Cutting Timber in Great Britain

Press cutting from 1939.

We went to, actually in Northumberland to an army camp. Now the boys in that camp were already in Dunkirk and that was a vacated army camp and we were starting a sawmill there. So our first sawmill that went up was in Kielder, actually the address Kielder, Hexham, Northumberland. And then we cut the wood for

Men standing around in wooded area.

this sawmill, on the Duke of Northumberland’s estate on the

Men sitting on train.

Cheviot Hills I believe. Anyway, that’s where we got our first

Workers cutting timber and moving large tree trunks.

timber from. So there were some other boys then in the next draf twho come to Scotland and we closed up, most of us anyway, they sent us to, we went just outside of Inverness in Scotland and we commenced there. We built our own cabins there,

Men working on makeshift scaffolding building cabin.

that’s where we had three big log cabins. I forget how many men

Two men standing around piles of timber with a black work horse.

were actually there. So we operated then in Culloden Moor and Croy was the name of the village next to it. I forget how many million cords or feet or whatever was there to be cut, you know, but I’ve heard since that where we did cut is now an airfield.

Mr. Austin describes working as a sawyer in England and Scotland prior to enlistment

Stephen Austin

Stephen Austin, Sr. was born in Holyrood, Newfoundland on December 16, 1916. He was the second of four children and was raised on a family farm. His father was also a fisherman. In 1936 he started working as a truck driver. Mr. Austin went to England at the outbreak of war and worked in lumber crews. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force where he trained for a heavy engine mechanic. Mr. Austin served first in England, where he maintained the equipment which raised anti-bombardment balloons. After re-certification, his tour of duty took him to post D-Day Europe where he maintained military vehicles during the Allied advance on Germany. Mr. Austin married a Belgium national, and returned to Newfoundland where he worked as a mechanic. He later returned to France, working several years at the war memorial in Beaumont-Hamel.