The AFS in Wapping
My brother Tom joined the Auxiliary Fire service in 1938 soon after it was established. The AFS was a volunteer service set up to supplement the London Fire Brigade in anticipation of the forthcoming war. Tom' was 18 at the time and probably thought that being a fireman would be a bit more exciting than his day job as a typewriter mechanic .
Although the London Fire Brigade estimated that they needed 28000 volunteers there are no statistics about how many men, young and old, signed up to be trained as firemen. In Wapping there is a kind of snapshot of some of men and women who had volunteered to become a part-time firefighters .
There were 18 men listed on the National Register on the 29th September as being on duty at the substation and two young women. Their ages ranged from a 55 year old taxi driver to a 26 year old warehouse packer. Most of the men were married and generally older than many would have expected.
The occupations were also disparate including a shipping clerk and a barristers clerk as well as a tailor and a meat Packer, a lorry driver and a hardware salesman There was of course a couple of wharf labourers as well as a rubber stamp maker and a painter and decorator. There was just one full-time fireman on duty that night who was no doubt responsible for the training of these volunteers.. The two young women at that time would have been learning the control room duties: one was a typist during the day and the other a dressmaker.
Tom learned the hard way about the dangers of firefighting. Whilst he was at the top of a ladder with a hose a colleague, No doubt with insufficient training, increased the water pressure without warning with the result that Tom was thrown to the ground damaging his knee. That ended his firefighting career but of course it did not prevent him being called up into the RAF when the war started.
The valiant work carried out by the firefighters both the full time men of the London Fire Brigade and their part-time colleagues in the AFS during the Blitz of the following years is well known but it doesn't hurt to be reminded of this from time to time and realise that firefighters today face equal dangers.
