Around the world from Berry Brow

Apr 1 2009 By John Avison

MIKE Ward has been away from Huddersfield for more than 30 years now, but his memories of the area are undiminished.

A few years ago he got in touch with former schoolmates at Hillhouse Secondary Technical School via classmate Peter Paxton – the two were in Class 5B in 1954.

Mike grew up in Deadmanstone Road, Berry Brow, and attended Berry Brow School. His mother worked in Brook and Inglesman’s mill at Taylor Hill and when he left Hillhouse he joined her there, working in various departments of the mill and amusing his colleagues when he had a spare moment by drawing cartoons.

He was still in his teens when he joined the RAF and toured the world for the next 22 years. He trained to be a military policeman and eventually worked in counter-intelligence.

He spent a number of years in Lincolnshire, helping to guard bomber command bases. In the mid-1960s he was in Cyprus during a period of great political upheaval.

From 1969 to 1972 he was in Berlin, escorting high-ranking officers around the city in the tense days when the notorious wall served as a stark dividing line between the Russians and the Western powers.

Following a two-year spell back in England he was posted to Hong Kong, working there in counter-intelligence at a time when there were keen divisions between the Chinese and the West.

His last two years were at Northolt where the Royal Flight was based. He met various members of the royal family and other VIPs.

He went to Australia on holiday, liked the country and made his home in Victoria 1978 when he was demobbed from the RAF.