Lesser, Ruth

Joe Hird was born in 1898, the only child of a colliery blacksmith and a weaver in the North of England, living in a two-room back-to-back house. He gained scholarships to grammar school and university and became a teacher. When he was 70 he began to write his memories of his naval experiences in World War I, recalled in remarkable and vivid detail. He hoped that his children would be curious about the role played by Lower Deck seamen like him in a world-changing event. He died in 1990 at the age of 92. In the centenary year of the start of that Great War, 2014, his daughter Ruth Lesser edited...