Follow-up

FURTHER to letters about first wages (Peterborough), in 1947 at 17, I began a student apprenticeship at GEC Witton, Birmingham. We started at 7.30am, and the pay was 30 shillings a week — but 15 minutes’ pay would be docked if you clocked on after 7.34am. If there was a queue, we headed to the clock known to be slow. The management stopped this by putting red ink in a clock for apprentices. Some who were late waited to clock in at 7.38am and turned the numbers into 7.33. Works police tried to stop theft as 10,000 workers left at 5.30pm. One worker came in on a motorbike on Monday and left on Friday in one with a sidecar . . . well, he did work in the fabrication shop! Peter Loosley, Rickmansworth, Herts.