Fire Service: Fighting fires at British Celanese

A 1920s British Celanese fire engine

FIGHTING fires must have been child’s play for John Robinson after surviving four years of grim trench warfare with the Sherwood Foresters in northern France in the First World War. So, when he returned to Derby in 1918, John and his pal, Joey Pearce, decided to join the British Celanese fire service. In the photo (right) John is pictured, centre, with what was either a man or horse-drawn engine. Joey may be one of his two colleagues.

John Robinson is the fireman in the centre at the British Celanese fire station c1918. The engine was either man or horse-drawn

British Celanese is now Courtaulds but, in those days, was called the British Cellulose and Chemical Manufacturing Company, Spondon. John was a fireman with them from September 1918 until 1920, when he became a bricklayer.

A reference from the company’s Fire Brigade Superintendent, James F Giles, written when John was leaving, stated he had always been “sober, reliable and of good conduct”.

John’s grandson, Paul (58), was only 10 when his grandad died but he still has many happy memories of time they spent together. They would go for walks and play football.

On one occasion, when Paul was just a few months old, his grandfather, who was doing work on the old St Andrew’s Church in London Road, packed the baby onto his back and took him up to the top of the spire.

“Thank goodness, I don’t remember it,” laughed Paul, “but that was the way Grandad was. He was quite a character.”

John was born in Somercotes and worked down the mines until the outbreak of war. His underground skills were put to good use in France where he helped build the British trenches on Vimy Ridge and became one of the group of tunnellers whose job it was to dig down under no man’s land and try to reach the enemy trenches in order to launch attacks from behind their lines.

During that time, John wrote a meticulous diary with detailed accounts, in amazingly neat handwriting, telling of the everyday happenings in the trenches – a six-week catalogue of death, disease, rat and lice infection and the loss of colleagues and friends.

It was passed to Paul by his aunt, Marjorie Hey (85), of Shelton Lock, who was John’s daughter and he now plans to donate it to the County Records Office in Matlock.

“I think people would be very interested to read it and perhaps understand just what life was like for the soldiers serving at the front in the Great War,” he said.

Old fire engines create a great deal of interest from vintage vehicle collectors and an old engine from that period, which used to help fight fires at British Celanese, comes under the auctioneer’s hammer at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon, Warwickshire next Sunday.

It is a 1928 Leyland 40/60hp model with Ajax escape. It was delivered new to British Celanese and was used in active service until 1954, when it was pensioned off and kept as a show piece.

It was acquired by its present owner (who wishes to remain anonymous) in 1969 and has taken part in various historic vehicle club events including the London to Brighton run.

It was used in the Lord Mayor’s Parade in the 1970s and 80s in Sheffield and then placed in Sheffield Fire and Police museum, where it was restored and repainted in its original livery. It has been kept on permanent display ever since.

The fire engine, which is estimated to be worth between £15,000 and £20,000, will be sold with its original registration, CH 7699.

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This article is from the Derby Evening Telegraph and is reproduced online here.