Practice, practice and practice again, words issued by many people but on this occasion by the avuncular Harry Fenwick Moore, Colliery Deputy, St Johns Ambulance Instructor to Savile Underofficials and its first aid competition teams. Well he was right and all that practice and revision in the upstairs dance hall of the Miners Welfare on Sunday mornings ensured that most of those trained would be able to give assistance throughout their working life and would always be equipped to deal with calls for first aid in everyday situations.
His imparted knowledge of the St Johns ‘black book’ to our junior first aid team led us to winning two junior and one senior NCB competition, along with taking part in some very keen open competitions alongside any number of experts from all fields of industry.
The team made up of Tony Hargreaves, Alan Masterman, Freddie Worth and myself developed a unique system of preparation whilst waiting in isolation prior to taking part in the team examination. We’d done the practice, completed the revision and now amidst the all knowing first aiders from Glass Houghton and Newmarket pits and others (some of them were red hot at FirstAidknowledge), who were to a man reading up and cramming ………We played pontoon and three card brag.
If you want to know how to give first aid to comminuted fractures, crush injuries, treat someone for epilepsy or insulin overdose, or if you need to know information regarding circulation of the blood – just ask.
Many thanks Harry Moore and Pat Mannion we have been using that knowledge which has been invaluable to this day.