Before becoming an MHK for Onchan, he served on Onchan Commissioners for 20 years and, after the Keys, he went on to become a Member of the Legislative Council. He was a genuine Manxman and was always accompanied to events by his lovely wife, Lynn.

Looking amongst my pile of Manx books, I picked out the book George wrote and published in 2006, ‘From Tynwald Street to Tynwald Hill’, signed for me in his very neat handwriting.

The book is dedicated, in his words, to ‘my wife Lynn, whose enduring love and support I could not have done without’.

I thought it would be good to share some of the contents of his book over two pieces in the Examiner, and this is the first.

I will only be able to cover a limited amount of its contents and recommend readers get a copy, which is a very interesting read and goes into great detail about the work of the branches of our Parliament in an easily understood manner.

In his words, George states: ‘I have described, as I see them, the challenges facing anyone thinking of standing at a general election for the House of Keys, and the impact that the consequent political life will have on both a personal and professional level’… Timely advice indeed!

I have repeated in his own words part of his early life, which will chime with and reawaken memories of those times from long ago, and which I hope you share my interest in as an aspect of interesting social history…

‘Back more years than I care to remember, I attended Tynwald Street School with no idea that one day I would be a member of Tynwald. Come to think of it, I haven’t come that far really, just around the corner! … though I have a lifetime of experiences in between.

‘Picture, if you will, a school with teachers who had to cope with children as young as five, all arriving to be taught to read and write, among many other things considered necessary for a child in the 1940s.

‘All this when the war was on, and every child had to have a gas mask, and fitting them was a regular part of the curriculum.

‘The ”blackout” was in full swing, children had to listen to the Empire Day children’s broadcast on the wireless, and the Regal Cinema was showing films approved by the Ministry of Information.’

‘I remember being taught how to knit by a teacher who thought that we should all be helping the war effort.

‘Knitting woollen ties was the order of the day. The trouble was we were all shown how to cast on, but not how to cast off, and when she came back, she found ties of a questionable quality and enormous lengths.

‘I think she unravelled most of them, but the rest must have been used as scarves for some poor soldier. I often wondered where mine ended up! Still, the thought was there!

‘There were days in September when the whole school was closed for the day, and we all went into the country to pick blackberries.

‘The fruit was then sent off to Rushen Abbey, and the small amount of money raised was donated to the Junior Red Cross Fund. Raising funds by the junior schools for the war effort were to be quite substantial, even by today’s standards. The schools were closed on polling day for the elections to take place.’

How about that for an idea? … A day off for young people for the election!

George continues…

‘If you were smaller than most and underweight, you were allocated free school milk, which came in small bottles with cardboard tops. Dr Soutar and Nurse Caine made regular inspections of us all. We were weighed and measured. Measles and chickenpox were common illnesses, hence the regular medical checks.

‘When we reached the age of eight, the boys were sent off to Demesne Road (Ballacloan) School and the girls stayed at Tynwald Street (Fairfield) School. The now senior girls also had to attend the technical school to learn such skills as cookery, laundry and ‘housewifery’…’

‘1945 was to see all the schools attending the Villa Marina for a royal visit.

‘King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived, and one of my classmates, Elsie Quiggin, actually spoke to them. Unfortunately, this led to our class having to write an essay about it.

‘Ballakermeen was the place to go for swimming lessons and eventually most of us, both girls and boys, were placed there at the age of 11 for our further education.

‘However, we were kept well apart, one half of the school for the girls and one half for the boys. Following which, the girls transferred to Park Road School and the boys to the High School.’

George had some sad recollections as well: ‘My father died a few months before I was born in 1937 of pneumonia at the age of 35, the same year that research began on the medical application of penicillin, which may have saved him had it been available.

‘My mother was alone with two children and a new-born baby to raise, and so we went to live with my grandparents, Mr and Mrs George Jewell, in Hillside Avenue, then Circular Road. Mr Jewell was a businessman who ran a large newspaper agency in Douglas.

‘As a schoolboy, one of my earliest recollections of Douglas was Watson’s shop. My mother would send me there to buy gas mantles for a shilling apiece. Some houses in Douglas were still lit by gas in the 1940s.

‘The gauze in the mantle of the gas light was very fragile and would break if touched by the match, which it did, frequently. Coal and gas fires were the usual form of heating, and cooking was done on a range — no modern conveniences such as microwaves and electric kettles!

‘Gas fires ran through a shilling meter, which was quite a dangerous system.

‘My great-grandma Coole would quite often have a nap in the afternoon with the gas fire on in her bedroom. Occasionally, the meter would run out and the gas fire would go off until someone came home from work and put another shilling in to light the fire downstairs.

‘This, of course, put the gas supply back on in my grandmother’s bedroom, and she was very lucky to reach the grand old age of 86!

‘It was a great relief to us to have electricity installed. Tragically, her husband, John Coole, died in the gas explosion on South Quay in 1899, along with his co-workers James Mudie and John Baird, as they worked to repair a storage tank. Flames shot 50 feet into the air as most of Douglas was plunged into darkness. A plaque was set on the wall of Murdoch House in their memory.

‘In the same year, my wife’s great-grandfather, George Hirst, died.

‘He was the first tollgate keeper on the Douglas Head side of the Marine Drive. The family lived in the tollgate, and in the winter, he would rope his family together as they made their way down the cliffside to the lighthouse, where he would pick up the keeper’s children and take them to Hanover Street School.

More next week…