Fred Tate
Fred was born in Hebburn, County Durham on 20 October 1926. He grew up in Wallsend because his father came across to work as a pitman in the G-Pit at Swan Hunter. The family lived in Laurel Street, Wallsend.
After leaving school at fourteen in 1940, Fred got a job at Swan Hunter as an office boy. He stayed there until he was twenty-one and then went to sea with the Merchant Navy. After a year at sea he worked at Parsons Marine for eight years. After that, Fred went to Wallsend Slipway Company which had been taken over by Swan Hunter. Fred worked at Swan Hunter until 1985 when he took redundancy and retired.
Fred talks about his experiences at Swan Hunter and living in Wallsend during the Second World War.
Fred was interviewed by Alex Magin on 23 February 2007. The interview took place at Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths and Museum and lasted for 46 minutes.
Fred Tate's Memories
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Transcript
My father said I’d never go down the colliery! Unfortunately his father was found dead down the colliery in Hebburn – his father was a deputy and he was only very, very young when he was found dead down there! He swore that I would never go! I came into Swan Hunters in 1940, December in 1940 when I left school and met Mr Pearson, who was a welfare superintendent and he sent me and a lad who was there for a job to see Mr Campbell - who was the foreman plater. He interviewed the two of we together, which I thought was wrong and as it happens I got the job and I met this lad a long, quite a long time afterwards and he didn’t hold a…..he didn’t begrudge us getting the job like, but it was strange meeting him again.