'100 not out' interview with Peel centenarian Reggie Bell
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Date(s): 2008
Creator(s): Peel Heritage Trust
Scope & Content: Reggie Bell (born 1908) talks to Mrs Catherine Corrie Wooding from Corrin Home, Peel, about his childhood, career and life in Peel. He talks about living in Castletown, Douglas, Ramsey and Peel; father who was a policeman and mother (née Goldsmith) one of four sisters from Strang, Braddan; a gun crime in Ramsey for which his father received Police VC at Buckingham Palace; his boyhood in Ramsey and Peel; father’s temporary accommodation, Walpole Road, Rossendale House; Ramsey; getting lost with his brother John; attending Clothworkers school: P.C Moore, headmaster; John Willy Sugden, deputy head; leaving school aged 15; job litter picking, Peel Castle; greens sweeper at golf club; Palmers; Guardian newspaper, Michael Street; his printer apprenticeship at the newspaper.
He talks his Second World War service in the Royal Artillery stationed in the UK; London Blitz; Holyhead; Lands End; ammunition types and fellow Manxmen in regiment; Scapa Flow battleships; Exeter shooting down plane; meeting in 1939 (due to motorbike accident) and marrying Betty, a nurse; hobbies and footballing achievements including team mates Robert Cowley, Tim Teare, Martin; his achievements with Peel Rifle Club; winning golf cup; golf captains; being a Methodist and attending Athol Street Wesleyan chapel; marrying Betty in Bucks Road Methodist chapel; son Jess’s birth in 1941; his rounds as an insurance collector for Refuge Insurance; Peel town and shops; Peel characters such as Billy Felig.
Language: English
Extent: 50 min. 56 sec.
Item name: compact disc
Collection: Sound Archive
Level: ITEM
ID number: SA 2014-0024
Access conditions: All reasonable attempt has been made by Manx National Heritage to trace and request permission (where needed) from the copyright holder(s) in this sound recording. If however you think you are a rights holder then please contact Manx National Heritage.
Subject tags : #UOSH