Frank Woodhead's Early Years

I just lately found this and managed to get it typed up.
My dad shared this info with me back in late 1999, early 2000

just before his death in March.
It covers the things he remembered from the time
he was born up to when he went to India at the
beginning of World War II.]


Frank Woodhead’s Early Years
As Told to His Son
Michael Woodhead


1916 - Birth
Born 29 August
Rochdale Infirmary
Mother: Mary Ann Paley, age 42
Twin sister, Lily, also born

1918 – Age 2
Lily dies.
(Note: His parents had to choose which child lived and they chose Frank.)
Frank sees or has a vision of Lily in the coffin in a little alcove.
Two horses with plumes and a carriage with plumes drives up.
His Aunt Emma receives the coffin from his mother and then goes off in the carriage.

World War One ends

1921 – Age 5
Frank's father buys him a scooter for Christmas Day.
He hits a step with it and it breaks it in half.
He gets a broken nose and his stepsisters laugh at him.

Amy Johnson takes a solo flight (the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia)

1923 – Age 7
Sisters were flappers.
Jack Rhodes (married to one of Frank’s stepsisters?) tells stories of World War I in the Carlton Dance Hall

1924 – Age 8
Frank becomes Wolf Cub.
At this time, women can't go into bars; they have to go into the ‘best room’ or parlor.

1925 – Age 9
Frank’s mother sings while drunk in the pub,  and then staggers through the muck and mire of a steel yard with him leading her home.

His mother hides under the stairs during thunderstorms

[Note: Fighting with his drunken family put Frank off smoking and drinking]

1926 – Age 10
Christian Endeavor Party is formed

One of Frank’s older step- brothers buys out of the army when he hears they're going to India (the British Army have been there since 1857)

Frank starts singing tenor

1929 – Age 13
Frank goes to Jimmy Duckworth’s grocery store to pick things up for his mother.

1930 – Age 14
Although he wants to do so, Frank can't take piano lessons

Frank is old enough, now, to be eligible for the workplace so he starts painting, using a ladder since the boss has a bad foot.
Frank is also afraid of heights...
He learns mural painting and gilding.
He works here for seven years. (1930-1937)

1931 – Age 15
Frank has his first serious girlfriend.
She is from Bolton.
She wears a white brimmed hat with a rose.
When he brings the girl home, his mother says, “She's a tart, get rid of her!”

Then Frank brings home a Salvation Army girl.
His mother says, “What faith are you?”
The girl says “Anabaptist”.
Frank's mom says, “Get out!”

At an open-air gospel meeting, Frank meets Jackie Fielding who seems like a tomboy to him.

[Note: I am not sure who this ‘Jackie Fielding’ is. There was a famous English actress from his home town of Rochdale by this name, but she wasn’t born until 1967)

1932 – Age 16
On Whitsuntide day, they have a flag procession down the street.
One of the flags wraps itself around the power lines and shorts out the power for miles.

1933 – Age 17
Frank goes for a ride on a charabanc
 

1935 – Age 19
Frank becomes a member of the Bethel Evangelistic Society where he is a gospel singer in the summer

In the winter, he snow-shovels for the city.

1936 – Age 20
Frank helps start up the Bethel Evangelistic Church.

This year, he first sees Ivy. He is conducting an open-air meeting and she walks by with her mother.

[Note: Coincidentally they lived four doors away from each other even though they’d never seen each other before]

1937 – Age 21
Frank meets Ivy again at an evangelistic campaign in Bacup.
He goes home for dinner with a Mrs Hodden (Hotten?) and Ivy.
A few days later, he goes to Ivy's for supper.

Ivy has to pick up her father's wages, otherwise he would spend it all on beer.

Ivy works in Moss Textile Mill as a beamer

1938 – Age 22
Frank volunteers as a firefighter.
One day a copper comes and asks for Frank.
He is taken in a patrol car to a building where he is called up for full-time firefighting service until after he marries in 1940.

He joins the Rochdale Auxiliary Fire Service.

1939 – Age 23
World War II starts

1940 – Age 24
March 30, he married Ivy

In September he is called into the military.

Frank goes to Leaven on the Yorkshire coast and joins the Yorkshire Beach Defense Regiment.

Their first meal includes one herring, one potato, and some canned peaches.
They clean the dishes with sand.

Frank is put in charge of ‘troops’ and has his own little classroom

He teaches rifle drill.

He is sent to Stamford Bridge, York.
He is sent to Gloucester.
He is sent to Tewksbury.
He is given  embarkation leave to return home since Ivy's father dies.

One day when the men are standing in line, Winston Churchill and the King drive by so fast in a car, they can’t be seen. Someone yells, “Three cheers: hip-hip—”, but all the men standing around yell back “Boo!”

1941 – Age 25
Nights are often spent at the church singing.
He sits with the young women.
One night, someone hears him singing and he ends up singing parts with the vicar's daughters.

1942 – Age 26
February-March
Frank sails from Glasgow on the Empress of Canada.
It takes eight to ten weeks to sail to India.

March-June
On board ship, they receive half-rations since they are not expected.
They stop off in Cape Town, Africa.

A Mrs Betty Juffernbrook of Voluntary Services stops and asks if Frank and his mates would like to come for dinner, which they do.

Afterwards, they tour Cape Town, first in the woman’s car, and then by themselves.

Edited by Michael:
 Books by my father, Frank Woodhead, all available on Amazon:—
  GREEN EARTH & GILDED TEMPLES, 2023
  ARAKAN ADVENTURE, 2023
  RENDEZVOUS AND OTHER WRITINGS, 2022
  THE ROAD TO MANDALAY, 2020