A life rooted in Leicester

Born at Bond Street Nursing Home on 24 April 1928, George grew up in the tight-knit streets around Rowan Street and Beatrice Road. His early schooling at Ingle Street Junior School was interrupted by family illness and, later, by the war years. He won a school scholarship in wartime and, though formal education ended at fifteen, he carried forward a sharp eye for the telling detail — the kind that now gives his stories their vividness.

Work, service, and family

George’s working life spanned the North and Desford collieries, a stint with Russell’s Foundry, and nearly two decades at Reid & Sigrist (later RACAL) on Frog Island. Between those chapters he served in the Royal Signals — “drop ’em, cough” medicals, Morse and teleprinters, and the long journeys between depots that punctuate his recollections. He married, raised a large family, and took deep pride in that legacy.

Why he wrote

The questions of children and grandchildren nudged George to turn scattered notes into a record for the family — and, by extension, for Leicester. He set down the texture of ordinary lives: paper rounds along the Woodgate–Fosse Road “Golden Mile”, factory floors and the Willey machine’s woolly snowstorm, blackouts and sirens, and the compromises and kindnesses of working‑class life. His tone is plain‑spoken, humane, and often very funny.

About this digital edition

These pages preserve George’s words faithfully. Spelling, punctuation, and phrasing reflect the original documents unless a clear transcription error was introduced during digitisation; we correct only technical encoding artefacts (e.g., curly quotes) and never abridge the stories.