In 1962/3 I was a cashier at Shard End branch with Eddie Yates, Jack Pardoe and the manager was John ("Ginger") Smith, his nickname enabling him to be distinguished from another John Smith on the staff who was known as “Spotty”.

It was a very cold winter and the branch was one of the old wooden hut types which incidentally only had male employees - the conditions being too Spartan for the fairer sex.

One particularly cold morning we found the two gas fires in the branch were not working having a frozen supply pipe.

The solution was obvious - I was sent across the road to the branch cleaner’s house to borrow a kettle of boiling water.

Some of the branch cleaning dusters were immersed in the water and applied to the gas pipe either side of the gas meter. After about 10 minutes the gas started to flow and the two fires were lit.

Similarly the glass inkwells had a layer of ice on them so they were stood in a tray of hot water to thaw.

However come the summer we had a problem with being too hot as the barred windows only opened an inch or so.

We were not allowed then to take off our jackets so the heat was almost unbearable.

I sometimes think the winter was easier to cope with as we could work in our scarves and overcoats and eventually get some degree of warmth.

John Smith, who later became a branch inspector, was a pathfinder bomber pilot during the war and had been shot down and spent 4 years as a POW in Germany and Poland.

I was browsing in a book shop on the Norfolk Broads and came across a book ‘The history of the Pathfinder Squadrons’ as they were the best pilots chosen to mark targets with flares before the other bombers arrived.

I idly checked the index at the back of the book to find an entry ‘Smith J W Sgt’

It happened that he was shot down over Denmark by a night fighter. Attacked by two fighters they shot one down but were themselves shot down by the other.

John and his crew all parachuted to safety but were taken prisoner. However John landed on the roof of the local police station which was manned with German troops.

In the windy conditions he hit the chimney stack of the building breaking 3 of his four limbs and ended up in hospital.

John had told me this tale and the book confirmed the facts, but he was specially mentioned in the book as he was the first pathfinder shot down in the war. Respect!