Teesside Iron and Steel Memories Interview: Bert Ward

Background & Early Work:
Born 20/9/1922 in Coltman St, North Ormesby at his aunt's house
Lived with his father's mother in Alfred St
Then got a flat over a stable in Lower High St near to Aaron Smith's coal-yard & Ridley's engineering works
In trouble @ 4yr old when he swapped his 3 wheeler bike for a pea-shooter!
Grandfather (mother's father) came originally from Wednesbury in Staffs & was a first hand in the steelworks.
1st school was Derwent St school, then went to Marton Grove school & passed scholarship @ 11yr old, but didn't get quite enough marks for the High School, so went to Hugh Bell
Disastrous time at Hugh Bell & left after 4yrs with no qualifications
Suffered from jaundice as a child
Joined the Navy after school & discharged in 1946
Had a series of low paid labouring jobs (£4 - £5 a week) until he started at Britannia Steelworks on shifts as a slag shifter
Encouraged as he could see a career progression path in the steelworks
The slag shifter's job was to hose down & cool the hot slag left after tapping the furnace & filling the ingot moulds
Then break up the slag & shovel it into skips (had to clear all the ground below the furnace)
Progressed then to become sampler (charge wheeler) on the front top of the furnace
Shovelling charge material (ore, limestone etc) from incoming rail wagons into the charging cars to charge the furnace
Very heavy work when wagons were fully loaded & could be continuous for an 8hr shift
Later at Cleveland Works this became easier when the incoming wagons were raised by lift to drop the load via a hopper into the pans
Very uncomfortable with so much dust, especially when handling basic (limestone)
Only protection was a tea-towel round the neck & thick grey sweatshirts as heat protection - no helmets
This was soon after WW2 (1946/47) so scrap coming in sometimes contained ammunition & a man was killed standing in front of the furnace door
Several other anecdotal stories of serious incidents with molten metal
Compensation was scant in those days
Only one half-hour break in the 8hr shift - they had a cabin on the furnace floor. Very warm, not conducive to heavy meals
His illness had not been a problem in the Navy etc, but recurred when in the steelworks, by then diagnosed as anaemia, so he left the steelworks in 1947/8

Later Employment:
Student nurse @ St. Luke's Hospital for 2½ yrs & became actively involved in politics
Disillusioned with the Labour Party & thought they wouldn't have him as an unskilled labourer, so joined the Communist Party
Living then at Salterfield Camp
Left nursing before final exams because of his political activity & the Communist party wanted members to go back to industry
Joined Furness shipyard for 6mnths before he was sacked for selling 'The Daily Worker'
TGWU didn't want Communists there
Several other short term jobs (Cochrane's foundry, ICI Salt Works etc) only lasted a week or so, always at the same low paid labouring wages
Worked @ Teesside Bridge galvanising plant
Brother-in-law got him the job but fell out with him & left
Met local union leader Jack Feeney, a fellow Communist, who got him a job on the railway @ Dock Street
Worked for 5yrs eventually as a goods guard, but his marriage failed & he left and went labouring at Lackenby
Met old friend & fellow former squatter Barney Ward, who was then the local TGWU organiser who got him a job as a rigger at ICI Wilton
Very well paid (£20/wk)
Went to evening classes at the Workers Education Association at Whinney Banks studying Industrial relations
Barney Ward proposed he apply to Ruskin College, Oxford & he did so
Wrote essay on Industrial Relations & was accepted, 1 of 4 in that year (1957) from Middlesbrough
2 year course on Economic Theory, Organisation & History; Political History & Theory and International Organisation
Awarded a diploma equivalent to a university diploma at the end
While at Ruskin, his illness returned & had his spleen removed
Worked as Asst Youth Employment Officer in Rotherham for a while, then in the Technical dept at the AEU
Then decided to do research himself on the apprenticeship system & got a State Mature Scholarship to LSE where he then became a lecturer for 20 years.

Political Activity:
While in London in the Communist party, he was secretary of the National Advisory Committee on Ireland
Promised Communist Party of Ireland he'd do all he could to help bring violence to an end & started a committee to help
Then communist Party split & he left
Retired & returned to Middlesbrough and continued interest in N.Ireland
Not in a party then but knew people in Ireland and tried to establish a non-party organisation to address the issues
Heard from Dublin of an organisation called 'New Consensus' made up of Irish people trying to oppose the IRA violence, and joined it
Offered to organise in the UK, but only had 9 members
Met one who put him in touch with a Labour MP and eventually formed a similar group called 'New Dialogue' made up of senior MP's from all parties, but still only a small group - BW became secretary
Edited & produced & issued a publication circulated to interested people for 10 years, using the facilities made available by the local Labour MEP
Re-joined the Labour Party during this time
Wrote an autobiography called "Who'll Take The Collection?", the title based on his experiences earlier collecting around Middlesbrough for the Communist Party.