bombs, and also four oil bombs, fell between the town's boundaries, and around 500 incendiaries were also dropped. Sixty four homes were either destroyed or so badly damaged that they had to be demolished.