I was excited, but feared Russia and Third World War
The former coal worker from Wigan and son of a soldier joined the Royal Artillery as a gunner aged 18.
He says: “I’d worked on the railways at 15 and did some maintenance on the Flying Scotsman. It was dangerous work though, lads got killed, so I left.”
Ken travelled to Liverpool for his medical, which he passed.
He adds: “I was excited, it was a big adventure. I wasn’t even slightly nervous. My dad was in the Army, too, and I was happy to follow in his footsteps.”
After basic training Ken was sent to Dortmund in Germany in 1949, where communists and former Hitler Youth members would spit at the British soldiers in the street and often clashed with them in riots.
He says: “One time there were 28,000 demonstrators. We were given a dustbin lid and a truncheon to deal with them.
“We worked with the German Fire Service, who got out their hoses during riots to disperse the crowds. One time they put green dye in the water and everyone who took part in the riot was stained green for the next two weeks.”
Every British regiment was on high alert around Germany, especially with the post-war threat of Soviet Russia. Ken says: “We thought the Third World War was coming, it was the height of the Cold War, and everyone was on alert. It was just a few weeks later when the fighting broke out in Korea.
“We knew that if the Russians attacked we couldn’t stop them, but we might be able to slow them down. We worked with the Royal Engineers to cover two bridges. If the Russians approached, our tactics were to shoot out the front two tanks of their formation, and the back two. That way they’d be stuck and we could blow up the bridges.”
When Ken’s National Service ended he joined the Reserves for five years. He was asked if he would volunteer for Korea, where UN forces had joined the South Korean army in fighting back the invasion from the North.
But just 14 out of 400 reservists volunteered, so Ken was told to stay put and left the forces.
He adds: “I came out of the Army and straight down a mine near Wigan for two years before becoming a driver. Then I worked on building the M1 until it opened in 1959, the UK’s first motorway. I was paid £14 a week for that.”
Ken became a coach driver and met his late wife through the Royal Artillery Association, of which he is still a member. He says: “We still meet at The Welcome pub in Blackpool twice a month, but we lost six guys during Covid. The Welcome is where I met my wife, she was collecting for charity. She worked as a telephonist in Blackpool, and we got married in 1961.” The pair had son Darren, who lives a few doors down
from Ken.