Tom Morley

Tom Morley was born in Kearns Place, Kilmainham Dublin in 1942 and named after his Gt Uncle who died in a mill accident. Tom’s family slept in one big bed, with his parents at one end and the children at the other end. Despite his father having steady work on the railways, the family were very poor and put cardboard in their boots as they could not afford new ones. Luckily, Tom’s father was good at mending them. The Morley family lived in one room with one communal water tap and toilet. Fortunately, the tap was located outside their room. This sort of overcrowding was very common in Dublin at the time but things were about to improve.  Tom’s family got a new Council house in 1950 - 40 Cremona Road Ballyfermot. All of the families’ belongings were moved in a box cart, over several nights. They must not have known themselves, with their own bathroom and a garden for the children to play in. Tom’s father had a real pride in the new family home. He put up gates and worked hard to make the garden lovely. 

Tom attended Basin Lane Infants Kilmainham and then CBS James Street where he learned Irish and even the prayers were in Irish. At the time, a pass in the Irish language was essential to obtain the Junior Leaving Cert. All this time, Tom worked, selling coal off a horse and cart as there was no pocket money. 

Tom left School in 1955 and went to Capel St Technical School for a while, where he continued to learn Irish, but left to get a job in a garage, panel beating American cars. Tom was sacked but soon found work in Burton the Tailor shop until they sacked him at the age of 16. It was common for young people to be let go when they reached 16 because they would have to give them a pay rise. Instead, they took on new younger employees who were 13, 14 years old. For a while Tom worked as a messenger boy riding on a bike, earning earned £1.50 a week and when he left it was £2.50. Both Tom and his brother Willie gave their most of their wages to their mother. Tom started work with Charles Doyle Screen printers in Dublin, earning £1.50 per week printing and attaching labels for oil bottles. To better his prospects, Tom went to night School for two years to study metal work and mathematics. 

Sadly, in 1957, Tom’s father John, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 36 leaving Tom’s mother Nellie and 4 children aged 16, 15, 9 and 6. Tom was the second eldest aged 15. There was no benefit system at this time and it was difficult to get work in Dublin unless your father had a trade to pass down to you. John had left a small pension from the Railway and Nellie worked cleaning Railway carriages at Westland Row Station. Sometimes the family used the Stew House which provided soup and rice to disadvantaged local families for 3d. Grownups often sent the children, so they did not feel social judgment. Despite her cleaning work, Nellie struggled to pay the rent and soon got behind. She was served with an Eviction Notice and she got rid of their furniture, ready to move on. 

In February 1959, aged 17, Tom came with his mother and older brother Willie, aged 18 on the Princess Maud to Holyhead. His younger brothers had stayed behind with his Auntie. Unusually, it was a fairly calm crossing. After catching the mail train to Euston Station, the family walked to St Pancras and travelled by train to Luton.  Tired and cold, they arrived at an address in Ashburnham Rd where Nellie had managed to get a flat. It was February. Luton looked a very dull place; there was a strong smell of gas and very little traffic. Tom came from Dublin, so the contrast was stark. Tom said “All the people at Holyhead spoke Welsh on the train. I felt home sick. I missed my pigeons, my dog, my two younger brothers, my chickens, Canals, the River, and the Dublin way of life!”

17 was not a good age to get work. If Tom had been 18, it would have been easier. By April Tom found a job on a building site off Fieldgate Road. It was labouring work; hard work all by hand. There were no machines. He earned earned £8 - £9 per week and while the money was helping, Tom did not see a future in that because he didn’t have a trade. He still felt home sick but with his whole life ahead of him, Tom wanted to see the world so he joined the Army in May 1959 because he would get 3 annual free passes back to Ireland and plenty of leave.

Tom joined the East Anglian Regiment as an Infantry Soldier (A foot soldier trained to fight on foot). This was to be quite an experience as he was sent to Singapore and then travelled to Malaysia for Jungle training. While in Singapore, Tom had an appendicitis, requiring an emergency operation. He also managed to be bitten by a monkey! Tom stayed there at Ipoh, Malaysia for 6 months, experiencing snorkelling parachuting and then moved to a new camp. He returned home on a troop ship stopping at Ceylon, Aden, travelled up the Suez Canal, Gibraltar and then Southampton. It took 22 days, but he was home and delighted to see his mother Nellie again. After that he was posted in Shoeburyness for 6 months.  

Tom was posted to Devizes Hampshire on a Civil Defence Course, where he learned first Aid and did simulations for a possible Atomic bomb drop. Then it was time to see the world again with a posting to Canada. 

Tom may have travelled the world, but it was during his time in Ireland in 1963, before the Troubles, that he met Margaret Rooney from Killyleagh Down Northern Ireland. Margaret had left school aged 14 and worked in the tannery with her father Paddy.  One day, Tom was watching an Elvis film at the Pictures, when met Margaret. They really hit it off and within a few weeks, with a posting to Germany looming, it was crunch time. If Tom left Margaret back in Down, she might meet someone else, so Tom braved it and asked her to marry him. She said yes and the newly married Morleys set off to Germany where Tom was posted to Berlin and their eldest daughter Sharon was born there.  Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip visited Berlin and Tom’s regiment was inspected by them. Tom was no stranger to Royalty. In 1963, in Ireland he had been on parade for the Queen Mother. had By 1966 the family were on the move again, first to Tidworth, Andover and then for 7 months in Aden where Tom lived in tents and patrolled the streets. One day, while Tom was slowly driving a lorry full of soldiers on patrol through the streets, the lorry was grenaded and mercifully, no one was injured or killed. Tom was mortared twice, once when his camp was bombed, resulting in 174 casualties in his battalion. 

In 1967, Tom went to Kenya for 6 weeks training in the Bush. He travelled from their Base in Nanyuki to Mombasa. Tom picked up Lorries from a ship in Mombasa; they were Bedford Lorries made in Luton, which he drove to Nairobi and then to Nanyuki at the time when Jomo Kenyatta was president after Kenya became independent from the British Empire. Then it was back to Tidworth and Tom was driving trucks through Belgium. In 1986 Tom left Tidworth and it was time to put down roots. Tom and his family have lived in Luton since 1968.  Tom and Margaret were blessed with two more children, Joanne and Lee. 

The family home was a flat in Wenlock Street, High Town. Tom was always prompt with the rent and the landlord, an ex serviceman, like himself, offered to sell him another one of his houses for £1000. It was an informal arrangement and Tom paid him £20 a month. Wenlock St wasn’t far from the Harp Club in in Midland Road, where Tom could socialise with other Irish people. 

Margaret worked as a Coach Escort for Special needs children at Richmond Hill School for 34 years and together, Tom and Margaret fostered four children, even when she was pregnant as well as rearing their own. Margaret had a giving nature and donated a kidney to her sister, but sadly, her sister died. Tom recalled that Margaret was always giving sweets to the neighbourhood children and she would disappear off for a cuppa and a chat with neighbours or be off finding bargains in Hightown’s second hand shops. One of the strengths of Luton is its multicultural mix, and Tom was invited to weddings and funerals by his Asian neighbours. 

Tom started work at Vauxhall Bedford Trucks on the production line fitting seats to lorry cabs and then moved to work as a spot welder for Chrysler in Dunstable because they gave better pay. He left to drive for Barney Doherty Leagrave, Eddie Sweeney Hightown and Danny Friel Luton. In the 90s he worked for Robin Kehoe, Leighton Buzzard and then did agency work for forty different firms for five years, driving trucks.  

In 1990s, Tom started work in Leighton Buzzard for an Irish Firm, Billy Docherty, driving Trucks and machinery. Tom partnered with his son and they established L & T Morley, with two ready mix Lorries concreting the M1 motorway to create an extra lane and a hard shoulder at Milton Keynes. 

Tom has always stayed in touch with his old regiment and proudly takes part in reunions and meets other ex-service men as well as attending the annual Remembrance march. Tom received a medal from Saudi Arabia and the Malayan government at Duxford Imperial War Museum in 2008.  Tom was presented with The Pingat Jasa Malaysia & miniature from Lt Col Tajri from malaysia for serving in Malaya with 3rd East Anglian regiment.

After retirement, Tom has remained active and involved with LIF, gaining his First Aid Certificate and taking part in regular social and cultural events. Tom joined the LIF computer club and learned how to get on line and stay in touch with family and friends. It was also useful for genealogical tracing and Tom amassed over 600 ancestors on his family tree. He enjoyed some fun times at the LIF Toddler Group with his youngest granddaughter. Margaret’s health was becoming more and more of a concern and she needed to use a wheelchair. Tom was her devoted carer for five years. Sadly in 2019, Tom’s wife Margaret died after fifty-five years married. Tom was devastated and drew on the support of his family and friends.  In 2014, the family took Tom to visit Killyleagh Castle Co Down N Ireland, and they could see the town where their Granny Margaret had come from.

Tom is very involved with his grandchildren and never misses an occasion to cheer them on in all they do, as well as picking them up from school and taking them to reunions. Both are excellent cello players and Tom loves hearing them play at school concerts. There’s a pride and love that really shines out of any picture you see of Tom with his family and he has a lot to be proud about. Grandad Tom is clearly very loved as the grandchildren send him beautiful cards. In return, he has given them orange lily bulbs, which were Margaret’s favourite, as a way of saying thank you. 

From Tom’s humble beginnings, in one generation, his daughter was able to go to Essex university and gain her degree and his son had started his own Truck business.   

Tom said “Luton has been good to us, with work, with benefits and the NHS. We didn’t need a passport. My family settled here.”