Sir Patrick Duffy: 103-year-old author of From Wigan to Westminster

Yorkshire Post

Sir Patrick Duffy has written his autobiography From Wigan to Westminster at the age of 103. Sir Patrick will be 104 in June. He is the former Labour MP for Sheffield Attercliffe

Transcript

00:00 If there is a connection I'm bound to mention the walking that I've always taken at all times,

00:10 especially when I was a Member of Parliament and I would walk from Westminster late at night

00:19 to, well, the Naval Club where I stayed much of the time,

00:25 especially later when I became Navy Minister.

00:28 Walking and retaining records of various activities that have come my way

00:38 during my six years of combat service in the Navy.

00:46 I started, first of all, as an ordinary seaman within the first few weeks.

00:54 I volunteered here in Doncaster and gave a false aid.

01:00 And from there I was summoned to Devonport down in the South West for training

01:09 before taking the long train journey up to the north of Scotland

01:14 and Scarborough Flow where the main fleet was anchored.

01:19 And I joined my first ship, HMS Repulse, a battle cruiser.

01:26 And from HMS Repulse I was soon notified that I was under scrutiny for selection as a Naval Officer.

01:43 And that took me to a cruiser for scrutiny in Scarborough Flow,

01:50 a long journey back down south to Portsmouth and a further selection conference before Admirals,

02:00 before being notified that I was to be specially trained as a Naval Officer,

02:07 and that changed my life.

02:10 I owe much to the Royal Navy.

02:14 And from there I eventually found myself President of the North Atlantic Assembly,

02:28 of the NATO Assembly.

02:30 I was President over 16 member nations within the Atlantic community.

02:38 It was a tremendous honour but it was a great opportunity as well.

02:44 All kinds of engagements then came my way.

02:47 I found myself being summoned to Rome by His Holiness the Pope.

02:52 I didn't ask to see him, I never expected to see the Pope.

02:55 It was the Pope who summoned me because I had become President of the NATO Assembly.

03:03 And from then onwards I found myself visiting all the countries within the Atlantic community

03:13 and the Far East, the Asian community as well.

03:19 I found myself meeting the Queen when I never expected such an honour.

03:27 And after meeting the Queen, other honours came my way such as my mother, whom I adored,

03:38 launched HMS Lindisfarne, one of Her Majesty's warships with such a wonderful name, Lindisfarne.

03:49 And it had been six years of combat service.

03:57 I was engaged in every facet of hostilities from early 1940 right down to 1946

04:12 when I insisted on the Navy releasing me in order that I could go to London University

04:21 and take a degree, which led incidentally to another degree as well at Columbia University in New York.

04:31 And there I was soon awarded a doctorate as well as a first degree.

04:46 I had been very fortunate to not only experience such happenings but also to survive

05:00 because I crashed as a member of the Fleet Air Arm and you couldn't fly as much as I did then

05:10 and you couldn't travel as much as I did then.

05:14 You couldn't go to sea as I did in 1940.

05:17 Within a few weeks of joining HMS Repulse, the ship was sunk

05:23 and the man who joined with me was washed overboard and I could have been washed with him.

05:32 I was therefore not only fortunate in my experiences but so fortunate in my survival.

05:43 Thanks be to God.

05:45 The title of the book is a summary of my experience from Wigan to Westminster.

06:05 How does Wigan come in?

06:08 Well I was born in Wigan but my father's shift, the Maypole Colliery in Wigan,

06:18 had an explosion that wiped out the whole of the other shift, the afternoon shift,

06:28 to my father's morning shift.

06:33 And though he survived and all his mates on the other shift were sealed and were never recovered,

06:44 it was a dreadful explosion, my father was advised to move to South Yorkshire

06:53 and he was entrusted to the Doncaster expansion of new collieries especially

07:00 and came to be employed at Rossington Colliery

07:06 and that is how I came to find myself in Rossington at the early age of four years

07:18 at five, going on for six years.

07:22 I clearly remember the general strike of 1926, remember it very, very well.

07:28 Remember Rossington?

07:31 I had lovely boys as school friends and they were all engaged in flying with bomber command

07:47 and all died.

07:50 I was just as active in my flying with the fleet air arm, in some ways more active flying

07:56 from carriers, from small carriers to big carriers like HMS Formidable and HMS Illustrious

08:06 and HMS Implacable.

08:09 I was very fortunate in those experiences to survive and to be able to reflect on them now

08:22 and to know that just to have survived such six years of combat service

08:31 and then go on to a top university, London University and then Columbia University

08:38 and eventually to acquire a doctorate.

08:44 I am very, very grateful.

08:49 That is to say not only for my experiences but for my survival.

08:55 I truly feel that I have been blessed.

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