The Saltburn Profile by Rosemary Nicholls John Besford “I was born on St Swithin’s Day in 1923,” says John Besford, who has lived in Saltburn since he was twelve and seen the number of banks shrink from five to one, despite the town becoming increasingly vibrant, in his opinion. John’s birthplace was Hexham, but he was only there briefly, as his father who worked for an insurance company was promoted to Maidstone. When John and his two brothers were at Primary School, his father became ill. The family moved to Brighton for his health, but he sadly died and they moved back to Maidstone. Having passed the 11+, John began at Maidstone Grammar School, which he remembers for its beautiful new buildings. However, after a year his mother decided to return north and chose Saltburn, as she had once had a holiday here. The family rented 1 Exeter Street. John transferred to Sir William Turner’s Grammar School at Redcar and remembers finding the buildings ancient. While there, he joined the Air Training Corps and passed his School Certificate. He left school at sixteen to be a clerk at Redcar Railway Station Booking Office, a job he greatly enjoyed. In 1940, John volunteered to become a messenger for Air Raid Precautions. He served alongside former Saltburn resident, Norman Bainbridge and if the communications system broke down, they were obliged to get on their bicycles with information. In 1942, John applied for training in the Air Crew in the RAF. He was accepted and told to report to Lords Cricket Ground in London, before being sent for training in Torquay and Carlisle. He flew Tiger Moths solo after eight hours of instruction. His next posting was to Manchester, where he trained as a navigator with the Commonwealth Air Training Scheme. From there, he was sent for training with the Royal Canadian Air Force Central School of Navigation, near Winnipeg. “After I was awarded my wings, I spent one month’s leave in America,” he remembers. “Then I returned to the UK on a ship called The Aquitania, which was packed with US servicemen. There was no space, lots of queuing and we had to sleep in hammocks!” There was more training in the UK for John, who was posted to 514 Squadron based at Waterbeach, near Cambridge. As a crew, the men did twenty-two operations against Germany and were equipped with special radar equipment. He took part in two low level food drops to The Hague, where the people were starving. “We could see both the people waving to us from the rooftops and the Germans pointing their AA guns at us!” he says. While he was away, 1 Exeter Street was demolished by a German bomb, but fortunately, his mother had moved to 18 Exeter Street and was safe. At the end of the war, John was involved in flying part of the Belgian Government back to Brussels and bringing back prisoners of war from Bari in south-east Italy and from France. After the Squadron was decommissioned, he was appointed Transport Officer for the RAF at Hamburg. But when he returned to Civvy Street, he rejoined the London – North-Eastern Railway at Redcar. John passed further exams and for the next nine years was a Relief Station Master at various stations, including Kirby Stephen and Hawes. In 1951, he married Freda Whiteley of Lune Street, whose father was a founder pastor of the Leven Street Mission Church and they had one daughter, Janet. In 1958, John was promoted to a post in the staff
section of LNER and then to Depot Manager of National Carriers Ltd at Darlington and later, Operations Manager at Stockton. After accepting eventual redundancy, he was appointed as Operations Manager for the North York Moors Railway, based at Grosmont. When his contract ended, he changed tack. He became an administrator at a new branch of the National Association for Care and Resettlement of Offenders at Middlesbrough, under the auspices of the Probation Service. “It was most rewarding work,” he says. But he decided to retire early at sixty-three. He celebrated his golden wedding in 2001, but sadly Freda died of vascular dementia in 2005. Freda was a pianist/piano teacher, who also taught nursery children at Rushpool Hall before she married. She was accompanist to her daughter, Janet, who was a singer. John enjoys classical music, including Mozart and opera singers Lesley Garrett and Katherine Jenkins. He likes to listen to talking books and is fond of TV programmes such as ‘The Two Ronnies’, ‘Last of the Summer Wine’, ‘Countryfile’ and ‘The Antiques Roadshow’. For several years, John was Secretary of Saltburn Retired Men’s Forum and he has long been a member of the Methodist Church. He became a Saltburn Chapel Steward and then Treasurer for the whole of the local Methodist Circuit. As Circuit Steward, he served one year as a representative at the Methodist Conference. He can no longer attend Chapel in person, but Ian Johnson of Sleights and Alan Richmond of Saltburn keep him in touch with CD recordings of morning services. He used to appreciate holidays in Northern Scotland and met the Queen Mum a couple of times on Royal Deesside, when they were all out with their dogs. They were apprehensive about her corgis, but she soon put them at ease! 49