Blog 294 – Growing Up in Liverpool, Part 2 – 3 July 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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The neglected Red Lion Hotel at 121 Bridge Road Litherland where Cliff was introduced to my mother Josey Wood by Henry Bellew, husband of mum’s sister Veronica (Vera) Bellew.

John Hankin photo taken the 20th of August 2019.

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The Leeds to Liverpool Canal is crossed by Bridge Street just up the road from the Red Lion Hotel.

John Hankin photo taken 20th of August 2019.

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While my grandfather Thomas Joseph worked himself to death (literally, he died of a heart attack on 9th of January 1959), my grandmother Mary Jane entertained “Gentlemen Callers”.  This meant she had intercourse as often as she could with as many different men as she could. 

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Cliff died on 14th of June 1984 and is buried at Springvale Botanical Cemetery.  He shares the grave with mum.

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Date Street would have been condemned as unfit if it had ever been audited by a modern health inspector.  That would not have magically produced a better home for Cliff and his family.  It would have simply forced his parents to find a different slum in which the family lived.  

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Before Cliff could walk underneath the River Mersey through the Queensway Tunnel to Birkenhead, he had to get to the railway station nearest to the start of the Tunnel.  He travelled by train on the now demolished Overhead Railway.  It was a long tiring journey just to get to and from work.

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Because he had to work on ship repairing, Cliff learned how to be a plumber.  

When I asked Cliff how he knew the plumbing trade, he pointed out that all pipes on ships are exposed rather than concealed behind walls.  Because of this, he - as a ship repairer - was expected to do plumbing work on ships as a normal part of his job.  Pipes on ship were of course always made out of metal then and Cliff was a sheet metal worker.

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Cliff and Josey married on Saturday 10 March 1945.  When they married, even if Cliff had wanted to talk about his war experiences (very doubtful), the Official Secrets Act made sure he said nothing about his war time experiences except to RAF colleagues.  

On that Saturday in March 1945:

• WW II had not yet ended;

• Cliff was 24;

• Josey had already given birth to a child which had been snatched from her by the nuns in the single mothers’ home; and

• Josey was 20.  

The marriage record for the wedding lists mum’s young brother Henry Wood as the official “Witness” for Cliff at the wedding.  I was puzzled by the absence of one of Cliff’s brothers from the Witness column on the wedding record.  The explanation is straightforward enough.

Although Mary Jane had had intercourse with as many men as she could find, she ordered that all members of her family boycott the wedding of her son Cliff to the evil woman called Josephine Wood.  Josey had committed an unforgivable sin.  Josey had given birth to a child before she was married.  Having intercourse with men who were not your husband was fine with Mary Jane because she was a married woman.  She objected strongly though to having a daughter in law who had fallen in love before marriage and had a child as a result.

This was not a good omen for the start of Cliff and Josey’s marriage.

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I think Josey’s mental illness dates at least as far back as her marriage to Cliff in 1945.  It probably dates back seven years earlier to the death of her father in 1939 when she turned 14.

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Cliff’s RAF service did not finish until 14 months after he married Josey.  He was NOT  posted to Liverpool to finish his service.

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Josey was the 3rd of her siblings to marry.  Josey’s sisters Veronica (Vera) and Mary Evelyn (Evelyn) had married before her in late 1941 and early 1943.

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Cliff, Josey, my brother Bill and I migrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1952.  We travelled on the ship New Australia.  Also in New Australia were Vera and Harry Bellew and their children Jim and Dennis Bellew.  In 1952, the Australian Government required migrants aged 19 and over to pay £10/-/- towards the cost of travel to Australia.  This is the origin of the expression “Ten Pound Pom”.  

Children aged under 13 travelled free, but £5/-/- had to be paid for children aged 14, 15, 16 and 17.  Bill and I were free.

As well as paying the fixed travel cost contribution, Cliff and Josey also had to pay £2/-/- as “landing money” to the Australian Government.  The £2/-/- “landing money” was supposed to be repaid to them when they arrived at the “reception centre” in Australia.  Cliff and Josey had to find £22/-/- to migrate to Australia.  

Although £22/-/- sounds like a trivial amount of money, finding £22/-/- was nearly impossible for them.  In 1952, £22/-/- was the equivalent of at least £800.00 ($1662.10 in AUD) in today’s purchasing power.  After filling out the paperwork to migrate on Wednesday 21 March 1951, Cliff worked two separate jobs to save up the £22/-/-.

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By helping others to heal We help ourselves heal Like Cliff did, give abundant Love Always

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Courage is the only way that we can ever create the Paradise that should be here on Earth.

Hatred does nothing but perpetuate the Hell we have already created in our world 

My astonishingly poor parents were also astonishingly brave.

Do not abandon people just because they are ill.  Try and help those in need.

Bravery multiplies with use.  

No matter how poor we are, we can always find courage.  Courage is free but its value cannot ever be calculated.

Blog 293 – Growing Up in Liverpool, Part 1 – 2 July 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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The tombstone of my grandparents Thomas Joseph Hankin and Mary Jane Ethel Robson 

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Cliff was born on 25 February 1921.  His parents were Thomas Joseph Hankin and Mary Jane Robson.  Although my grandfather Thomas Joseph was born in Liverpool, he went to Newcastle of Tyne after he had qualified as a sheet metal worker.  He met my grandmother Mary Jane Robson in Newcastle.  

Newcastle on Tyne was one of the centres of the British shipbuilding industry and there were jobs available for tradesmen.

Grandfather Thomas Joseph was slightly better off than grandmother Mary Jane.  Although my paternal grandfather had a trade, my maternal great grandfather (father of Mary Jane Robson) William Robson did not have a trade.  William Robson was an unskilled labourer in a city packed with unskilled labourers and their children.

Mary Jane’s Anglican religion was the source of continual bitterness to Mary Jane.  Mary Jane was brought up as an Anglican and Thomas Joseph had been brought up as a Catholic.  In order for Thomas and Mary to get married, Mary Janes had to change her religion and become a Catholic.

After they married, Thomas and Mary Jane moved to Liverpool where they lived at 18 Date Street Seaforth.  Seaforth is a suburb to the west of Liverpool city centre.  Date Street no longer exists, but I found a remnant of Date Street when I visited Liverpool in 2019.  Date Street is within walking distance of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic School.

Cliff attended Our Lady Star of the Sea until he started his apprenticeship as a sheet metal worker with Charles Howson and Company shortly after his 14th birthday on 25th of February 1935.  When World War 2 started on the 3rd of September 1939, Cliff was already a qualified tradesman.  To be accepted as an apprentice, Cliff’s parents had to pay £10/-/- to his employer.  Because his parents could never find such an enormous amount of money, it is likely that regular amounts were deducted from Cliff’s wages to pay the £10/-/-. £10/-/- was the equivalent of about £700 in modern British money.

Getting an apprenticeship was especially hard to do because the Great Depression officially began on the 29th of October 1929.  The Depression left huge numbers of men without work in the north of England.  Liverpool was very badly affected by the Depression.

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Cliff had to find his own way to where the ships he worked on were being built or repaired.  Many ships Cliff had to work on were located on the southern side of the River Mersey.  In those days, pedestrians were permitted to walk through the Mersey Tunnel between Liverpool and Birkenhead.  Cliff used to walk the length of the Queensway Tunnel so he could then walk to the ship he was working on and do his full day’s work.  When work was finished, he had to repeat his walk in the opposite direction.

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Cliff still lived at 18 Date Street when he enlisted in the RAF.  The slum house his family lived in was finally wired up for electricity in 1938, a year before the war started.

Cliff never had a bathroom in his slum house.  A big tin bath was stored in a small shed in the back yard.  Once a week, water was heated up on the wooden stove in the house and the bath was filled with warm water.  Everyone in the family had to use the same bathwater.

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This photo is of the shell of the Caradoc Hotel on the corner of Seaforth Road and Peel Road.  The Caradoc was a "bloodbath” establishment where fighting and deaths were common. Walking away from the Caradoc along Seaforth Road brings you to the small Bowersdale Park on the left.  Walk into Seaforth Vales (on the right before the top end of the Park) and you come to a T junction.  Walk right at the T junction as it curves left to Kepler Street.  Turn them into the unnamed wreck of a street on the right and the remains of Date Street are at the end.  Date Street dead ends at a locked gate to Our Lady Star of the Sea.  Cliff lived in Date Street.  When Cliff grew up, Date Street was a horrible place to live – and it had some houses then.

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By helping others to heal We help yourself to heal Like Cliff did, give abundant Love Always

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Sometimes, growing up as a child takes enormous courage – just ask Cliff.  Courage is the only way that we can ever create the Paradise that should be here on Earth.

Hatred only perpetuates the Hell we have already made for ourselves. 

My parents were astonishingly brave – and they were astonishingly poor.

Bravery multiplies with use.  Poverty has no effect on the amount of courage we can find within ourselves.

Blog 292 – The Distance From Lancashire to Here, Part 2 – 1 July 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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Cliff’s RAF Enlistment

Cliff’s RAF service number was 1,072,172.

Under the words “Current Engagement”, Cliff’s Service Record has the words “D of PE”.  “D of PE” means date of present engagement (enlistment).  The date of enlistment was 27 September 1940.  The date of service commencement was also 27 September 1940 – Friday 27th of September 1940.

Cliff’s service in the RAF started immediately upon his enlistment; he did not get the opportunity to go home and say goodbye after enlisting.  His RAF service training started immediately after completion of the paperwork.

Cliff had been disappointed at his rejection by the Army and he was grateful that the RAF permitted him to serve against Hitler.  Cliff hated Hitler.

On enlistment in the RAF, Cliff was 19 years, 7 months and 2 days old.

Cliff’s Physical Description When He Enlisted in 1940

The Service Records has a box labelled “Description”; this contains headings for “Height”, “Chest”, “Colour of Hair, Eyes and Complexion” and “Marks, Scars etc”.

Cliff was 5 feet 6 ¾ inches high when he enlisted.  This equates to 1.70 metres or 1,700 millimetres; Cliff was shorter than me when I was 19.  At age 19, I was 1.83 metres or 1830 millimetres.  My height at age 67 was 5 feet 11 inches or 1.80 metres (1800 millimetres).  Cliff was not tall but he was average height for someone of his age in 1940 in Liverpool.  Cliff never seemed short to me, presumably this impression was caused by the strength of his personality.

Cliff’s chest measurement was 34 inches (.8636 metres or 8636 millimetres).  This is a very small chest measurement.  Cliff was skinny all his life and never had the tiniest bit of aft on him.  His jobs were too physically demanding to ever let him gain any weight.  As a gauge of just how thin Cliff was, my chest measurement at age 67 was 45.5 inches (1.15 metres or 1150 millimetres).  When I was growing up, Josey sometimes referred to people as “hollow chests”.  This expression is never heard any more because most people now get plenty of food.  While Cliffx was growing up, his diet was very poor – there was never enough to eat and what food was available was poor in quality.  Cliff was “hollow chested” when he enlisted in the RAF.

With a chest measurement of only 34 inches, Cliff was painfully thin.  He was not simply skinny; he was malnourished based on today’s standards.  My guess is that most working class people in Liverpool in the 1930’s were malnourished.

Cliff’s hair was described as being dark brown.  This surprised me because his hair was always jet black when I knew him.  Either it darkened over the years or perhaps I didn’t look closely enough.

According to the Service Record, Cliff’s eyes were hazel coloured.  Cliff always said his eyes were brown, but they were never really a clear cut brown.  Hazel was probably a more accurate description of dad’s eye colour than brown.

Cliff’s complexion was listed as “fairish”.  To me, most Britons (and Europeans generally) have a painfully pale skin colour, presumably because there is so little sunshine, even in summer.  Once when I asked Cliff about summers in Liverpool, he said he had a shave one day and missed summer completely.  He was at least half serious.  When I visited Liverpool in October 2024, the weather was dull, dreary, rainy and cold.

The Service Record shows Cliff had a “Vac 4 LA” scar, or vaccination scar on his left arm.  I have no memory of ever having seen this scar on Cliff’s arm, but Josey’s arm had a large circular scar (about one inch in diameter).  When I asked her what had caused it, she said it was the result of a vaccination while she was young.  I presume that vaccination needles in the 1920’s and 1930’s were bigger than modern ones.  Josey’s vaccination scar was probably the result of smallpox vaccination.

In summary, when Cliff enlisted in the RAF on 27 September 1940, he:

• Was of average height for the time (5 feet 6 ¾ inches);

• Was skinny, and verging on malnourishment;

• Had very dark brown or possibly black hair;

• Had hazel eyes;

• Had a pale, white skin; and

• He had been vaccinated – probably for smallpox – when he was young and the vaccination had left a noticeable scar on his left arm.

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Millions of young men just like Cliff joined the armed forces of all Allied countries to defeat the evil of Nazi Germany.

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While he was alive, Cliff was awarded the 1939-1945 Star.

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Cliff was also awarded The War Medal.

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While he was alive, cliff was also awarded The Aircrew Europe Star.  The Aircrew Europe Star was awarded only to RAF aircrew who flew over Europe before the D Day invasion began on 6 June 1044.

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Cliff’s war medals were left with my grandmother when we migrated to Australia.  They were stolen when my grandmother died.

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By helping others to heal We help yourself to heal Like Cliff did, give abundant Love Always

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Courage is the only way that we can ever create the Paradise that should be here on Earth.

Hatred only perpetuates the Hell we have already made for ourselves. 

My parents were astonishingly brave – and they were astonishingly poor.

Bravery multiplies with use.  Poverty has no effect on the amount of courage we can find within ourselves.

Blog 291 – The Distance From Lancashire to Here, Part 1 – 30 June 2025

My purpose is to give hope to those who have lost hope. Without hope, we remain lost in the Shadow Lands.

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My name is John Hankin.  I was born in Liverpool in 1949 when Liverpool was still a city in the County of Lancashire.  Mum and dad often told me that I came from Liverpool, Lancashire, England.  My elder brother Bill was also born in Liverpool.  The County of Lancashire that Bill and I were born into, no longer exists.  From the 1st of April 1974, the former County of Lancashire was abolished and the part of Lancashire which had included Liverpool became part of the new Metropolitan County of Merseyside.

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My dad was Thomas Clifford Hankin.  He was a sheet metal worker.  He served with the RAF from 27 September 1940 until 21 May 1946.  After induction and training, Cliff served until early in 1944 as a member of Ground Crew with Bomber Command.  Ground Crew made sure the planes could fly and patched them up when (and if) they returned from bombing raids on enemy targets.  Throughout WW2, the men who served as aircrew in Bomber Command suffered huge rates.  Working in Bomber Command was very unsafe.

Wiki says Bomber Command suffered a 44.4% casualty rate – and that it was more dangerous to serve as a Bomber Command aircrew than it had been to serve as a soldier on the Western Front in WW1.

… more people were killed serving in Bomber Command than in the Blitz, or the bombings of Hamburg or Dresden.

In September 1940 when Cliff joined Bomber Command, the only British offensive operations against Nazi Germany were those carried out by Bomber Command.

In September 1940 when Cliff joined Bomber Command, the only country standing in the way of a world filled with barbarism was the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

In September 1940 when Cliff joined Bomber Command, “common sense” said that victory over Nazi Germany was completely impossible – but Cliff and millions of other Britons decided to ignore “common sense”.  They refused to live in a world without hope.

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Cliff tried to enlist in the Army when Germany invaded Poland shortly after World War II began on 1 September 1939.  The Army rejected him because he was a tradesman.  Cliff had become a qualified sheet metal worker shortly after his 18th birthday on the 25th of February 1938, nearly 18 months before the war started. 

The government had decided qualified tradesmen would be more useful if they practised their trade.  There were plenty of potential soldiers but there were not enough qualified tradesmen. 

Serving as a tradesman in the RAF was not a “soft” option but an extremely hard one.

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Early in 1944, Cliff’s RAF service became even harder.  

Bomber Command was suffering such huge casualties that ground crew were invited to volunteer as aircrew – and Cliff volunteered.  In his aircrew capacity, Cliff served as an “Observer”.  His job was to spot German fighter aircraft before they could shoot down his own plane – a Lancaster Bomber.

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http://www.ww2wings.com/wings/britainraf/britainrafobserver.shtml  Royal Air Force - Observer  Width: Height: Hallmark: Pin/Clutch: Contributor: Date Added: 95 mm Padded John Gowan Collection 12/26/2001 Width: Height: Hallmark: Pin/Clutch: Contributor: Date Added:  73 mm 70 mm 6/14/2002  Width: Height: Hallmark: Pin/Clutch: Contributor: Date Added:  Michael D Long Collection 8/14/2002

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A Lancaster bomber. 

Cliff’s job for most of the war was to make sure the bombers under his care were safe to fly.  This often meant he had to remove bodies and body parts from planes that had made it home, but suffered damage.  The aircrew were not statistics to him.  They were his friends.  He suffered greatly when they did not come home.

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My mum was Josephine (Josey) Wood.  She was born on 9 May 1924.  Her father was William George (Bill) Wood, born in 1891.  Bill Wood’s father (also called Bill) had been a labourer, but with the invention of electricity, his son Bill Wood saw an opportunity to become an electrician and became a ship’s electrician.  In 1938, he was Chief Electrician on the MV Leighton and at sea when he had a heart attack.  My grandfather was put ashore in Antwerp to die and his death occurred on 20 May 1938.  Josey had just turned 14 when her father Bill Wood died at age 46.  My grandmother Annie Grant became solely responsible for 6 children aged 23, 18, 16, 14, 12 and 10.  Josey was 14 years old and went to work at the local fish and chip shop.  Her mother let her keep six pence – the equivalent of £1.67 in 2019 currency and a lousy pittance even then.

When the war began, Josey had left the fish and chip shop and was working for Littlewoods Pool Company in Liverpool.  Littlewoods was a very large betting agency which made most of its money by accepting bets on football.  When war started, Littlewoods Headquarters building was requisitioned by the UK Government and became a factory for making bomb components, barrage balloons and woollen material.  

Munitions factories were prime targets for the Luftwaffe.  

After Littlewoods, Josey spent the balance of the war working in munitions factories.  Apart from the Luftwaffe attacks on munitions factories, munitions factories were inherently very dangerous places to work.  If handled incorrectly, munitions do precisely what they are supposed to do – they blow up, killing and maiming those in the vicinity.

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By helping others to heal We help yourself to heal Give abundant Love Always

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Courage is the only way that we can ever create the Paradise that should be here on Earth.

Hatred only perpetuates the Hell we have already made for ourselves. 

My parents were astonishingly brave – and they were astonishingly poor.

Bravery multiplies with use.  Poverty has no effect on the amount of courage we can find within ourselves.