Threads & yarns. Fred Alsop.

Threads and yarns

London : Wellcome Trust, 2011.

1 encoded audio file (93:24 min.) + 1 PDF transcript.

01:33:24

Wellcome Trust, 2011

Some restrictions.

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No derivatives 3.0 Unported

In English.

Interview took place on 3rd June 2011

This recording is from a series of 8, which were captured by a team of interviews for the Wellcome Trust's 75th anniversary celebrations. Two day-long workshops were held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in May 2011. These were attended by seniors from the London Borough of Camden and textile design students from Central St Martin s College of Art and Design. Seniors and students worked individually to create woven flowers, whilst engaging together in conversation around the themes of health and wellbeing. These intergenerational conversations were audio recorded and formed one part of the project s narrative component. Seniors were also invited to record a story or anecdote relating to their personal experiences of health and wellbeing, in shorter one to one interviews, called Threads. These took place throughout both workshops and were recorded in a separate interviewing space. They were conducted using an oral history approach, with an emphasis on active listening and self-narration. Five of these Threads have been submitted to the Wellcome Library. The three oral history interviews submitted were carried out with seniors in the weeks following the workshops. These more extended narratives, called Yarns, were recorded by the project s Oral History Lead, using a life story approach.

Interview: Fred was born in 1926 but doesn't know his exact place of birth (probably Manchester); his first memories are from when he was 3 year's old. He recounts a memory of being administered ether and having all his milk teeth removed at home by a dentist. Fred experienced some problems with his eyesight as a child; some eye drops were prescribed, although later Fred recounts an incident where he had an eye injured exiting from a cinema. After school, he ended up in the navy on a Dutch merchant ship (?). When he was 16 or 17 he jumped ship in America and spent some time visiting clubs in New York City. Prior to this, he contracted malaria and was hospitalised at Ellis Island (the continuity of events are a little unclear). Fred mentions how a scald was treated with a poultice on board the ship. Soon after this, he was part of the Allied invasion force; he talks about how an infected tooth was removed without pain relief, then became severely infected and ultimately resulted in his return to the UK and being invalided out of active service. For the rest of his military service, Fred was working in kitchens, although after the War he describes symptoms of depression which resulted in disciplinary problems. Later in the interview, it transpires that he was given ECT to get all the "backlog" out of his head. After a spell staying at the Salvation Army, he managed to turn his life around and train as a painter and decorator. Later he worked at a tyre recycling plant which resulted in respiratory problems. In later life, he describes the aches and pains of old age and some more recent treatment for hernias. Time start: 00:00:00:00 Time end: 01:33:24:00 Length: 01:33:24:000