From the Auxillary Fire Service to the National Fire Service
The A.F.S. (auxiliary fire service) of necessity had to be properly organised and structured to cope with wartime conditions, and so the National Fire Service came into being. Midway between Webb, the butcher, on Victoria Road and the Clockhouse, a shop had been taken over for a fire station. Behind it was a suitably re-inforced building which served as a reception and communication office. Alongside was a crew bunk house and mess room.
Our full address in the N.F.S. organisation was Region 6; Fire Force Area 14; Division A; Sub-division 3; Station Y, and referred to locally as 14A3Y. Our equipment was housed on the other side of Victoria Road. As I remember it we had a staff car, a van and a pump (probably a Coventry-Climax).
I volunteered to be a driver and was duly given a driving test by Les Archer, to become a fireman/driver. Les Archer was the well known racing motor cyclist who owned the motor cycle shop ARCHERS of Aldershot. Driving around Farnborough for the test, in wartime, there wasn’t a great deal of traffic to contend with!
Came the night when we had a call-out to Farnborough Abbey. It turned out to be a grass fire on the railway embankment. I saw nothing of the action because I was manning the pump on the Farnborough Road, which in the event wasn’t required. Later I was told that the monks were most solicitous and kept the firemen supplied with bowls of milk.
James Dodds in the N.F.S in May 1944
James Dodds' N.F.S equipment during World War 2
N.F.S Certificate of Service
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Information and images courtesy of James Dodds.
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