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Transcript: Mr James William Beale talks about his first job in the Liverpool telephone exchange
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Description
Mr James William Beale was born in 1900 and [media]interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900–1960 ' project. He talks here about his first job, in the Liverpool telephone exchange.
Transcript
INTERVIEWER: How old were you when you left school?
WILLIAM: Thirteen, and I went for a first job as a telegraph boy, delivering telegrams and letters, one thing and another. From there I graduated to be able to take on the telephone exchange, which had only a hundred subscribers at that time.
INTERVIEWER: Is this in Liverpool?
WILLIAM: In Liverpool. Number 1 was doctor; 22 was Fire Brigade and 21 was Liverpool Hospital [which was] the Old Men's Home at the time. And that's about the chief ones. They were the numbers you had to remember quickly so you could…oh, the Police were number 18 I think.' [1]
References
Catherine Johnson (ed). Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900–1960 (Liverpool: Liverpool City Council, 1986). http://mylibrary.liverpool.nsw.gov.au/Electronicbooks/Lookingbackatliverpoolanoralhistory-1900-1960.pdf
Notes
[1] Mr James William Beale, interviewed for Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900–1960 project, Liverpool City Library, audio, Liverpool, 1986, http://liverpool.spydus.com/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/OPAC/BIBENQ?BRN=56313