The Enginemen, Chapter 10/1

Chapter 10: November 1961

The Branch meeting the following Sunday resolved little. George and Arthur Campion reported back on the unsuccessful conclusion of the LDC meeting the previous Tuesday morning after the one day strike. Despite the disruption of the previous day and the unfavourable coverage in the national newspapers - unfavourable to which side depending on the newspaper’s political affiliations - neither management nor the trade union membership had shifted in their stance. Apparently the issue was causing dissension amongst the management at Paddington, the commercial and operating functions wanting the dispute settled as quickly as possible, whilst the personnel function argued that they had brought in a new manager at Old Oak to change industrial relations in a more robust way and therefore could not be seen to undermine him at the first test.

Meanwhile, Arthur Campion had lobbied ASLEF Headquarters in Arkwright Street to widen industrial action. Encouraged by the support of the London Division footplate crews during the strike, and the unwillingness of them to cover Old Oak rosters - indeed, many refusing to work beyond Oxford or Reading - and the chaos caused at Paddington by the inability of management to clear the terminus of trains arriving with other depots’ crews, he pressed for their direct involvement in a further display of support for the sacked fireman.

The Branch meeting was acrimonious. Some of the older drivers felt that their one day protest had been sufficient. Others were frustrated that management’s response had been negative and were supportive of expanding the strike. Arthur Campion swayed the meeting with his plea for a vote to obtain the backing of ASLEF headquarters to make the strike official. In the meantime, after further argument, always heated, and sometimes rowdy, it was eventually decided to stage a further one day strike on the following Friday, pending a decision from the ASLEF Executive.

Before the meeting broke up, George took the floor and spoke about the harassment taking place of the few drivers and firemen who had disobeyed the strike call. He reminded them that half a dozen men were members of the NUR, not ASLEF, and the strike action had not involved them. Any argument with them had no validity, although he admitted that a couple of NUR firemen had joined the strike out of brotherly support for their colleague. The issue therefore was about the treatment of the only two ASLEF members who had reported for duty - Peplow and Simpson. George expressed some sympathy for feelings of disappointment, even anger, but said that the action of two individuals had not weakened the effect of the strike. Peplow was a law unto himself, said George Munday, and he could well cope with hostility - he seemed to revel in being a loner and ‘sending him to Coventry’ appeared to be little punishment. However, he was concerned about the reported bullying of young Simpson that had taken place, he was acting from his religious principles and as much as one might disagree with him, such beliefs, even if naïve, should be respected. Verbal persuasion and argument was legitimate. Physical harassment and bullying was not. George then pleaded for a stay of any disciplinary action against the pair of them until after Friday’s dispute. In the meantime he would attempt to persuade both to join the strike. He felt he had a chance with Simpson - Peplow he was more doubtful about.

George’s points again drew acrimonious arguments with a strong body of the meeting, especially the younger members, who wanted both to be expelled from the Union immediately. In the end, George’s proposal was narrowly accepted and he was delegated to use every persuasive power at his command to ensure full support for Friday’s strike.

He was therefore tired and somewhat irritable when he arrived home late on the Sunday afternoon after the Branch meeting. He was looking forward to a good and postponed Sunday roast waiting for him and a relaxing evening watching some inconsequential programme on television. As soon as he entered his home, he was aware that something was amiss. There was no sign of a meal in preparation and Florrie seemed somewhat distraught. Her eyes were red as though she had been weeping.

“What’s wrong?” he snapped. “Why isn’t my meal on the stove? I’ve had a rough day, I was looking forward to an easy evening.”

Florrie reacted by bursting into tears. George immediately regretted his hasty words and put his arm around her shoulders.

“I’m sorry, love, I shouldn’t have been selfish - it’s obvious something’s upset you. Tell me what’s wrong!”

When eventually Florrie’s tears subsided and she calmed down enough to be able to express a few words, she croaked to him,

“You’d better sit down and listen. I’m afraid you’re not going to like what you’re going to hear.”

“Where’s Eva; is she out?”

“No, she’s upstairs in her bedroom.”

“Is she? It seems strangely quiet.”

“She’s upset. It’s about Eva anyway. I suppose there’s no point in beating about the bush. Eva’s got herself pregnant!”

“What?! Pregnant? Are you sure?”

“She told me this afternoon. Apparently she went with one of her girlfriends to a doctor’s on Tuesday who confirmed she was pregnant and she’s been plucking up courage to tell us ever since.”

“Who’s the culprit? Which one of her so-called friends at the youth club has taken advantage of her?”

“I don’t know. She won’t tell me. Perhaps she doesn’t know.”

“What, are you saying you think she’s been to bed with more than one boy? Shame on you!”

“No, George, I don’t know. I’m confused. I think she is just trying to protect the boy.”

“She’d better tell me, then I’ll go and give him a piece of my mind.”

“Don’t go upstairs yet, George, let her…”

But George was already out of the room and stomping up the stairs. He did not even stop to knock at her bedroom door but burst straight in and found her lying on her back staring at the ceiling.

“Eva, what is this I hear from your mother? Is it true you’re pregnant?”

The girl said nothing, but teardrops rolled down her cheeks.

“Eva, look at me! Tell me the truth! Who did this to you?”

Still the girl said nothing, but turned her face away from her angry father. This merely exacerbated the situation and George lost his temper.

“After all we’ve done for you, you repay us with this. How could you, girl, how could you?”

Eva then turned completely away, curled herself into the foetal position and put her arms protectively over her head as if to ward off expected blows from her father’s hand.

The father stopped and looked. He suddenly felt very weary and ashamed of his outburst. His daughter was lying there like a small child, very vulnerable. Her hair was in disarray over the pillow. Her short skirt was rucked up showing the back of her bare thighs, she had no shoes on. He could not face her any more. Muttering something inaudible under his breath, he turned and left her, and went downstairs to his wife.

“And did that help?” said Florrie as he threw himself on the sofa.

“I can’t handle it at the moment,” he said with a voice full of resignation.

“Well, you’re going to have to,” Florrie answered.

“I can’t take it in. For heaven’s sake, the girl’s only fifteen. We’ve failed somewhere. Sometime in the last year something’s gone wrong and we’ve missed it.”

“George, blaming ourselves will not help Eva at the moment. Let’s think about the future.”

“It’s those youths she finds hanging around the youth club. Jim Cartwright should have more control of them. I’ll raise it at the next Church Trustees’ meeting. He should take a much firmer line with them. I’m not sure why he even lets some of them become members, they’ve no other connection with the church.”

“Forget that for a moment, George. Let’s think about the future for a minute. What are we going to do about Eva?”

“What is she going to do about it? She got herself into this mess. She should have thought of the consequences before.”

“Well, we’ve got to help her think about the consequences now.”

George stopped and was silent, lay back on the sofa and passed a hand in front of his eyes. He thought for a moment, and as Florrie was about to go into the kitchen to see what she could find for a quick meal, he suddenly said,

“When’s the baby due then?”

“In May, she’s about twelve weeks pregnant.”

“Didn’t you have any inkling before she told you?”

“Not really, she’s been looking weary and reluctant to go to school some mornings, but I thought that was the result of too many late nights, and then panicking that she hadn’t finished her homework.”

“Is she intending to go through with it, or is she thinking of seeing if she can get an abortion?”

“I don’t think that’s even occurred to her. At the moment she’s just frightened. She’s frightened of the fact that she’s going to have a baby, she’s frightened of us, she’s frightened of what her friends will think, I think she’s even frightened of what her boyfriend will say or do.”

“So she’s a boyfriend then. Has he admitted his responsibility?”

“George, I don’t think she’s told anyone but us yet. And I’m assuming her boyfriend is the father, but I don’t even know that for certain.”

“Who is he? I don’t even know his name.”

“Well, you didn’t make it very easy for Eva to confide in you, did you? Whenever she’s even mentioned a boyfriend, you go off the deep end and talk about her being too young and that the boys hanging around the youth club are the wrong company for her. How did you expect her to tell you about him?”

“So it’s my fault, is it? Doesn’t this prove I was right? Because I disapprove of some of her friends, she decides she’ll spite me by sleeping around with them. That doesn’t make sense.”

“George, don’t take it so personally.”

“How can I not do so? For years I thought we had a special relationship. We’ve done everything together, I thought she told me everything. Then suddenly she clams up, becomes secretive and goes with the very friends we think most unsuitable.”

“It’s her age, love. She’s showing her independence. It’s what teenagers do.”

“They don’t all go and get pregnant.”

“No, dear. Let’s leave it for a moment and I’ll get us something to eat. Why don’t you go up and find out what Eva wants and ask her to come downstairs. She’s been up there on her own since she got back from her Bible Class this morning. That’s when she told me and she didn’t want any lunch. She must be starving.”

“Let her be if she feels like that. She’ll be down soon enough when she needs food.”

Despite that, George went upstairs again and poked his head round the door. Eva was still lying curled up facing away from him.

“Are you coming downstairs and having something to eat? Your mother wants to know.”

Eva said nothing and wouldn’t look at him.

“Oh well, if that’s the way you want it, stay here and stay hungry. Come down when you feel like it.”

“It’s no good,” he shouted to his wife in the kitchen, “she won’t even acknowledge that I’m talking to her.”

“Look, why don’t you come and help yourself to some bread and cheese, there’s some ham and tomatoes in the fridge. Let me go up and see if I can persuade her to come down. And if she does, you’re not to say anything more about it all for the moment. Let the girl just eat something. We can try and sort out what’s to happen later when we’re all a bit calmer.”

A few minutes later Florrie managed to cajole Eva into the living room and persuaded her to eat a little of the ham and cheese and a glass of fruit squash. She said nothing, and neither of the adults attempted to get her involved in any conversation, so the desultory meal got eaten in a tense silence. When she’d had enough, she pushed her plate away and disappeared upstairs again without a further word. George attempted to stop her, saying, “Hey, Eva, wait…”, but his wife admonished him with a single look, then said, “Let her go. Now is not the time. Let her sleep on it.”

“But she’ll be back at school in the morning and I’m on late shift tomorrow, when will we get a chance to sort things out?”

“She won’t be going to school in the morning. I’ll be taking her to the doctor’s and begin the job of at least ensuring her health and that of her baby. Whatever you think, that’s an essential.”

“What are you going to tell the school? What will happen to her education?”

“I don’t know yet, let’s sort out first things first.”

“And when are you going to tell the rest of the family? It’ll kill my mother and Dad will turn in his grave.”

”George, let’s just clear up, then I’ll get you a drink and we’ll talk about it.”

So they cleared away the few dishes, most food still left uneaten, and frittered around, doing now this, now that, as if to put off the serious discussion that was now needed. While Florrie was busying herself in the kitchen, George moved restlessly from his chair to the window, then back again, moved onto the sofa, then back to the window again, even though it was pitch dark outside and he could see nothing. He drew the curtains, then resumed his seat once more, and at length Florrie joined him.

“Let me tell you all Eva told me. Hear me out, I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Her husband nodded, drew in his breath and listened.

“Eva has a boyfriend that she’s apparently been seeing since the summer holidays. He’s not a member of the church youth club, apparently, but one of the lads who hang around for their friends at the school gate. She told me his name was ‘Greg’; that’s all I could get out of her on that score. They met on youth club nights though, and I gather that a number of girls at the club used to drop out after a while and meet up with a gang of these boys. Jim Cartwright realised what was happening and laid the law down and forbade members to leave the building during club time. I’m afraid this just meant that Eva and three of her friends skipped going to club at all and went out with the boys instead.”

“So didn’t Jim know this? Eva was a regular there, he must have missed her. Why didn’t he ask us why she’d left?”

“I don’t know. I suppose he can’t keep an eye on all of them. He’s got over forty kids there and I don’t know how much help he’s got. I know a couple of students assist him during the vacations. Anyway, he obviously didn’t miss her. Eva says she didn’t cut club every week. They used to go to the park in the summer; at first Eva and her friends stayed together with the gang of boys, then they began to pair off and that’s when the trouble started. The boys began to pressure the girls to ‘go all the way’ as they call it and then Eva’s boy told her that the others had ‘done it’, and threatened to drop her if she didn’t too. The pressure was just too much for her.”

“Well, she could have left him. If he put that much pressure on her, surely she could have seen what sort of boy he was. Surely we’ve taught her enough for her to have stood up for herself and said no at that point?”

“You’re thinking rationally, George. Young girls who believe they’re in love don’t think like that.”

“So she caved in and let him make love to her, it’s virtually rape. How old is the guy?”

“She won’t tell me, but I suspect from comments I’ve heard from others that most of the gang are seventeen or eighteen.”

“Where have they been meeting these past few weeks? It must be too cold now for high jinks in the park.”

“She said they sometimes go to a café, sometimes to a film.”

“So when do they have the opportunity to have sex?”

“I didn’t ask her that. I’m sure she wouldn’t tell me anyway, it’s too personal.”

“So what’s she going to do about it, or hasn’t she thought of that?”

“She says she wants to marry the boy, but that’s ridiculous, out of the question. I told her that straight, which is one reason for the tears. She can’t, she’s much too young, she can’t throw away her youth and education just like that. And we know nothing about the boy and I’m sure he’s quite unsuitable. But she’s adamant at the moment. Hopefully she’ll soon see how unrealistic that is.”

“No way is a daughter of mine getting married yet. She’s not even sixteen. If she thinks she can get our permission once she reaches that birthday, she’s got another think coming. How’s she going to cope with a baby and her schooling?”

“I suppose I’ll have to look after the infant during school time. I think you should make an appointment to see her headmistress and explain what’s happened and ask her advice.”

“How do you know she’ll even be allowed to attend school during her pregnancy or resume afterwards? I wouldn’t be surprised if the Head insists that she leaves the Grammar school. She’ll be old enough, there’s no point in sending her to the Secondary Modern, most of the pupils there leave at sixteen anyway.”

George suddenly remembered, “It’s her ‘O’ levels this year, hell, she’s due just when she should be taking her exams. It’s a catastrophe for her, her life’ll be ruined.”

“Don’t talk to her in those terms, it’ll put her against us even more. She doesn’t want to go back to school. I told you, she is set on leaving and getting married.”

“Florrie, I’m in the middle of a major row at work, there’s another one day strike next Friday and the Branch has voted to lobby Union Headquarters to make it official. I’m going to be up to my neck in meetings and negotiations over the next few days. Can’t you see the Head and sort out what the options are?”

“I thought the two of us should go, but if you can’t make it, you can’t. I’ll give Miss Hastings a ring after I’ve seen the doctor with Eva tomorrow.”

“I’m sure that’s best. I’m not thinking straight at the moment. It’s been a hell of a shock.”