Growing up fast in Depression years

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A copy of a fascinating autobiography, published late last year, has recently arrived in our office. Called “Just a Grain of Sand on a Beach”, it is Walter Hughes’ modest summary of a life in many parts.

Walter Hughes, formerly of Derby, when he was a baby in 1918

Walter Hughes on leave in Derby in 1942 with eldest son, Paul

Ramsgate sands in about 1920

Walter Hughes' autobiography

SOMETIMES funny, sometimes tragic, Walter Hughes’ frank account of more than 85 years of life experiences will strike a chord with many readers of his generation.

This newly revised version of an earlier autobiography, Summat to Say, takes readers on a fascinating journey starting with a difficult childhood in Ramsgate and Derby during the Depression, through wartime service with the Royal Navy, to a busy and contented retirement in modern-day Spain.

Walter’s early childhood was spent in Ramsgate, where he was born.

He lived with his childless Aunt Emily and Uncle Arthur after an arrangement was reached with his parents in Derby when they fell on hard times.

His father was a labourer in the foundry at a railway works and the family struggled to make ends meet when he was put on short time.

For young Walter, life in Ramsgate was “just one round of pleasure” far removed from the poverty experienced by his parents in the Midlands.

Happy memories included charabanc tours with his grandmother, trips to the lavender fields, hours spent on the amusements at Dreamland, Margate.

A scholarship from Derby Central School saw Walter returning to live with his parents at the age of 11, much to the distress of his Aunt Emily.

The following is an extract taken from Walter’s account of his first day at Central School: “It was three miles from the district in which I lived and meant two tramcars, a number four and a number nine.

“Two pence each way that could scarcely be spared, though soon there were to be car checks – little circular discs with Derby Education Committee and one penny stamped on them.

“Complete with brand new schoolbag, a cheap version in a rope-like canvas material but leather edged, a Woolworth’s tin of drawing instruments and a Venus pencil, I appeared at school.

“There were some packed sandwiches of cheese and a tomato for dinner, in a tin box with an imitation crocodile grain on it.

“There was a dining room, a euphonious term for a clearing in the basement of the main school, which was a quarter of a mile away.

“There were bicycles stacked all around and it smelled of drains.”

At the age of 15, in 1933, Walter left school and took his first job at Williams Furnishing Stores on Normanton Road.

Three weeks later he was out of work after a new settee was damaged.

His next job, at Aerialite Ltd wire works in Shardlow, last just six weeks before he was given his cards again when the factory was closed.

Walter finally secured a job as an apprentice fitter and turner with the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company with his five-day week paying 10 shillings.

The war brought this job to an end when he followed his mates into the Royal Navy as an artificer and thus began the next stage of his life.

Just a Grain of Sand is published by Country Casita Publishers, of Alicante, Spain (ISBN no. 1-4116-6073-0).