My parents, Frederick George and Ellen Louisa Kate Spencer, had both been born and brought up in Hampshire and were living in Southampton when I was born on the 4th February 1934. I was their second child, named Frank Frederick George after my father, my sister Doreen was about eighteen months older than me, and eventually there were thirteen of us, seven sisters and five brothers. After me there was Sylvie, then Kenny, Derek, Raymond, Barbie, the twins Michael and Margaret, Janet, Colin, Pauline and Patsy.

I started school at the Foundry Lane School at Easter in 1939, when I was five years old. In September war was declared and we were all sent home, and had to find our way home in various ways. I went on the front rail of a neighbour's butcher's bike. We all stayed home for a while, and then in 1940 my older sister and I were evacuated, going by train to the Haymore family in Frampton (about 5 miles from Dorchester). They had one daughter, Christine. The village had a church and about 10 houses, a river and a copse. The Haymore's had a big garden at the back with chickens.

School was different there. We had lessons in the morning followed by an hour's sleep at lunchtime. We went for walks in the afternoon, collecting berries which the teachers made into jam for the troops who had a camp just up the road. In turn the troops would put on little shows for the evacuees.

There were planes overhead all the time, and we could hear the machine guns. There was one tragic incident nearby when an American bomber coming back from raids on Germany tried to land on the South Coast, didn't make it and crash-landed in a copse, killing nine Americans. Everyone from around about went to the scene to try to help. There were arms and legs up trees; it was tragic.

There were no air-raid shelters, so when there was a raid we all congregated in the passageway in the house and went into the scullery which was thought to be the safest place. Sometimes the raids on Southampton lasted for twelve hours at a time.

My parents visited occasionally, perhaps about three times. We were away about a year and when they came to take us home I ran away and couldn't be found for a while as I liked it so much there and didn't want to go home!

In the meantime our house in Southampton had been bombed out by an incendiary bomb and was totally burned out from the inside. The family had moved to a new place in 14 Salcombe Road, Shirley, Southampton. There was an air-raid shelter half submerged in the back garden covered in dirt with flowers growing on top. When there was an air-raid warning, say about 9 o'clock at night, Mum would start dressing us one at a time. She would start with me and go on to the next one and the next, and when she got back to me I'd be slumped in the same position as when she left me, I was that tired.

In the meantime our house in Southampton had been bombed out by an incendiary bomb and was totally burned out from the inside. The family had moved to a new place in 14 Salcombe Road, Shirley, Southampton. There was an air-raid shelter half submerged in the back garden covered in dirt with flowers growing on top. When there was an air-raid warning, say about 9 o'clock at night, Mum would start dressing us one at a time. She would start with me and go on to the next one and the next, and when she got back to me I'd be slumped in the same position as when she left me, I was that tired.

Sometimes the raid would go on from 9 o'clock at night to early morning. We all had bunks in the shelter and slept there the night. When I slept in the bottom bunk I'd put my hand down in the morning and there'd be a foot of water in the shelter. We had to get the stirrup pumps to get it out. Dad was an ARP Warden organizer and on a tree in the front garden he'd have a placard with the roster of whose turn it was to be on duty that night.

Half the schools in Southampton were allocated to the troops from America and Canada so only half the schools were left for the children. We used to go only half days while other children went the other half, to make best use of the schools left. We usually started with gas-mask drill, and sometimes there were sirens and we'd go down to the shelter and sing and play. We lost a lot of our education, though being so young, for us there was nothing scary about it. My old school was one given over to the troops so I went to Regents Park School which was in the Shirley area. At my old school, which was occupied by troops, the playing fields had been turned into an air raid shelter. During a raid bombs missed the school and hit the shelter killing 120 troops.

When the war ended, on V.E. Day and V.J. Day, all the streets had celebrations, with trestles out in the streets and a big spread. I remember apples and pears being given out at school - beautiful red apples. We used to get tangerines too and they'd go in our Christmas parcel. Another food I remember was the smell of porridge, which meant that Granny was staying - which meant either it was Christmas or a new baby had been born!

Our house in Salcombe Road was a 3-bedroom semi-detached, with a lean-to for the car, and a garage out the back that Dad used for his tools. With our big family, we had two beds in each bedroom, with the children "top and tailing" to fit us all in. My next youngest brother, Kenneth, went to live with our Grandmother. We all got along fine together.

The father of a close friend, Derek Hayward, was a market gardener and I would spend a lot of time out of school with them. It was from them I developed my broad Hampshire ("mushers"') accent! In holidays and some weekends I would bike the 3 miles out to his place. We would camp in a big tent, we'd have a fire and his dad would give us spuds, and I'd pop home every so often for money to buy bread and milk. Those were good times. We lived a free life!

I was a member of the Boys Brigade and went each year to their annual camp at Highcliff where we'd sleep in huts on palliasses, roughing it but not really roughing it, and go out into woods and do nature things. Sometimes on Sundays I'd cycle out to Highcliff with some of my mates and go swimming and have a good day.

School returned to normal after the war until at fifteen I left to work for the shipyard of John I. Thorneycroft in Southampton. My father was an electrician and he was working at Thorneycrofts when 1 started there. For the first year I worked in the Stores driving a little Reliant truck around. When I started there were still steam- driven cranes working on the dock, but they became obsolete after a while, and the trucks were replaced by electric ones that had to be plugged in every night. We delivered equipment from the stores. On the yard there were shipwrights in one big building, coppersmiths in another big building, plumbers, light platers, heavy platers, and boilermakers, all over about a quarter mile along the river on the Southampton Docks.

Then in 1950, at sixteen, I started a five-year apprenticeship course. There were 250 apprentices, and it was training on the job, in the assembly area making up valves and pumps, in the diesel department working on engines, and general fitting on the benches making parts for ships and so on.

We were across the water from the docks, and we'd have our own boats going across to do work on the big boats. During the last few years we went one day a week to the Technical College for engineering. The courses were all free of charge. I started work at nineteen shillings and a penny one week and nineteen and twopence the next. The reason for the difference was that they took a penny a fortnight for Dr Barnados. When I started the apprenticeship I went on to twenty-nine shilling a week. Out of this 1 paid Mum board, and I had to buy a tool for the job and my own overalls. After spending five shillings for the Clubs there was not much left.

After I left school 1 joined the Docklands Settlement Club, a club attached to the school after hours, and played table tennis and billiards, with a dance on Friday evenings, and the local netballers would provide a local challenge. Lots of schools had similar clubs - it kept us off the streets. I went round with six friends, and each year we would take our fortnight's holiday together at the Butlins Holiday Camp at Clacton. They were so popular we had to book a year in advance. Everything was paid for, including the entertainment, except for drinks or playing bingo or something like that.

We'd have dances and a sing-song, and a few beers - there were six pubs at Clacton- and a great social time. It was a lot of fun and a good cheap holiday. Sometimes during the summer holidays we'd also go off to Brighton and stay the night and come back the next day.

When I left school I joined a weight-lifting club. I went into competitions and did well. There were 44 lifts, and once I held all 44 lifts in the 9-stone class and 10 in the 10-stone class, and held the Southern County records. I entered for the British title in which we had a year to do 44 lifts. We did 10 lifts at a time in front of a judge every couple of months. I managed to accumulate enough points to win a Junior British Record, beating the Scottish fellow by 10 points. We went around doing exhibitions for various groups and went into other competitions. From 18 onwards I also did Graeco- Roman wrestling which was a lot of fun.

SOUTHAMPTON WEIGHT-LIFTER'S AWARD

FRANK SPENCER, aged 21, of Salcombe - road, Freemantle, Southampton, has been awarded the title of Britain's best all-round junior weightlifter for 1954 by the British Amateur Weightlifters' Association.
The title is competed for on a points basis, and Mr Spencer gained 204 out of a possible 220. His nearest rival scored 181.
Last year he broke 39 Southern Counties records in the nine-stone class and seven in the ten-stone class.
Mr Spencer, who was making his "debut" in the competition, has been a weightlifter for three years. He is an independent member of BAWLA and trains at home.

See original cutting

SIX NEW WEIGHT-LIFTING RECORDS

MR. FRANK SPENCER, of Freemantle, an apprentice engineer, was successful in breaking six Southern Counties nine stone amateur weight-lifting records at his training quarters in Shirley.
Mr. John Bryan, the divisional British Amateur Weightlifting Association referee, was officiating.
Spencer's most meretricious lifts were a left hand clean and bent press of 1291bs and a two hands dead lift of 3371bs. This brings the number of Southern Counties records he holds to 15 out of a possible 44.

See original cutting