Hero who saved City Hall with a sandbag in his teeth
Ronald’s war bravery honoured as he turns 100
A MAN whose astonishing heroics saved a historic building during a wartime bomb attack has been honoured on his 100th birthday.
Ronald Brignall, who was aged 16 at the time, held a 12lb sandbag by his teeth, clamped another under one arm and scaled a 25ft drainpipe to tackle the flames on the roof of the city hall. Cheered on by official fire-watchers during his brave act in the Second World
War, he soon climbed back up the pipe with a fire hose gripped in his teeth to finish putting out the flames.
Speaking now, he said: “I was only a teenager, and I didn’t have any fear. “I just wanted to make sure the bomb didn’t do any damage to City Hall.” Civic leaders have now given him a certificate thanking him for saving Cardiff City Hall.
In 1941, Ronald was walking home from college, where he was doing plumbing qualifications, when the air raid sirens started and he saw a Nazi incendiary bomb land on the building’s roof.
Speaking to a newspaper at the time, Ronald’s only comment was that his jaw was sore from carrying the sandbag and that he had ruined his suit.
He later became an official fire-watcher and in 1944 joined the RAF. He was a rear gunner on Whitley and Halifax bombers.
The Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Bablin Molik, who went to the care home in Sussex where Ronald now lives to present him with the certificate, said: “Mr Brignall is a great example of those who have so much civic pride in Cardiff.
“This is a belated honour but it is no less heartfelt.”
Ronald’s son Ian said: “Dad’s a little frail now, but he’s thrilled to have this recognition.
“He has always been a modest man and rarely talked about his war record.
“We only knew of his heroics in Cardiff on that day because he kept newspaper cuttings.”
I didn’t have any fear. I just wanted to make sure City Hall was not damaged
RONALD BRIGNALL ON HIS HEROICS AT AGE OF 16 IN 1941