William Mosedale GC

William Mosedale was born on 29th March 1894 in 12 Court 4 Hope Street (off Sherlock Street), Birmingham. His parents were William Richard Mosedale, a Railway Porter at new Street Station, and Celia Ellen Mosedale (nee Pardoe) who had married in 1892 in Birmingham. He attended Sherbourne Road Board School in nearby Balsall Heath from the age of three. He left there when he was thirteen, in 1907, and started work as a Tinsmith and Carriage Lamp Maker. A year later, in 1908, he enlisted in the 5th Territorial Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a Private, passing himself off as an 18 year old. Mosedale recalled that:

“I was barely fourteen (but) I was very big for my age being 5ft 8ins and weighing about eleven stone”.

He developed a keen interest with the regiment for sports such as boxing, running and swimming. His enthusiasm for the Territorials was such that he was unable to devote as much time as he would have liked to his work as a Tinsmith. With this in mind he asked his parents if he could join the regular army which he did in 1910. He joined the 5th Royal Irish Lancers at the age of 16, stating on his papers that he was eighteen so that, as Mosedale recalled, they would “agree with my transfer papers from the Territorial Army”.

Within three years he had achieved the rank of Corporal and had taken up boxing, soon becoming a champion within his regiment and command structure. His proudest day with the Lancers came when he travelled with a detachment of his regiment to attend the coronation of King George V. This resulted in an award to him of the Coronation Medal. By this time he had also met his future wife Louisa Brown and was contemplating marriage. Mosedale’s contentment with his new life was shattered by the deaths in close succession of both his parents (his father in 1910 aged 39, and then his mother in 1911 aged 41). Following the death of his mother, all five of his siblings (including a brother named Ernest) passed into the care of their widowed grandmother. Only Mosedale’s elder sister was old enough to work and the shortage of money meant the family had to apply for relief. The Relief Officer, on finding out that there was an older brother in the army, had no alternative but to apply for his release from the army so that he could return and look after the family and secure local employment.

He worked for a short time in a coal mine, where he survived a pit accident which was a grim portent of what was to come for him during the war and was something he must surely have drawn experience from later. He left that and became a railway porter on New Street Station for a few months where he moved luggage on the platforms and also worked in the Goods Sorting Office. This job also did not suit him and so on 10th August 1914 he went for an interview as a fireman with the Chief of the Birmingham Fire Brigade. Mosedale’s military background and bearing were a major benefit and he was offered a job. It has been said that he took the job as he wanted to devote the rest of his life to life-saving as a consequence of surviving that pit accident. Another major life event for him was in December quarter 1914 when he married Louisa Brown in Birmingham. Completing a family double his brother Ernest married Louisa’s sister Beatrice (date to be confirmed). William and Lousia had two sons, Ernest (born 1915) and William (born 1920).

On February 26th 1919 he was one of the firemen who attended an immense escape of gas at the Birmingham Corporation Gasworks in Nechellls. Four lives were lost in the incident – Robert Humphrey Davey (a gasfitter from Cardigan Street), Harry John Ward (a gasfitter from Taylor Street), Fireman Herbert Dyche of Moseley Road and Acting Station Office A. Moon of Lingard Street. Many other workers and firemen were seriously gassed and had to be treated in hospital, including William Mosedale.

His home addresses are largely unknown at his time but he lived for at least four years from 1920-1923 at 4 Great Colmore Street. The couple’s son William was christened at St Asaph’s Church on Great Colmore Street on 25th August 1920. His occupation looks to be written as “Filer” but this must be a misheard “fireman” by the vicar. Interestingly Louisa Mosedale is not listed as a parent, just William Mosedale so it would seem she was not present for the christening. The family are not at this address after 1923.

In 1926 he became one of the first fire-fighters in the country to be trained in the use of oxygen and rescue equipment. The same year he passed the graduate examination of the Institute of Fire Engineers with distinction.He had also qualified as a driver. Both were to prove invaluable during the blitz on Birmingham. In September 1929 he was appointed Acting Officer in Charge of the Rescue Department. A post he held for just over a year before he was promoted to the role of Station Officer in November 1930. In 1931 he received the Professional Fire Brigade’s Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. This was followed in 1935 with his award of the Birmingham Fire Brigade Long Service Medal. Mosedale received this on 2nd December 1935 at the opening of the new Fire Brigade Headquarters and it was presented to him by H.R.H. The Duke Of Kent.

In 1937 he was awarded the Birmingham Fire Brigade First Star of Merit for his work with Breathing Apparatus. This award was made with the co-operation of the Mining Department of Birmingham University. Mosedale had spent circa ten years working with Professor Moss and Doctor Hancock on experiments with self-contained breathing apparatus and the canister type of respirator.As well as the Star of Merit he also received a gratuity of £2.10.0.

In 1939 he was awarded a Five Years bar to his Birmingham Fire Brigade Medal which commemorated his completion of 25 years service.

Mosedale was by now a man of some renown in the Birmingham Fire Service, and was a contributor to the service’s magazine “Fire”. The magazine wrote to Mosedale on 16th January 1940 thanking him for “worthily upholding the traditions of the Birmingham Fire Brigade and also the fire service generally”. He also wrote for “Squirt” – Official Journal of the Birmingham Auxiliary Fire Service. One such article, “Industrial Gassing in Time of War”, appeared, care of “Fire”, in Squirt May 1940. Mosedale concluded that:

“Self-contained breathing apparatus, with a face mask, can be worn with the utmost security at all times when gas is reported after a raid. To afford complete protection against known blister gases, protective clothing should be worn in conjunction with the apparatus”.

When not at work at Fire Station headquarters in Corporation Street he could be found at his home in Aldershaw Road, South Yardley. It was from here he set off for work on the night of 23rd November 1940 hoping that the night sky would stay calm and clear to deter enemy bombers. Sadly it was not to be and at 02:51 he was ordered to go with breathing apparatus to 110 Yardley Wood Road. As he left the Fire Station with the rescue tender truck, a bomb hit the ground narrowly missing the truck. “A near one” exclaimed Mosedale as the truck made it’s way through the smoke filled streets down onto the Stratford Road.

The truck now picked up speed down Stratford Road and then made the turn into Showell Green Lane which leads onto Yardley Wood Road.. While travelling down Showell Green Lane a German bomber dropped a high explosive bomb which detonated about 20 yards in front of the van leaving a crater 30 feet wide and 20 feet deep. Although the van braked it still ended up with about two thirds of its length leaning over the rim of the crater. Shaken by this near miss he later recalled that:

“Bombs were dropping all round us and this one blew the sump off the engine but I wasn’t particularly disturbed. We had been dealing with fires all over the place”.

Mosedale got out of the van and went on foot back up Showell Green Lane to Court Road in Sparkhill where there was a Fire Station. Here he managed to get in touch with an adjacent ARP Depot for help. The Officer in charge gave Mosedale a car and driver. Mosedale then headed off again to 110 Yardley Wood Road with two sets of breathing apparatus and a Novita Reviving Appliance.

When he arrived he found the house had suffered a direct hit from a high explosive and was almost completely demolished. Three people had already been rescued but one, a youth of about 17, was still buried underneath the rubble to the rear of the house. Mosedale dug and crawled his way through the rubble to get to the man. He found him inert and buried amid debris that threatened to collapse further at any moment. Every nearby explosion caused the rubble to shift and move alarmingly but Mosedale carefully dislodged and removed enough of the rubble to enable the man to be able to sit up and assist in his own rescue. Mosedale gave him oxygen and the man was extricated, while overhead the air raid still continued, and taken by ambulance to Selly Oak Hospital where he made a full recovery. One of those living at 110 who was killed was Thomas Henry Shepherd (aged 46) who ironically was serving as an ARP stretcher bearer.

The second incident took place on the night of the 11th December 1940. At 22:30 Mosedale received a report that an Auxiliary Fire Station, at 1 Grantham Road (on the corner with Farm Road), in Sparkbrook had been hit by a high explosive and completely demolished along with the house next door to it. Mosedale left at once for Grantham Road in the rescue van along with three other firemen – George William Metcalfe, Alfred White and Charles Albert Wilford. They arrived ten minutes after notification at 22:40 where they were met by an ARP Warden and local police who briefed them on the situation. It was a desperate state of affairs that faced them with a number of firemen trapped inside the remains of the station and a number of civilians trapped in the house next door. Mosedale assessed the situation and decided to dig a tunnel towards the Fire Station Control Room, which must have had men on duty inside it at the time of the explosion. This was a precarious operation, tunnelling as fast as possible and shoring up as they went along. Mosedale’s experience made him the ideal man for the job especially given his background working in coal mines. He laboured and directed the operation from the front as the tunnelling advanced yard by yard towards the Control Room area. As before, at Yardley Wood Road, he was under constant threat of the rubble collapsing in on top of him. As the tunnel got deeper and closer so the build up of escaping gas, smoke and coal dust became more intense.

When he finally reached the Control Room he found that his way was now blocked by girders and concrete that he could not move. Visible though were survivors who he could not extricate though the gaps. The only solution therefore was to dig another tunnel down from another angle to that side of the room. In the meantime the rubble above was settling and the likelihood was that it was going to subside entirely in the very near future. Mosedale ordered the second tunnel to be commenced immediately and this time he made it through to the Control Room where he found five men – one dead and four alive, but fading fast principally through lack of oxygen. Mosedale gave oxygen to the survivors and managed to get each of them out through the tunnel.

Returning to the surface Mosedale surveyed the scene again and determined that the two cellars of the buildings were the probable location of any remaining survivors. The cellar entrance of the private house was blocked by rubble and this had to be carefully removed before they could get into the cellar. At this point they found that the cellar itself had collapsed but Mosedale continued the rescue undaunted and came upon seven people, three had been killed when the roof fell in but the remaining four were still alive. Again he gave oxygen and after a period of time managed to get all four out of the cellar. By this time ambulances had arrived at the scene to commence taking all of the survivors to hospital.

The Firemen trapped in their cellar was a tougher proposition as the only way in was to dig yet another tunnel. Working and digging again in highly hazardous conditions he managed to reach the Fire Station cellar. Six men had sought shelter there, two were dead but four remained alive. Mosedale administered first aid and oxygen and got all four out. His final act was to attach a line to the dead men and remove their bodies also. Conditions had been so bad that in fact the rescue tunnel collapsed during the withdrawal of the final body. By the time operations were concluded it was 12:20 on the 12th December meaning that Mosedale had been on the go continuously for 13 hours and 40 minutes. The night-time hours had been conducted while the air raid was still ongoing. Mosedale was rightly praised for his actions in personally saving 12 lives and, in particular, his complete disregard for his own safety.

Mosedale was interviewed for the BBC in 1962 for a radio programme called “Blitz On Birmingham”. The programme focussed predominantly on the “night of the longest raid” 11th/12th December 1940. Mosedale recalled that:

“I was turned out from headquarters with a rescue tender and three men. I was turned out to a rescue job at Farm Road, Sparkhill, and I made my way there after a big effort. I got slightly bombed on the way going by Stratford Road by the Grammar School – that was hit that night. Anyway we eventually got there and started to work to get these men out. Myself and the boys they had to crawl on their stomachs and get down holes and pull the debris away with your own hands, there weren’t many picks and shovels about, and we laboured on until daylight. It was a very hazardous night and I remember very very cold, it was freezing very very hard. The Germans was over with machine guns, they were machine gunning right in the proximity of about twenty to thirty yards”.

If Mosedale was the hero of the night then the heroine was undoubtedly Dr Mary Barrow of 184 Stratford Road. She was a partner there in Williams, Williams and Barrow – physicians and surgeons. Handily the practice was at the junction of Stratford Road and Farm Road. Barrow was present all night to administer first aid and was praised for her courage. She also made several trips along the tunnels to give morphine to the injured. In his report Mosedale said that many of those trapped would have died but for her assistance. Like Mosedale she acted without any concern for her own safety.

“Squirt”, the Official Journal of the Birmingham Auxiliary Fire Service, reported the loss of the four firemen in the January 1941 issue. In total Division 5 lost five men that night – Sub Officer Albert Holmes, Sub Officer Ranger, Auxiliary Alfred Shotton and Auxiliary Albert Clarke all from Station 5/4 plus Auxiliary Long from Station 5/7 killed near his home on a rare night off. In addition to these deaths several more were injured and the station itself totally destroyed. A picture of the station crew was featured as a memorial in the same issue of “Squirt”. The remaining firemen were transferred to Station 5/8 at Havelock Road, which is off the Warwick Road, not far from Tyseley Railway Station.

The events of the night were reported up the Fire Brigade chain of command and the Regional Commissioner, J. ????ley wrote to him on the 20th January 1941 at his work address – Flat 13, Fire Brigade Headquarters, Corporation Street. The Commissioner wrote with particular reference to the latter incident and expressed his:

“appreciation of your initiative, leadership and courageous devotion to duty and to thank you for the services which you rendered in the National Cause on that occasion”.

Unbeknown to Mosedale the Commissioner had written to the Home Secretary Herbert Morrision and had recommended him for an award for his bravery. The letter from Morrison (on 26th March 1941) came, as Mosedale put it, “completely out of the blue”. In the letter Morrison said he had:

“…Had the honour to bring your heroism to the notice of His Majesty the King who greatly appreciated the initiative and courage you displayed throughout this difficult and dangerous operation. In recognition of your devoted services on this occasion His Majesty has been graciously pleased to award you the George Cross”.

The award of the George Cross to William Mosedale was gazetted on 28th March 1941. Interestingly the citation refers only to the second incident although it is generally accepted that the award was for the two incidents as described here. Mary Barrow, Alfred White, Charles Wilford and George Metcalfe all received a King’s Commendation for their actions The news was picked up by the local papers who despatched reporters and photographers to see him without much success as Mosedale proved elusive. The press finally caught up with him the following day – his birthday. After an hour of waiting, and two loudspeaker appeals through the Fire Station, Birmingham’s press styled “First Civilian V.C.” appeared.

“I’ve been out all morning, and now I wish my leave had lasted all day”. He told the Birmingham Mail. His modesty and unassuming nature was not a surprise to the press who had, as they reported, encountered this from many of our other heroes. In addition to an account of his actions it was added that Mosedale had two sons serving in the army. He was described as being well-built and almost portly and possessing a paternal air.

The press coverage brought letters of thanks from those who had survived due to Mosedale’s courage. Miss J. Allwood of 3 Grantham Road wrote:

“Dear Mr Mosedale,

Will you please except (sic) enclosed as a gift of personal thanks for your kindness shown to me on the night of December 11th 1940, for which I shall never forget. I think you were simply fine and worked so hard for the release to safety of us all

Yours sincerely”.

By this time Miss Allwood was living at 142 Wright Street in Small Heath. A relative of hers – Elsie Allwood (see appendix) was killed at Grantham Road. Relating to the earlier incident at Yardley Wood Road Mosedale received grateful thanks from Geoffrey T. Shepherd, now of 66 Birchwood Crescent, Sparkbrook:

“31/3/41

Dear Sir,

It was with surprise that it said in the local press on Saturday that you had been awarded the George Cross and realised that it was you who gave me the oxygen when I was buried at 110 Yardley Wood Road, on the night of 22nd November last. I had a comminuted fracture of the pelvis and a dropped foot; however, I am now out of hospital and back at work again, still wearing an iron, but otherwise perfectly well.

I fully realise that I probably owe my life to you and your persistence and courage in bringing the oxygen cylinder to me. I take this opportunity of thanking you most sincerely, but inadequately, for all that you did for me and other people at later dates.

Believe me I am, Yours most sincerely”

It is probable that these, and other letters like it, were the best reward Mosedale felt he received.

He received a certificate from the Royal Society of St George on 13th August 1941 which marked his unanimous election to honourary membership of the society. Mosedale also received letters from Buckingham Palace; all of his awards and letters of congratulation were kept in a box along with his GC. In September 1941 he was appointed to the role of Column Officer (what is this????) following Nationalisation of the Fire Service.

He was transferred to Plymouth National Fire Service in 1944 and retired on 28th September of that year, after which he moved back to Birmingham. There he ran his own Fire Prevention Advice Service at South Yardley from 1946 till 1965. His business gave professional advice for domestic safety as well as to industrial premises seeking to improve their fire precautions. Mosedale proudly listed himself as the owner complete with GC designation. He was a modest man by nature but the designation would have been good for business.

Following the death of his wife in 1961 he moved in with his son Ernest and his wife at some point. Whether he lived alone for a few years or they came to live with him needs to be researched. Mosedale lived out his last years with them at 4 Evenlode Way, Keynsham, Bristol wife but for a time prior to this they were living at Sheffield Road, Upper Killamarsh near Sheffield. A letter confirming he lived there is dated 24th May 1965. When he first arrived at Keynsham, in 1967, he was the subject of an article in the local paper – “A modest hero comes to Keynsham”. Mosedale was reported to be settling in well in the area and had joined the local Conservative Club where he quickly made new friends. A year later, in July 1968, the Birmingham Evening Mail sent reporter Maureen Messent to interview him as part of their feature “The Blue Badge Of Courage” (12th July) on Midlands GC heroes. Messent reported that Mosedale tended not to rise now much before 11am. As she waited for him to come downstairs she caught him pausing on the first landing, checking his bow tie was straight. The formally dressed Mosedale then gave what was to be an illuminating interview on his life, unusual for him as his daughter-in-law observed that:

“Pop won’t talk about his medal. He clams up as soon as war days are mentioned. Lots of his friends have no idea he won the George Cross. His wife didn’t know of hid bravery until a few weeks after the incident”.

Wryly Mosedale, hearing this, offered to talk about the bull terriers he liked to show and breed! His days now consisted of reading, watching television (“I sit through an aweful lot of rot because I’m too idle to turn it off”) and talking over a pint at the local. Messent observed a man who, to her, yearned for the active days of his past and resented the encroachments of old age made manifest by aching limbs and reading glasses.

But eventually he got round to the GC, which he kept in a drawer and took him half an hour to locate for a photograph…

“My memories of those nights? The sight of the dead men and the looks on the faces of the living in that cellar. For God’s sake don’t write about me as a hero. I wasn’t. Just a fireman doing his duty. Dammit I was in the rescue department wasn’t I?”

For Mosedale, he was just “doing his job” – despite the danger. Talking about the events meant bringing up painful memories, something which reporters keen to hear his story often forgot. Despite those memories he told Messent that in some ways he missed the “old days” when life was a matter of chance. Clear evidence that he was finding retirement more than a touch dull.

Messent asked him what he would do with the medal when he died.

“The George Cross makes one feel good but it’s only a fraction of a lifetime. I won’t be able to take it with me…”

As a member of the George Cross Association he received invitations to several official functions over the years in his retirement. He was at the 25th Anniversary Remembrance Service of the George Cross at the Guard’s Chapel in Wellington Barracks on 24th September 1965. Earlier that year on 10th February he had his letter confirming his £100 a year annuity as a George Cross holder! It is hard to put a price on bravery but £100 seems paltry. Mosedale didn’t find the £100 paltry in the slightest, as in his opinion, to Maureen Messent of the Birmingham Evening Mail, he observed that:

“The George Cross brings me a hundred quid a year – that’s £100 more than anybody deserves for doing his job. This is nice, very nice, but I don’t think we should have a raise. We have honour you see. When you’re getting old, honour counts more than cash”.

He loaned his GC out to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery for an exhibition in 1967. They insured it for £1,000, much to the bewilderment of Mosedale. It was possibly then that the idea came about for it’s eventual donation to the museum. Nicholas Thomas from the museum wrote to him on 27th July thanking him for his kind loan.

One of Mosedale’s last public engagements was on 27th June 1970 when he went to unveil three plaques at the Fire Service Technical College in Moreton In The Marsh. The plaques were dedicated to the three firemen who had won bravery awards during the war – these being Mosedale, Harry Errington and Frederick Dane(???). Errington too was still alive and attended the event with Mosedale. On the same day a road was named after him in Gloucestershire.

Photographs of these events are contained in the box of Mosedale memorabilia held by Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

He died two days before his birthday on 27th March 1971 at the Greyfriars Nursing Home, at 61 Silver Street in nearby Nailsea, of bronchopneumonia and a heart attack. The informant was Ernest who registered the death two days later on what would have been his father’s 77th birthday. The funeral service was 12 noon on Friday 2nd April at Arno’s Vale Crematorium in Bristol. The funeral director was A.E. Davey of Nailsea. His medals and other memorabilia were purchased by Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery from his executors with the aid of a grant from the Victoria and Albert Museum. The medal collection is impressive and comprises of:

• George Cross
• 1939-45 War Medal
• Defence Medal
• George V Coronation Medal
• Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal
• Fire Brigade Officer’s Long Service Medal (dated 1930)
• Birmingham Fire Brigade Long Service Medal (plus clasps for 5 and 20 years)

The GC is held in a white box (not the one of issue which Mosedale certainly owned as he was pictured with it on at least one occasion) and the other medals are suspended together.

Visiting the scene of the Grantham Road rescue today presents of course a very different picture. Most people passing would not give a second thought to the abrupt break in the line of terraced housing on both Grantham and Farm Road. The line stops at Barmouth Villas on Grantham and at Number 17 on Farm Road. Between these two locations, on what was the site of number three Grantham Road and the auxiliary fire station at number one, is now a post war maisonette and flat development. With so much post war development in Birmingham it is easy to forget that some of it was prompted initially by blitz damage.

The citation for Mosedale as printed in the London Gazette of 28th March 1941 reads:

“An Auxiliary Fire Station was completely demolished by a very large high explosive bomb. A number of Auxiliary Firemen were trapped in the station and civilians were buried in an adjoining house which had also been demolished. Station Officer Mosedale immediately began tunnelling and propping operations. Hundreds of tons of debris covered the site and Mosedale fully realised that at any moment he might be buried by a further collapse. When the first tunnel was completed and the Control Room reached, he found there were still men whom he could not extricate. He carried out another tunnelling operation from a different direction and again entered the Control Room. Five men were found, one dead, the others injured. The Station Officer crawled through and administered oxygen to the injured men and they were then taken out through the tunnel. The entrance to the cellar of the private house was full of debris. Station Officer Mosedale directed operations for removing this, only to find that the cellar itself had collapsed. He nevertheless persevered and, after a time, reached seven people who were trapped. Three had been killed outright when the roof collapsed. He gave oxygen to the remaining four and succeeded in extricating them. To reach other victims it was again necessary to tunnel, and Mosedale immediately commenced this work. The dangers to be faced were similar to those which he had found in reaching the Control Room. He nevertheless completed the tunnel and entered the cellar under the Fire Station. Four men who were alive were given oxygen and, despite their injuries, were safely removed. Tunnelling through such difficult material had necessarily been extremely hazardous, and the cellar collapsed completely, shortly after the removal of the last victim. These operations, which lasted more than twelve hours, were carried out under a most intense bombardment. Twelve lives were saved by Station Officer Mosedale who showed outstanding gallantry and resource. In effecting the rescues he repeatedly risked his own life”.

Appendix 1: Those killed at 110 Yardley Wood Road (23/11/40)

• Dorothy Louise Shepherd (aged 49)
  Lorna Shepherd (aged 12)
  - Wife and daughter of Thomas Henry Shepherd
  - Both died in ambulance on way to Selly Oak Hospital

• Thomas Henry Shepherd (aged 46)
  - He was an ARP Stretcher Bearer.

Burial location of all three of the above is presently unknown.

Appendix 2: Those killed at 1 Grantham Road – The Fire Station

Firemen of the Auxiliary Fire Service Division 5, Sparkhill

• Albert Edward Clarke (aged 29)
  - Husband of Margery Ellen Clarke
  - Lived at 110 Esme Road, Sparkhill
  - Buried in Yardley Cemetery

• Albert George Holmes (Sub Officer aged 33)
  – Husband of Florrie Holmes
  – Lived at 23 Greswolde Road, Sparkhill
  – Buried at Yardley Cemetery

• Alfred Shotton (Ranger aged 28)
  – Son of Mrs. L. Shotton who lived at 432 Stratford Road, Sparkhill
  – Husband of Clara Shotton
  – Lived at 14 Erasmus Road, Sparkbrook
  – Buried at Brandwood End Cemetery

Appendix 3: Those killed at 3 Grantham Road

• Elsie Elizabeth Allwood (aged 48)
  – Widow of William Leonard Allwood
  – Buried at Brandwood End Cemetery
  – William Ernest Everitt (aged 42)
  – Buried at Brandwood End Cemetery

• Jack Palfreyman (aged 30)
  – Son of Mr. and Mrs. Palfreyman, of 205 Doncaster Road, Barnsley. Yorkshire.
  – Buried at Barnsley Cemetery
  – Elizabeth Rose Edith Simpson (aged 44)
  – Buried at Brandwood End Cemetery