Francis Galpin Baldock

He went to school at 3yrs old. (His father died when he was 3 - his father was a sailor). He was at that school till he was 7 and then transferred to the upper school till he was 14. He left just before his 14th birthday to work in a chemists shop. He started at 8am, opening the shutters and serving customers till 9 or 9.30 when the shop owner came down from his flat above. The shop owner was a 'gentleman', he had silver cruets on each corner of the table, silver cutlery etc. Francis had to do some of the shop owner's housework as part of his duties - sometimes cooking eggs/ serving breakfast, cleaning windows or boots or polishing cutlery or polishing the jars in the shop. Lunch was fro 1 till 2pm and they them worked till 8pm, and was paid 3/6d a week. After 6 months his mother made him ask for a pay rise, and he was grudgingly given an extra 6d, now making 4/-. After 15 months his mother went to see someone at the dockyard about a job for him - these jobs were much prized and difficult to get, and you had to be recommended by someone to get in. He started as a labourer, sweeping the floor, cleaning etc. If you proved yourself, you could move on to the machines and worked your way up. (which he did)

In 1915 he went with 7 or 8 friends from the dockyard to enlist in the 5th Devon somethings. He didn't pass the medical as A1 - he had a faltering heartbeat and passed B2. You could join as long as your employer gave permission. The employer gave permission to the other 7 but not to Francis - he was told his place was in the dockyard. At that time it was volunteers only; when conscription was introduced later he was sent to Scapa Flow. He remembered the happiness of his childhood even though they had no money to spend - sometimes he and his brother had a halfpenny toshare. Later on he was allowed 1/- a week. He would spend 6d on the theatre, a halfpenny each way on the bridge toll, 1d on an apple, 1d on a programme, and 3d for the Sunday collection. At the theatre he would see opera, Gilbert & Sullivan etc. After the shows finished in London, one of the first places they would go was Plymouth. He saved up all his programmes in the top of a cupboard and while he was away in the army his mother threw them all out thinking they were a load of rubbish.

He was T total and went to the Baptist church in Mutley. They lived in Durban Road.