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‘Hello
Doc!’
Jack Hunter built ships on the Suffolk
coast. Once war began, his local Red
Cross detachment disbanded. So Jack
found other ways of continuing his First
Aid training. When the London docks
needed carpenters, his firm sent him.
And when the docks needed a First Aider,
Jack was again on the job. |
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How did you become
involved?
 "I
was sent out [to London docks] as a shipwright.
A shipwright was a reserved occupation. Our
ships were getting sunk faster than we could
deal with ‘em.They
sent us out to London. I met three other blokes
up there. King George V Dock. Couldn’t
walk away from [the job]. You were directed
to go there.
An agent came up, said ‘Heard
you’re shipwrights. Can you put that
shed up there?’While we was doing that,
one of my colleagues struck his hand on a
nail. I took him in to the agent’s office.
‘Where’s your First Aid kit?’I took it down. ‘You
don’t call this a bloody First Aid kit,
do you?! Iodine?
Don’t use iodine today. All you’ve
got is bandages. Don’t call this a First
Aid kit!’
The agent said, ‘What
do you know?’ I said, ‘I’m
fully qualified.’
"
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What
did you do?
 "
So he says, ‘That
big hut you built, do you think you could put
a partition up? I want you to turn it into a First Aid Room
and give me a list of all your First Aid equipments
that will be needed to run that room.’
 We found timber,
built tables and chairs. We made three beds
up. And I wrote out a whole list of things
needed: Neil Robson stretcher, bags of triangular
bandages, cotton wool, lint, bicarbonate of
soda for burns, soap and hot water [to prevent
dermatitis]. I also carried indigestion powder."
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Any special memories?
 "
We had a couple of bombs
come down there. A Doodlebug come down into
the Dock area. The men that were there jumped
into the water, out of the way.
The bomb fell to the bottom of the quay, and
they climbed out, came down to me.I was only in the next dock up.
‘Hello
Doc! Oh, could we dry our clothes off in here,
mate?’
‘Yeah, course. What happened?’
‘We fell in the docks!’
I says, ‘Oh good?!’ I take all
their clothes, put ‘em in a bag, called
the ambulance. Says ‘they’re all
taking you to Mile End Road mate.’
‘What for?’
‘You gotta go for your injections.’
‘What do you mean?’
I says, ‘Don’t you know the ruling?
If anybody falls in the London docks, they
got to go into hospital for 48 hours because
all the ships discharging everything in there.’
 Then the Port Authority
doctor come round and checked my room.
I got a 1st class report on that. My Governor
came round. ‘You got a very good report!’ He was very pleased."
Listen to Jack Hunter's story
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FACTS
It is impossible to give exact figures of all of those who responded to the call
of the JWO. However the following gives some idea of how many were
involved:
Penny-a-Week Fund collectors: 200,000
Rural Pennies collectors: 85,000
Women working for Central Hospital Supply Service: 250,000
VADs: 15,000
Trained nurses enrolled in JWO reserve: 1,150
Welfare services, June 1945: Fulltime: 200, Part time 1,500
‘Searchers’: 900
Workers at Parcel Packing Centres for POWs: 4,500
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FACTS
First Aid kits were kept at all places of work during the war, just like they
are today. Here are some of the things that you would have found in them:
packets of cotton wool, sal volatile (smelling salts), eye drops, tourniquet,
triangular bandages, and en electric torch. Find out more. Find out more about First Aid Kits.
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FACTS
The London docks were a particular target for air raids as they were a centre
for industry and the place where food was brought into the city. Fire fighters
in these areas had to deal with pepper fires, rum fires, paint fires, rubber
fires, sugar fires, tea fires, and grain fires, as well as the burning buildings
themselves. Find out more about thr Bombing of UK Cities.
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