Those of you who find these blog
articles interesting to read may find it hard to believe that as a 7 year old
David was struggling to read and write. Having recently changed from a Primary
School which concentrated on numbers, David was top of the class in maths but
bottom in English at Easington
Colliery Junior
School. Easington was the
location for the Billy Elliot film, however, there were no Ballet Dancers there
in the 1960’s.
David’s Teacher saw something in him
that he couldn’t see in himself, but the Teacher put a lack of progress in
English down to a lack of application rather than dyslexia that wasn’t known
about in schools in the 1960’s. So frustrated was the Teacher with David’s lack
of progress in reading that he contacted David’s Dad at work, who had to miss
part of his shift at Easington Pit and come to school. In hindsight it is
evident that the Teacher had David’s best interests at heart, however, he had a
strange way of showing it.
With David’s Dad standing alongside
David in front of the whole class the Teacher said, ‘Unless this boy learns to
read and write he’ll only be fit to sweep the streets of Easington Colliery.’
David was shocked and he didn’t know who was more embarrassed, him or his Dad.
Coming from a very humble background
there was no books in the house and when the Teacher asked what David was
interested in, his Dad said ‘Football’. The Teacher replied, ‘Get him some
books on Football!’
Football was important to David’s
family because his Dad’s cousin had married the Brother of Bob Paisley, who was
then the Trainer and subsequently the Manager of Liverpool F.C., winning 3
European Cups. The relationship may appear to be distant, however, it was close
enough for David to be invited to watch Liverpool
play in the North East as Bob Paisley’s niece wanted some company of her own
age. David once asked Bob Paisley for some tips about how to improve his game.
Bob said, ‘Davey when you are on that field always believe that you are going
to get hurt and it will be the last game you will ever play. Be first for every
ball, don’t let the ball bounce, win every tackle, use the ball well, be
determined to win. Never come off that field feeling that you could have done
any more.’
50 years on, some of David’s
compatriots in Alternative Funerals find it strange that he spends many hours
building flower displays and Themes. Some think that David is daft and that he
should have no contact with a family, turn up two hours before the funeral put
on the coffin and flowers, get his cheque and leave the crematorium as soon as
the coffin and flowers are off the lorry. David reminds these people that
although some people get a number of chances at a marriage they get only one chance
at a funeral and David always follows the philosophy of Bob Paisley and does
his level best in everything that he attempts. David adopts the same approach
whether he is creating a display of Floral Tributes on his lorry or arranging
vegetables in an attractive pattern as he serves the Sunday lunch.
Another important influence on
David, when he was 7 year old, was Dennis Donnini V.C. who was born on November
17th 1925. David was very small for his age and having changed
school at 7 years old he was regularly picked upon by taller boys. David noted
in The Victor Comic a story about the heroic actions taken on January 18th
1945 by Dennis Donnini who won the Victoria Cross fighting German Troops in Holland towards the end
of WWII. David may have had trouble reading out loud from a book, however, he
was very sharp mentally and he noticed that the Ice Cream Shop in Easington
Colliery was run by an Italian family called Donnini, could this be the same
Donnini? On a Monday dinnertime David left the school walked down Seaside Lane and
entered the shop which was deserted. David looked around and saw that a medal
was in a case on the third shelf, he couldn’t see the medal but noticed the
purple ribbon. A lady then came through the curtain and asked if she could help
David. David pointed to the medal in the glass case and asked if that was the
Victoria Cross won by Dennis Donnini.
The lady then stood on a stool, took
the glass case from the shelf, opened it and put the Victoria Cross in David’s
hands. She then went on to explain that her Brother was 19 years old and was in
a troop tasked to take positions fortified by the Germans. With heavy rain
limiting the use of tanks the infantry was asked to attack initially two machine-gun positions. Dennis Donnini volunteered to lead the charge and took
out one machine-gun with a grenade thrown from close range. During this action
Dennis was shot in the head and he fell on the ground. He came to and crawled
into a barn dodging the enemy bullets.
After a short time he heard one his comrades
crying for help in no man’s land. Donnini then put down his rifle, ran into no
man’s land, under a hail of bullets, however, as soon as he started to lift the
wounded soldier Dennis heard, ‘Nicht Schiessen’, the shooting stopped and Dennis
dragged his comrade to safety.
At this point Dennis was bleeding
profusely from his head and it is thought that he knew he had been fatally
wounded. He took a bag with grenades ran down the street throwing grenades into
three houses before he was killed when a bullet hit the bag with the grenades
which exploded.
Any of the three events would have
merited a Victoria Cross, however, perhaps, strategically the most import thing
Dennis did was draw enemy fire and divert it from his comrades who attacked on
the flanks and captured 30 Germans, including an Officer.
It is understood that the Wehrmacht
Officer who witnessed Donnini’s actions recommended that he should by awarded
the Victoria Cross and the citation bizarrely only mentioned two of the four acts of a valour and even left out
perhaps Dennis’ bravest feat which was rescuing a comrade from no man’s land.
Dennis’s Sister explained that both
her Mum and Dad were detained in UK
camps during WWII and there was a problem in the presentation of the medal
because his parents were interned and even if they hadn’t been, no Italian was
welcome inside Buckingham
Palace. Dennis’ Sister
showed David clippings from the local papers which told how King George met
with Dennis’ parents in a pub to hand over the Victoria Cross and the King made
arrangements for his parents to be released and to re-open the Ice cream shop
in Easington Colliery.
David saw from the pictures that Dennis
was very small, only 4ft 10 inches and David suddenly thought that being small
never stopped Dennis Donnini so David vowed that he would stand up for himself
and use his brains to outwit people rather than no mans land his fists.
1964 was the first year not to have
11 plus exams and pupils were sent to Grammar School solely on the
recommendation of a Teacher. The seating plan in the class was for the
brightest pupils to sit in order and David was number 22 in the class, however,
his name was included in the list for Grammar School even though all the boys
sitting near him weren’t. David was summoned to the Headmaster’s Office and he
was worried as corporal punishment was the central dogma on which the
discipline system was based. Canings on pupils hands were common place in front
of the class and the Headmaster dealt with repeated offenders by a very severe
beating across the buttocks. With fear and trepidation David knocked on the
door and he was told to come in. The Headmaster leaned towards David and using
his index finger prodded David in the ribs in the same place with one prod
between each of the following words, ‘Now then young Hall you
have got to Grammar School by
the skin of
your teeth do
not let me down.’
By this time David knew that he had
difficulty reading out loud, not being available to pick out the next sentence
in the text. He worked very hard often spending all the evening doing his
homework. He did quite well at Senior
School but was never able
to read out loud from a book. When David in later life was asked to speak at
functions he would learn the speech off by heart, practicing many times and
often at conferences David was voted best speaker with comments like, ‘This
bloke never looked at his notes once!’
At the age of 15 Football nearly
changed the direction of David’s life when a scout from Huddersfield Town
showed interest having watched David play for his school team. David’s Dad said
that his son didn’t have enough skill to be a footballer and apparently the
Scout agreed that David’s skills set could be improved by the club. However, it
was the young lad’s leadership skills, will to win and determination that had
caught the Scout’s eye. David’s Dad & Mum bought him a desk and encouraged
him to stick in at school and become the first member of the Hall family to go
to University.
David will never forget the
influence of holding Dennis Donnini’s Victoria Cross had on his life
and it always made David sad that
there was no lasting memory of Dennis in his village. David felt that if Dennis
had lived in Esher and not Easington Colliery
there would have been a blue plaque on the wall. When David was 20 years old,
his Dad found out that a picture of Dennis Donnini was on the wall at the local
Miners Welfare Hall and David and his Dad went to investigate. They found a
picture of Dennis and a copy of the Citation on the wall behind some men
playing dominoes. David asked one of the men if he could move along the bench
seat so that he could read the Citation. The man was reluctant to stop the
domino game and David explained that Dennis Donnini was one of the youngest
recipients of the Victoria Cross and possibly the smallest and definitely the
only Italian. The domino player shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘Never heard
of him.’
Fast forward now 45 years, David was
pleasantly surprised to find that a Mural had been painted to commemorate
Dennis Donnini, bravest of the brave, and a Memorial Garden
had been planted just up the road from the former Colliery site. David
was also relieved that in this area that was devastated when the pit closed, no one had attempted to deface the
mural.
