ROY LONDON - " Brother, there was a man! "

+
Roy London's three abiding passions were his family, his work and hockey. A North Ender born and raised, he had lost both parents and begun providing for his siblings at the tender age of eleven. Then he married and had five kids of his own. His daughter, Nancy Hatfield, remembers him with pride.

Roy Burton London had a very short childhood. Born on May 31, 1916 his playground was the industrialized Valley, where Saint John's working class shared their living space with trucks, trolleys and steam trains. He got just a start at a formal education, attending Winter Street and Dufferin Schools, before the adult world crashed down upon him. His Dad, Walter Haslett London, was a blacksmith supporting a large family on a tradesman's pay. Married to Bessie Jane Garnett, life was a struggle with few rewards. They moved their brood from flat to flat, talking of owning a home, but never achieving the dream. Roy watched and learned.

"His father died when Roy was 10 and his mother Bessie Jane died when he was 12. That is when he went to work. There were four boys and three girls to feed and clothe and yet he saved a down payment for a house. He worked and helped maintain the house at 39 Barker Street [near Fort Howe] which is still there, until he married my mother. ... His first job was selling newspapers in front of the City Market. "

Though underage, Roy displayed all the qualities of a working man, and he was respected for it. His uncle, a boilermaker at St. John Iron Works decided to speak for him. "His uncle, Bill Ganderton worked with C.N. Wilson (owner of the Dry Dock) and got him a job when his mother died. [Wilson believed in taking care of family and had relatives of his own working for the Drydock and associated companies.] Roy started out at the Dry Dock as a water boy, carrying water in buckets. He ended up a Foreman for the Boiler Shop." When he finally retired Roy had worked over a half century at the shipyard. He was begged to return to consultant on a big job, but refused. "Dad had accumulated a wealth of knowledge which he never shared with anyone. He always told us if you show someone how to do your job, then you are replaceable."

When Roy London (centre) retired from Saint John Shipbuilding and Drydock in 1981 he had 52 years of service. On the occasion he was joined by his brother Ralph London for a photo with company Chairman J.K. Irving. Ralph had retired from the drydock in 1977 with over 51 years, giving the brothers a combined record of 103 years - both in the Boilermaking Department. The London's had helped install or to repair the propulsion systems of every type of vessel worked on in Saint John, from tugboats to aircraft carriers.

Roy Burton's start date at the Saint John Dry Dock was October 14, 1929. He was thirteen years old. He essentially grew up on Main Street, his Dad having moved them to 424 Main a few years before he died. The first ten years of Roy's wages went to supporting his siblings and establishing a home of their own on Barker Street, well above the soot and diesel fumes of the Valley. In 1940, the shipyard was booming with big military contracts and wages were up. Now 24, and very confident in his ability to provide, Roy took himself a bride. Lucy Nickerson was a Catholic girl from High Street, and Catholics had a lot of kids.

"My mother was a devout Catholic, so she would not marry outside her church. [The London's married in St. Peter's Rectory.] I don't know what miracle she used to have that done but she did. My Dad was Anglican but knelt to say his prayers every night and came to church with us on Christmas, Easter and anytime one of us made our first communion."

Rock Street is one of the shortest streets in the old Valley, and is located half way up the slope of the south Valley wall. It was once a thriving enclave of working class families but now, scraped clean of people and buildings, it is a reminder of the failed experiment called urban renewal. In 1910 Walter H. London, a Black Smith, lived at 22 Rock Street with his young family. By 1912 he and wife Bessie Jane Garnett had carried their household possessions across the street to a better flat at 47 Rock Street. After WW1 they moved to a flat on Main Street. This Google Street View shows 22 Rock Street, a blue three storey rental property, recently listed for $129,900. It is the sole holdout on the old street below St. Joseph's Hospital.

Roy London had a passion for hockey and the tough routines of the industrial shop kept his body in shape. Here he poses in the team uniform of the Saint John BISONS in the old Forum, at 130-150 Main Street.

"My Dad played hockey all of his life. My sister remembers that he and his brothers built a rink behind the house on Barker Street (which would have been between Barker and Wellesley Avenue) every winter and hockey was their life (after work and chores). So, I guess that is where his love of hockey came in. He played at the Old Forum in the North End and at the Beaverbrook Rink. I have a picture of what they called the War Workers Hockey League

The Saint John Drydock Royals pose for a team photo, circa 1944. Roy London is 2nd from the right, in front. Dave Garnett is 2nd from left, in front. Ralph London is 2nd player from the left, back row. When World War Two threatened to bring Saint John hockey to a standstill, two leagues persisted - the Saint John Army Garrison and the Saint John War Workers, giving fans a few teams to support.

After the war Roy found time to develop local talent. He was the coach of the SILVER FALLS ACES for several years, taking the Princial Cup in the 1952-53 season. Incredibly, he remained fit and athletically active even after he retired from the shipyard. "Dad played hockey at Lily Lake well into his seventies. He was quite a legend at the lake. Someone said: "The old guy was a puck hog and so small and wiry you couldn't get the puck away from him."

Roy worked hard and he played hard but he also took family very seriously. "He had five children and a wife (sons Roy, Garnett and Terry and daughters Nancy and Patricia) and we never went hungry because of his had work." In our time union wages and benefits can make people over confident about their future, but Roy came up through leaner times. He never trusted in his union seniority to protect him. In 1961 over a thousand employees of the Saint John shipyard walked off the job for five weeks. Roy's hourly wage was $1.88 per hour and he lost 5 1/2 weeks of work for a 9 cent increase, staged over a year in 3 cent increments! As a precaution Roy was always using weekends and holidays to build up his savings. "My Dad mowed lawns all summer for the rich people in West Saint John's Duck Cove area. He did this after supper, with the help of us kids, after a long day's work. He also sold Watkin's Products to coworkers and everyone he knew. He sold Irish Sweepstakes tickets (which I know was not legal) but my Dad worked at everything and anything he could."

Roy wanted to instill his values and his work ethic in his children. "He had a passion for gardening and grew gladiolas and other flowers to sell to stores. Our yard on Garnett Road looked like the Garden of Eden in summer. He loved his hand-dug, hand-shaped flower beds and had a knack for colour and composition. He cultivated raspberries, which we picked each year and sold to go to the Exhibition. If you didn't earn it, you didn't go. He sure taught us the value of money. " Roy amassed enough of a reserve to support himself and his family till the end of his days. Nancy said Roy told stories of unbelievable childhood hardship, including a fond memory of a kind stranger in uptown Saint John took him to a shoe store to buy the first new pair of shoes he ever wore. She added wryly: "He saved all his life and had a fear of poverty, so we were poor but had money in the bank that never got spent. Ha Ha."

Roy London never trusted his union job to guarantee him protection from unemployment and poverty. All of his life he supplemented his wages with self employment, including selling "Watkins Products". Watkins was, and is, a U.S. direct marketing company (some say the first one) which entered Canada in 1913. This is a magazine Ad published in 1953, perhaps the very one that enticed Roy Burton into giving it a try.