{"id":7482,"date":"2022-12-06T17:22:36","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T17:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/?page_id=7482"},"modified":"2023-02-06T19:19:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T19:19:30","slug":"alan-johnson","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/people\/local-success-stories\/alan-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnson, Alan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alan\u2019s story\u2026 I give you an image\u2026 picture Alan at home in West Avenue, with May and the company Jack the Lakeland Terrier.  He\u2019s surrounded by papers and photos, in readiness for the publication of his book \u2018The Marine School of South Shields\u2019.  A splendid book, well worth the \u00a311.50 it cost.  It was published in 2010, the year he turned eighty-three.  Quite an achievement for a man whose life had been rich in interest, activities and pursuit, in campaigns and thoughts.  So where did that fascinating grand old man come from? What made him the man he was?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alan Johnson (The Marine School of South Shields by Alan Johnson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Early Days
<\/strong>To find out, we need to go back to \u2018once upon a time\u2019 and \u2018long ago\u2019.  To a Monday in the autumn, September 12th 1927, when Alan first faced the world, born to Jenny and Tom.  She was Manageress of Hugh Robson\u2019s Cake Shops and dad had Tommy Johnson\u2019s Baccy Shop in Frederick Street.  Alan, a South Shields lad through and through then, earliest days in John Williamson Street.  Those were the days.  Children playing out all day long until the sunset over the backyards walls. 

School Days
<\/strong>1932; Stanhope Road Infants and Juniors.  Picture the scene, boys sat in straight rows, seen and not heard because teachers in those days wielded bamboo canes.  A bright lad Alan, passed the scholarship for the Boys High School.  Pages turning.  We reach 1938.  Strange and tumultuous times ahead. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alan’s School report 1938 (Image courtesy of South Shields Museum & Art Gallery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Atom the school magazine (Image courtesy of South Shields Museum & Art Gallery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The War began just days before his twelfth birthday.  Hitler\u2019s bombers over the Tyne so like many of the town\u2019s children he was evacuated to the safety of the countryside, stayed for a while in Appleby in Westmorland.  And then home to get on with his growing up.  Days that shaped the man, Alan already emerging as an organiser, a natural leader.  Still at school when he founded Talbot Road Youth Club. 

Leaving School
<\/strong>The big bell rang one sunny Friday afternoon and at sixteen he left school ready to face the big world.  1943; applied to three shipping companies for deck- 2 apprenticeships, but failed his eyesight colour test.  So in March 1944 he began his apprenticeship as an electrical engineer at the huge Reyrolles factory.  Twelve thousand worked there at that time, the size of a town in its own right.  An annual salary of fifty pounds, nineteen bob a week, that\u2019s ninety five pence in todays\u2019 money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alan’s Apprentice indentures (Image courtesy of South Shields Museum & Art Gallery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After the War<\/strong>
The War got over at last and he completed his apprenticeship.  The morning of his life and time of his life.  A time of hope, the crest of optimism.  Attlee\u2019s Labour government in 1945, the foundation of the Welfare State, and Alan caught the mood of the time, he\u2019d be a lifelong socialist.  Politics and Jazz.  Not sure when but we know he played the trombone.  Pages turning; 1947.  Life, just like a story, indeed just like ours this morning, turns on little moments of luck, chance and brief encounter. 

Meeting his Wife<\/strong>
Alan himself highlighted three memorable events that would change his life.  Here\u2019s the first\u2026 And it was like this\u2026 Working in the drawing-office at Reyrolles as a tracer was a beautiful girl, a Shields girl from Newbury Street, and Alan couldn\u2019t help but notice her.  It was May, of course, May Thornton Hedley.  Photos capture the times of our lives.  There\u2019s that black and white studio portrait of her from that time, a touch Avant-Garde; hair in a fringe, cigarette, serious and enigmatic.  Alan and May chatted, they clicked, and they were \u2018courting\u2019 as it was sweetly known, falling in love.  A wedding on a Monday in springtime; married on March 26th 1951 at St Oswin\u2019s on Stanhope Road.  There\u2019s May in white and Alan in his suit with huge turn-ups and lapels; curly hair combed back into a parting.  A \u2018do\u2019 afterwards at the Harbour View with a three-tier cake.  A honeymoon in Edinburgh and having a splendid time; sailed with the McIntyre twins, Dougie and William.  Stayed at the elegant Suttie\u2019s Hotel on South Bridge.  Characteristically Alan kept the receipt, five nights at a total price of eleven pounds nine shillings and sixpence. 

New Home
<\/strong>Home for the newlyweds, a rented flat in 154 Alfred Street.  Alan doing alright; working away with Reyrolles, worked in Wales and London.  His annual salary had increased significantly.  By 1955 it was \u00a3550, and increased again when he left Reyrolles for the North Eastern Electricity Board.  Able to afford a home of their own in Bideford Gardens in Marsden. 

Marine School
<\/strong>1958, a significant year because he left the NEEB.  He wrote of how he \u2018wanted a position with improved prospects\u2019, and so with that in mind, he took a post as lecturer at The Marine and Technical College, based back then on Ocean Road.  To quote the foreword of his book

\u201cSo secure was the town in the heart of its maritime orbit that in establishing a marine school they were giving the world an institution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Opening of the new Marine and Technical College (Image courtesy of South Shields Museum & Art Gallery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Price Philip opening the college (Image courtesy of South Shields Museum & Art Gallery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Working so hard, lectured day and night, a member of The Marine Engineers Institute and the Institute of Electrical Engineers.  We come to the second event that Alan identified as life changing.  1959; things were hard going.  In his words he was heading for a breakdown because of overwork.  The Doctor advised that he give up evening lecturing and embark on outdoor activities. 

Bird Watching
<\/strong>And so he joined the RSPB and a course in ornithology.  Alan and May become lifelong twitchers.  Bird watching trips to Northumberland, and farther afield; to The Isle of Wight, Crete, Trinidad and Tobago and Florida.  A hobby in accord with his embrace for nature and conservation.  Always a passion for wildlife, ahead of his time, an environmentalist and campaigner.  He understood the risks to the planet and explained to anyone who\u2019d listen.  His interest as ever was social.  He organised annual trips to Holy Island and Lindisfarne, a member of the Tyneside and Teesside bird clubs.  A natural leader; a founding member of the Durham and Northumberland Wildlife Trust and helped to set up the Washington Wildfowl Refuge.  Alan and May cared for sick and injured birds including oil-stained seabirds.  Used every available space at home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Other Interests<\/strong>
Home in 1963 was West Avenue, a forever house, love in the bricks Alan and May; a life rich and full.  May worked in the Engineers\u2019 Department at Jarrow Town Hall before becoming a Primary School teacher at Temple Park Junior School, and after work, a prolific painter.  Alan became a Senior Lecturer at the College.  Both working hard and enjoying their holidays.  Bought a caravan, toured the UK and beyond.  Alan enjoyed sailing.  He was in the Sunderland Yacht Club, had his own dinghy and still great friends with the McIntyre twins.  Pages turning and we reach our third pivotal, life-changing moment in his story\u2026 It is February 1973. 

Tyneside Barbershop Singing Club<\/strong>
A friend introduced Alan to the Tyneside Barbershop Singing Club, and he was soon singing the bass parts.  I\u2019m sure that the particular style of music, the precision and discipline of the acapella arrangements suited him down to the ground.  Barbershop singing was relatively rare; only six clubs throughout the country.  But of course Alan took on his new hobby as a collectivist.  He formed the National Association of British Barbershop Clubs, and organised the first National Quartet Championships in Newcastle.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Image courtesy of South Shields Museum & Art Gallery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A member of The Country Clouds Quartet and the intriguingly named comedy quartet \u2018The Formaldehydes\u2019.  September 1974; Alan helped to form the Wearside Barbershop Harmony Club, a founder member of the choir The Roker Peers of Harmony, providing the songs for our ceremony today.  1982; won the National Chorus Championships, the same year he became Vice Chairman of the Society, membership of which had reached forty clubs.  A passion, a huge part of his life.  Holidays with fellow enthusiasts around the world.  And instrumental in all kinds of activities concerning membership, training and support for fledgling groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, three life-changing events identified by Alan.  Meeting May, that first interest in birdwatching and his introduction to singing.  Time passes.  All the time in the world once he\u2019d retired from work in 1986.  Golden days.  He\u2019d earned them; seen a few changes in his time since he set out as an apprentice at Reyrolles. 

Time for all his other interests and campaigns in his life. 

Hard to know where to start.  I\u2019m sure Alan would have approved of the orderly use of a list:
\u00b7 Camping and caravanning. 
\u00b7 Sailing.  Still sailing at the Tall Ships race in 2005 at the age of seventy eight. 
\u00b7 Bird watching and wildlife
\u00b7 Member of the North East Reptile and Amphibian Group.  2006-13; rescuing toads along the Leas.  During the breeding season toads would attempt to reach a pond but become trapped by a wall.  So Alan wrote to the Council to suggest making holes in the wall.  Sadly his idea was rejected. 
\u00b7 Gardening.  His own garden at home thriving and blooming and had his allotment at Brinkburn. 
\u00b7 Jazz music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Image courtesy of South Shields Museum & Art Gallery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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(Image courtesy of South Shields Museum & Art Gallery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


\u00b7 The University of the Third Age.  Taught \u2018Bird watching for Beginners\u2019. 
\u00b7 Writing.  2010; had his book published \u2018The Marine School of South Shields\u2019.  He had a particular interest in the school\u2019s founder Dr Thomas Masterman Winterbottom.  Indeed he campaigned for his Blue Plaque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A published author Alan.\u00a0 Still a lifelong socialist but also quite a capitalist entrepreneur.\u00a0 There was good mate Keith \u2018minding his own\u2019, washing his car that day when Alan asked him if he\u2019d like a copy of his book.\u00a0 \u2018Yes please\u2019 Keith was touched by the gesture.\u00a0 \u2018Thank you, that\u2019ll be eleven pounds fifty \u2018please\u2019.\u00a0 So Keith tendered a tenner and two pound coins and sure enough the book was posted through his door in an envelope along with his fifty pence change.\u00a0

What else?
\u00b7 Organised the Neighbourhood Watch in his street.\u00a0
\u00b7 A lifelong member of the Labour Party attended the meetings and voiced his opinions, avidly against Brexit.\u00a0
\u00b7 Alan always stood up for what he believed, especially if the issue was environmental.\u00a0 Campaigned against the Sunderland Training Academy in the Cleadon Green Belt and Shields\u2019 new fire station at Temple Park
\u00b7 And history, Alan was a true enthusiast, a respected local historian.\u00a0

Local Historian<\/strong>
This from Adam Bell who wrote,

\u201cAlan was a regular at South Shields Local History Group, where I first met him. \u00a0His particular interest was the history of South Shields Marine School, and it was while he was writing his excellent book on the School that I got to know him better.\u00a0 Alan and his fellow Marine School lecturer and friend Doug McIntyre collaborated in the mid-1980s to produce a fascinating two-volume scrapbook charting the history behind the Marine School, a precursor to Alan\u2019s later book.\u00a0 In February this year Alan kindly donated the volumes to South Shields Museum.\u00a0 With his passing, we lose a passionate local historian, and a true gentleman\u201d

Later Life<\/strong>
Alan the public man and Alan the private man.\u00a0 Close to his mother throughout his life.\u00a0 She was a grand old lady, died at the age of one hundred-and-seven in 2006 with Alan holding her hand.\u00a0

Alan and May.\u00a0 So much had gone by since the Reyrolles\u2019 drawing office.\u00a0 They led their lives, did separate things and things worked out fine.

Years had flown with the speed of birds in flight, but love was undiminished.\u00a0 Their Diamond wedding at The Sea Hotel in 2011.\u00a0 Home and always the company of a dog.\u00a0 There were the Lakelands Turk and Tan and more latterly there was Jack.\u00a0 And the dogs were much adored.\u00a0

But time passes.\u00a0 Today’s become tomorrows.\u00a0 May was poorly and he was by her side to take care of her.\u00a0 Heartbroken when she passed away in 2014.\u00a0 It hit him hard.\u00a0 He was lonely, he withdrew a little, and he was down.\u00a0

Still getting out, however.\u00a0 There was his monthly history group, and the Probus Club and afternoon tea at the church.\u00a0 And the Bereavement Group, met Beryl there and they became good friends.\u00a0 Meeting at the Hillhead Caf\u00e9.\u00a0 He\u2019d bring along newspaper cuttings and photos of May\u2019s paintings, so very proud of her.\u00a0 Patch the Parson\u2019s Terrier from \u2018Happy Days for Strays\u2019 came into his life in 2018.\u00a0 A happy day indeed for both; Patch became man\u2019s best friend.\u00a0 A grand old man in his nineties.\u00a0 Independent and aware, and still enjoying company, visits from friends.\u00a0

Final Days<\/strong>
But time passes.\u00a0 We reach 2020, the strangest year of them all; isolation and shielding.\u00a0 Like so many elderly people, Alan felt vulnerable.\u00a0 He turned ninety-three that September.\u00a0 The New Year turned.\u00a0 Comfy as he could be at home, home for nearly sixty years.\u00a0 The Chase, Tipping Point, sport, David Attenborough and news on the telly.\u00a0 Simple pleasures.\u00a0 Carers at his side to look after him.

But he was struggling.\u00a0 Hospital a few weeks ago but then home again.\u00a0 As his long story neared its end.\u00a0 At home where he belonged, Patch waiting just outside his door and Alan lying in Beryl and Karen\u2019s arms, he left us quietly and gently in the other Wednesday.\u00a0

At peace, let us take that consolation on his behalf.\u00a0 Also, that he hadn\u2019t suffered; that would never have done, never have suited such an independent, and dignified man.\u00a0 Cherish all of the other days and savour the essence of the man.\u00a0

A great character, highly intelligent, a thinking-man with deep convictions and principles, high standards and expectations, determined, a campaigner, gregarious, chatty, a storyteller, he was independent, ahead of his time in so many respects, an environmentalist, lifelong socialist.\u00a0 Loved and he loved back.

It is how we remember him today, with dignity and respect, with affection and all the love in the world.

Eulogy written by Humanist Celebrant Ian Hunter

Sources:
Dorothy Fleet
The Marine School of South Shields by Alan Johnson

Photos:
Images courtesy of South Shields Museum & Art Gallery with special thanks to Adam Bell
Terry Ford


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Alan\u2019s story\u2026 I give you an image\u2026 picture Alan at home in West Avenue, with May and the company Jack the Lakeland Terrier.  He\u2019s surrounded by papers and photos, in readiness for the publication of his book \u2018The Marine School of South Shields\u2019.  A splendid book, well worth the \u00a311.50 it cost.  It was published […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":7480,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7482","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7482"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8388,"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7482\/revisions\/8388"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}