Written by George Locker for Chelmer Valley Woodturners in April 2021

I started my life in 1929 in a mining village called Langwith in Nottinghamshire, where my father worked at the coalface with his father and two brothers. He met my mother who came from a village in Northumberland called Elsdon. They met at a mutual friends house in Ashington Northumberland after he left the Army in 1926.

He caught some eye problem caused by coal dust and was told he would go blind unless he left the mines. This was also the time of the depression and difficult to get a job so they decided to go to Northumberland as they believed there was a better chance there. They moved there when I was nine months old and lived there twenty seven years, so that is why I consider myself to be a Northumbrian.

My uncle and aunt lived just a few miles from the family home, he was a joiner by trade and from the age of five, my sister and I spent many weekends and holidays with them as they didn’t have any kids of their own at that time. Of course I was often in his workshop and that is where I first became covered in sawdust! When I think back, I can remember all the hand tools he used - there were no power tools! I remember he once bought a new set of chisels but he didn’t want the makers angle. So he used his grinder to start with which was turned with one hand and the chisel held in the other. After that it was honed on some kind of wet stone and finally a lot of movement on an old leather belt.

In those days, we went to school from the age 5 to 14, unless you were very clever and passed the scholarship examination at eleven years old when you went to a grammar school until 16.

Then World War 2 broke out and my Dad went back into the army! 

We lived right out in the country in Northumberland, there were fourteen of us at the school with one lady teacher. So when evacuees descended on us, our numbers increased to sixty and with them came two additional lady teachers. We only had two classrooms and it was arranged so that we would only go to school for half a day! Of course as kids we thought that was great, but it certainly didn’t do anything for our education as I found out quite a few years later.

When I reached the dizzy age of fourteen, the teacher thought I would benefit if I stayed on for another six months and the local vicar came in once a week to give three of us an extra maths lesson. Following this, it had then been arranged that I would serve an apprenticeship as a joiner but I would have to be sixteen before I could start.

What would I do before then? I got a job on a farm! Only the farmer there and one hundred and fifty acres of land, one horse, three cows, forty sheep and now, a George!

I always tell people that when I started they sold the horse… at least it felt that way.

Then a friend of my mother who used to call once a year to buy honey (we kept bees at home). She had asked my mother what I was doing and when told about the farm she asked if would he like to be an engineer. Now when I was asked the question, I thought the engineering works she mentioned would be a big garage! That was all I knew about engineering and I said yes. It was all set up and I had to attend an interview -they took me on, but I would have to be an office boy first. The engineering works was C A Parsons, the man who invented the steam turbine. Some garage!

I had been on the farm for three months and moved into digs at Newcastle. On the farm I was paid 26 shillings a week; Parsons paid me 10 shillings and 4 pence! But I got a rise three weeks later when I was fifteen – it went up to 11 shillings and 8 pence!

Then another year went by and I started my apprenticeship in the training school. They had a project going which everyone had to contribute to in some way, it was a 5” gauge steam engine. Of course, the foreman was very particular and only used parts if he considered them perfect. I remember that two years later they were still working on it!

A year earlier I started night school - I signed up together with my pal who had been an evacuee. When being interviewed, we were told our educational standard was not up to that expected from a fifteen year old and we had to start at the bottom, which was called J1 followed by J2 before going onto S1. Night school was three nights each week from 7 to 9pm. I went home at weekends; at first we worked a five and a half day week so was only at home from Saturday afternoon until Sunday evening - I travelled home by bus. A year later they started the five day work week, so I got home on Friday evening. I had bought a motorbike (for £10) so travelling was much easier, and I just had to get up at 5am on a Monday to get to the works and start at 7.30 am.

Because of the war there was conscription into the forces once you reached the age of 18, but apprentices could be deferred until 21. I chose to be deferred and as I was in the Air Training Corps (ATC), I thought that it was a better chance to reach my ambition of flying a Spitfire!

Then just five months before I was 21, I came home one day and said I was joining the Merchant Navy - No one believed me! Well, you could get £7-50 a week and all the food you could eat! So I joined Royal Mail Lines and my first ship had Parsons turbines.

It was then a steady progression to get enough ’seatime’ (which was 18 months) which would enable me to attend Marine College and obtain a Second Class Certificate. Then more seatime on both motor and steamships to obtain a First Class Steam & Motor Certificate. This then enabled me to be a Chief Engineer on the biggest ships on the sea at that time - but they never asked me? One had to stay until the age of 26 otherwise you would be immediately called up into the armed forces.

I got married when I was 27 but stayed on at sea until I was 28. I then joined ‘The Ocean Accident Guarantee Corporation’ (part of Commercial Union) as an Engineer Surveyor for boilers and pressure vessels, with some in power stations. This meant I had to be established near London and we bought a house in High Barnet. After three years someone must have thought I was clever and they put me in an office and called me a Senior Engineer. They paid me more and I was still able to carry out surveys, but now abroad! The Company would only let only Senior Engineers do that. 

Then they put me on a couple of committees, one of them on large gas tanks and holders and another on gas cylinders. The gas cylinder committee was my favourite, as once each year there was an international meeting held in a different country, so I got to visit Australia, Japan, Austria, France and Scotland.

Then came retirement at age 60, or so I thought. A golfing friend said he had been talking to his company and they would like to talk to me. It was an American company called American Bureau of Shipping (the American version of our Lloyds Register of Shipping). They wanted me for my industrial experience although there was also some other marine work. Then they made me a manager for UK and Ireland - That’s when I started to bite my nails.

When we bought our house in High Barnet it was in a time when I think DIY became very popular and I bought a second hand Coronet Minor wood working machine. This had a table saw, a planer and a lathe. The saw and the planer came in very useful when I made a bathroom basin unit with drawers and then moved into the kitchen making a number of the floor standing units.

Then sadly I lost my wife of eleven years and we had two young girls. But I was lucky and later married again. I had a good neighbour, but she gave my new wife a hard time so we moved to Great Baddow in 1970 and have been here ever since, increasing my family further with a son and another daughter.

Still thinking DIY, I wanted some wood one day and was told there was a good place up Hall Lane. The owner was Brian Pugh. He asked me what I did etc and asked if I was interested in woodturning, if so, there was a demonstration every Saturday if I would like to go and see what it was all about. And that’s how I started going to Sandon Woodturners. I then bought a chuck, a few tools, and started to make sawdust!

As my Coronet only had one speed (fast) I started to look into the possibility of producing other speeds. That didn’t seem to be easy so bought a lathe from Axminster Tools in 1998 model M950. Have had a few problems with it, but in the last few weeks have fitted some new parts which have been modified and so far, would seem to have solved my problem.

Things I have made over the years have generally been things I have seen demonstrated at both Sandon and Chelmer Valley Woodturning clubs. That became a weekly routine and I made a lot of sawdust and shavings for a few years. Then I discovered pen making didn’t involve so much clearing up! I didn’t realise how many relations and friends wanted pens for Christmas and birthday presents. I have made about 400 in total and I have only sold about 100.

I have made a few chess sets for my family, one of which won our December competition in 2016. I was very proud of that and I have now won another in our last competition with a walking stick (getting ready for use in old age!)