H F Claydon GM Updated - new material found!

[Mark Abbott]

I have just received a copy of the file of papers relating to the award of the George Medal to Sgt Claydon;it includes a statement from Mrs Fagerass relating to her rescue. One of the rescuers mentioned is her son James.
I will transcribe the report and those of the Chief Constable and another witness as soon as I have some more time.

[Katie]

This would make a marvelous article for the Journal Mark

[Mark Abbott]

Mr James Fagerass who assisted Sgt Claydon to rescue Mrs Fagerass and nine other individuals.

James served with the Liverpool Regiment during WW1

[Mark Abbott]

From the "Liverpool Echo" 25 July 1964:-

INSPECTOR RETIRES
Awarded George Medal For Blitz Rescues
George Medallist Police Inspector Harold Claydon, of the Central Division Liverpool City Police has retired after 37 years service.

A native of Liverpool and an old boy of Liverpool Collegiate School he joined the force in 1927, was promoted sergeant in 1937 and inspector 14 years later.

Inspector Claydon was awarded the George Medal for blitz rescue work in 1941; received the bronze medal of the RSPCA in 1955 for rescuing livestock from a blazing shippon and in 1959 was commended for making safe a time-bomb in a building in Sir Thomas Street, Liverpool.

He is married and lives at 28 Agincourt Road, West Derby."

A similar report appeared in the "West Derby Reporter" on 31st July 1964.

[Mark Abbott]

I have now transcribed the statement made by Hannah Fagerass which led to the award of the George Medal. Further statements from the Chief Constable and A. Walker of 124 Page Moss Lane Huyton are to follow.

Copy of Satement by Hannah Maud Mary Fagerass, 70 years, 6 Adlington Street, dated 18th March 1941

“ I was sitting in No 8 Adlington Street, when the Air Raid was over Liverpool, on the night of Wednesday, the 12, and the morning of Thirsday the 13th March, 1941.
We were all sitting in the kitchen:- Mrs Walsh, Nellie Walsh, James Walsh, Margaret Griffen and her baby, twelve months old, Mr and Mrs Dow and Lizzie Dow 17 years, Mrs Thomas Walsh, Nancy Walsh, Tommy Walsh, Mrs Gallagher and her son, also Margaret Gallagher.
I heard a loud explosion, it seemed right outside the door, and I was struck on the side of the face.. The roof cane in and we were all knocked into the fireplace, and we all thought there was no getting out. We all started to shout. I heard a man’s voice and my son’s and they started to clear away the debris. I could hear them working on the outside. When they got through they got out Nellie Walsh and Lizzie Dow, and I was able to see the man who rescued them, and my son (James Fagerass). I had a piece of wood on my chest and my right arm was jammed but this chap kept pulling at the wood on my chest until he got it away, and I was able to breath a lot better. Then he started to get my arm free and they had to use a knife to cut some of my clothes. I heard the Sergeant shout for a knife to cut my clothes away and then I was free. I was pulled out by the Sergeant and my son helped him. My son took me away in the ambulance to Mill Road Hospital.
The man who got me out was grand, I think he is a Sergeant in the Police, and I don’t know how he stuck it, as the gas was escaping, and there was a fire in the grate.”

(Sgd) Hannah M.M. Fagerass

[MaryA]

A lovely tribute to him - and I agree with Katie, it would make a great article for the Journal.

[Mark Abbott]

Sgt Claydon's medal group from left to right:-

George Medal
1939-45 Star
France and Germany Star
Defence Medal
War Medal
Police Long Service Medal

[Mark Abbott]

I will write something for the Journal. I am still trying to research his service in the armed forces.

I THINK he was commissioned into the army as a 2nd Lt in March 1944 and MAY have served with A.M.G.O.T. [ Allied Military Government of Occupied Territory ].

I know of other police officers who served in this capacity so I think I will make a FOI application for his service papers.

Happy New Year to all!

[Katie]

What I like about this is from a little bit of information you can find out so much about a hero. Might get you to come and give a talk on him to our group!!! Me being programme Sec and all, always looking for interesting subjects.

[Mark Abbott]

Katie

I would be delighted to and thank you to everyone who has helped me with my research.

Information regarding Mr Claydon's service is still coming in. Only yesterday, I received a report on him defusing a home made bomb in January 1959 using a pair of nail scissors!

Mark

[Mark Abbott]

Clearly, Mr Claydon was a very brave man:-


Ticking bomb found in building
after telephone calls
A home-made bomb was found in an attaché case in a block of offices in the commercial centre of Liverpool yesterday. Telephone calls were received by the staff in three offices in Sir Thomas – Martins Bank, the Federation of Building Trade Employers and an accountancy firm. A man with a slightly foreign accent said “Listen carefully. This is urgent. Leave the building at once. There is a bomb in it.” The police headquarters, a few hundred yards away, received a similar message a few minutes later.

The staff treated it as a joke but a clerk in the federation offices, Miss Brenda Culkin, aged 16, who had answered the telephone, saw a brown attaché case on the main floor, two feet from the door, when she went to report the message to her seniors, she put it on the counter. Two police officers then ran in and tore the back off the case. They found a battery from which two wires went into a hollowed out loaf of bread, which contained some white powder. Two bottles of petrol were wired in and there was a clockwork mechanism attached which was ticking.

Inspector Harold Claydon, who holds the George Medal, cut the wires with a pair of nail scissors and took the bomb to the police headquarters. It was later sent to the forensic laboratory in Preston. The powder was identified as a commercial explosive. The Peruvian consulate is one of the offices in the building.

Manchester Guardian Jan 28 1959

[simone]

what a guy what would we do without people like him in the world..

great work Mark.. so interesting

Thanks for sharing

Simone x

[Mark Abbott]

Copy of Report by Chief Constable

At 20.29 hours on Wednesday, 12.3.41, an air raid “Alert” was sounded in Liverpool and a very heavy air raid developed which continued until 03.00 hours Thursday, 13.3.41. At this time Sergeant 36 “A” Claydon was on plain clothes duty with his section at Hatton Gardens Police Station.

Incendiary bombs were dropped on and in the vicinity of the Police Offices and the Plain Clothes Section directed by the Sergeant controlled the bombs and dealt with the resultant fires in the Police building and on the roof of adjoining premises.

At 02.00hours on Thursday, 13.3.41., during the same attack a parachute mine fell in the residential neighbourhood of Adlington Street and Lace Street and exploded on a row of two storeyed tenements, demolishing 26 houses and seriously damaging a further 30 houses, and causing wide spread devastation. To date the casualties number 77 fatal, 44 seriously injured and 22 slightly injured. Rescue work is stioll being carried out.

Sergeant Claydon was sent to the incident and he organised the Police and civilians into parties and under his direction search and rescue work was commenced. He went to the site of No. 8 Adlington Street, which had received the full force of the explosion, and being told a woman was under the debris, finding it impossible to move part of the collapsed floor owing to the weight of iron work and large concrete slabs blown down from the tenement landing, he decided to tunnel through the debris. After 20 minutes work a narrow tunnel was made through the debris and kitchen wall, but entrance at this point was blocked by the body of a man wedged at the end of the passage. The opening had to be enlarged and the Sergeant took the chance of doing so, well knowing the risk. After a time a hole sufficiently large was made and the Sergeant was able to lean down and rescue two women, Nellie Walsh and Lizzie Dow, both in a distressed condition. Sergeant Claydon then secured his tunnel by fixing pieces of masonry and wood and made another entry, but was impeded by the body of another man. This body was drawn out by a rope fastened by the Sergeant assisted by James Fagerass and Con. 245 “A” McAdam. By the light of a torch the Sergeant was then able to see Mrs Fagerass, 70 years, of 6, Adlington Street, lying semi-conscious, her right arm trapped in debris and a piece of wood across her chest. After strenuous efforts he succeeded in releasing her and despite her weight of 16 stone dragged her through the hole and in the process had to cut her clothing away in parts with a knife. At this stage, the Sergeant, owing to the result of his exertions in a gas laden and stifling atmosphere caused by a fractured gas maim, was overcome, but after getting a drink of water, recovered sufficiently to return to the tunnel though warned of the danger from gas.

He found that the people were trapped in a space where the explosion had forced the dividing wall with a piano, up to within 3 feet of the fire place in which a small fire was burning. On either side of the fireplace appeared the heads of several upright bodies held in rubble and dirt up to the neck. Lying over the far end of the piano was an unconscious woman. It is stated by Mrs Fagerass that, in this space of six feet by three feet and five feet high above the rubble, including herself and a baby of 12 months were fourteen persons who usually came to shelter during air raids.

A large piece of wood was wedged between the piano and the fireplace blocking the passage of these people to the hole which had been made. The Sergeant, obtaining a saw, crawled into the space again, lying on his stomach sawed through the block of wood and was able to pull the body which was lying on the piano into the passage, and then brought out another woman apparently dead. Re-entering and removing some more debris he heard a child’s voice cry “I’m here mister, can you see me?”, and found a child lying under broken timber with its feet protruding from the rubble near the fire. Realising that he was becoming exhausted the Sergeant devoted his flagging energies by removing debris so that others could effect a comparatively easy rescue of those remaining alive inside. This done, he was able to release the child and pass it out to safety, as well as freeing a man trapped on a chair which he had to break before he could move him. This man has since died.

The witness Egerton then gave the Sergeant a drink and saw him collapse. Assisted by Con. 245 “A” McAdam he pulled him out of the hole and the Sergeant was removed to Mill Road Hospital unconscious from the effect of gas, were he remained until 14.3.41, resuming duty on 17.3.41, but he still shows signs of his ordeal and is not quite fit.

Of the fourteen persons named by Mrs Fagerass, ten were rescued. The recovery of other depends on the rescue parties.

These rescues were effected in darkness aided only by the light of two hand torches. Enemy planes were overhead. No tools apart from the saw were available, and all the debris was removed by hand. Accumulation of gas in the hole and the presence of a fire in the grate might have caused an explosion.

Tribute is paid to others who helped in this rescue, but the consensus of opinion of these and Mrs Fagerass is that the credit is entirely due to Sergeant Claydon who worked in the hole for nearly two hours.

He had no regard for his personal safety where the lives of others were at stake, and his exceptional courage, in my opinion, merits the highest possible award.

(Sgd) T Winstanley
Chief Constable.

[Mark Abbott]

"Re-entering and removing some more debris he heard a child’s voice cry “I’m here mister, can you see me?”, and found a child lying under broken timber with its feet protruding from the rubble near the fire. Realising that he was becoming exhausted the Sergeant devoted his flagging energies by removing debris so that others could effect a comparatively easy rescue of those remaining alive inside. This done, he was able to release the child and pass it out to safety, "


I am very happy to report that I have just received a photo of the child mentioned holding her granddaughter; the photo taken 24.12.2011!

Mark

[Mark Abbott]

The RSPCA's records Manager has very kindly supplied me with the citation for Inspector Claydon's bronze award:-

"For the rescue of cattle and pigs from a burning shippon at Marlborough Road, Liverpool."

There were two other medal recipients associated with the rescue - J Capstick (junior) and F Wilson, both of whom were also awarded the RSPCA bronze medal.

[MaryA]

You seem to have resolved the problem of the links, if needs be always send me a message and I will try my best to sort things out.

A good piece of research there Mark, we're all proud of Inspector Claydon and I will look forward to seeing you at one of our meetings if you come along and give a talk.

[Mark Abbott]

Thanks Mary.

Do you have any dates in mind?

Mark

[MaryA]

Speak with Katie, she is Programmes Secretary.

[Katie]

Hi Mark

Sorry for the delay in replying, have a heap of personal stuff to deal with at the moment.

We are all booked up for this year, so I was thinking you could do a presentation on him 2013. Is that ok?

[Hilary]

Hi Mark

I'm alpart of the Southport Group - you wouldn't like to come and give a talk to our group would you? I'm sure they'd be very interested in your researches.

If you would I'll pm you some dates etc.