He worked as a cotton dyer & printer. When I was old enough to know about it he was the foreman. On my mothers marriage certificate he is down as a cotton labourer
It used to upset me that, whenever I had a new dress, he would say Come here, change his glasses & examine the skirt. This always included making a small crease on the bias, to examine the quality & do a quick thread count. Usually he would say Yes, a nice piece of cloth that. Sometimes it was hust Hmm
I wanted him to tell me it was pretty
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When he was 15 Bompa went off to fight the Kaiser. He never talked to me about his experiences, but he did like to refer - nostalgically & with a chuckle - to Wipers & Galley-Pole-Eye. The latter with a long, falling Derbyshire O in the middle
Ypres & Gallipoli, in other words. I checked with the regiments web site & found that they were at both, so its possible he was there
