We’ll meet again, says veteran

11:37am Tuesday 2nd October 2007

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A messenger boy for the fire service during the Blitz is trying to track down his old colleagues for a reunion more than 60 years since the end of the Second World War. DAVID MILLS reports.

THE Second World War might have been mostly fought overseas, but firefighters had a very dangerous war of their own here on our streets.

During the Blitz, Lee Green fire station was at the hub of the Home Front's efforts to protect Londoners from German bombs.

The Eltham Road base was the main headquarters for firefighters in a network of substations known as V, W, X, Y and Z, located at nearby schools.

And former messenger boy David Grieg, aged 84, wants to arrange a reunion with his wartime colleagues.

He is looking for any ex-firemen, despatch riders and wash room attendants who served at Lee Green station or any of the substations.

David was just 16 when he joined the fire service as a messenger boy, earning 17 shillings a week.

He would deliver messages, some of them emergencies, on a pushbike.

David, who lives in Orpington, will never forget the time he got transferred to Lee Green fire station after he swore at his chief officer.

It was thanks to this David is still alive today.

Had he not lost his temper with his boss, David would have been in Blackheath Park, which was bombed that night, killing his two friends.

David said: "These two men are always on my mind.

"I would have been killed too had I been there."

He said his expulsion from substation V in Briset Road, Eltham to Lee Green, was "a blessing in disguise", adding: "I am not religious, but I must have a guardian angel somewhere."

David swore at his boss because he kept the wash room all to himself, and would not allow others to use it with him.

He said: "No-one would go into the wash room when he was there. They were frightened of him.

"He would have hit me had the other men not been there."

David's other outstanding memory from his days in the fire brigade was the time Sandhurst School got bombed in January 1943.

When the building in Minard Road, Catford, was hit, 38 children, six teachers and several firemen were killed.

Whereas many children were evacuated during the war, some schools carried on.

According to eye witnesses, the pilot waved to the children in the playground as he flew at roof- top height over Sandhurst School.

It took two days to recover all the bodies from the wreckage.

Gordon Huggett, now aged 85, was also a messenger boy from Hither Green.

He was also lucky to survive, when two bombs dropped either side of him as he was cycling by Kidbrooke in Greenwich, the base of a large RAF depot where plane parts were made.

He said: "I was very frightened.

"I was waiting for the third to drop, because they always dropped in threes.

"Thankfully, the third did not come."

As well as their work as messengers, David and Gordon also organised entertainment for people who had lost their homes because of the bombings.

"We put on farcical shows to make people laugh.

"I met my wife there. We will have been married 65 years next month."

When the Blitz ended, both David and Gordon went to France to join up with the armed forces.

Both David and Gordon still keep in touch.

David added: "I would love to meet up with Ted Clayton, Nobby Clarke, Charlie Venemore, Freddie Tyler and Jack Taylor."

If you knew David, call him on 01689 820070.