Bill Mason - George Medal (1941)

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Published 11th September 1941

FIVE HOURS WITH INFLAMMABLE OIL AND TIME BOMB

LONDON.—Here's the situation—there are 503 gallons of highly inflammable creosote oil in a storage well. Underneath the oil is a 5001b time-bomb. What's to be done about it?

When this state of affairs was discovered after a raid, Bill Mason volunteered to pump out the oil (and incidentally risk being blown up or burned).

Everybody else was cleared from the danger area in the tar works.

Alone, 42-years-old Bill Mason sat in the steam pump house—-only 12ft away from the well—and kept the pump going.
Slowly the level of the oil sank in the well.

"It got on my nerves a bit during the first hour," says Bill.

HOUR AFTER HOUR

For three hours he pumped. .."I began to kid myself it would never go off."

For five hours he pumped. ..."On the last lap—and I was almost enjoying it."

There was now only a foot of sludge in the well, and the pump would draw no longer. "I was quite disappointed," .says Bill. "The sludge covered the bomb. I did want to see it."

And then Bill "packed up" and walked across the deserted yard and reported: "Oil all safe." Within 25 minutes the bomb went off. The pump-house was demolished.

It is announced that Bill Mason ,of Salford, Lancashire, has been awarded the George Medal.
His two little girls, aged 11 and 7, will be teasing their 19-years-old soldier brother that Daddy is the first to get a medal.

"Which is funny, because Bill Mason served two years in the last war—in France, Italy, and Egypt. And he has had to wait until he is a civilian again to win one.

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From the London Gazette 20th June 1941.

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My grandfather William Mason was the first civilian in Swinton and Pendlebury to be awarded the George medal for bravery. In June 1941 he worked for 4 hours within 8 feet of a 500lb unexploded bomb, knowing it could go off at any minuet. He pumped 20,000 gallons of oil out of the well in which the bomb had fallen, this was at the Tar distillery in Weaste.The surrounding area was evacuated, he worked on his own until the pump stopped working, he decided to use a pipe to drain the last bits out. But a nut and bolt wasn’t tight enough to hold it in place and he didn’t have the right spanner available decided to " knock off" and complete the job the next morning. This decision saved his life because about half an hour later when he had covered about half a mile of his journey home he heard an explosion, when he went to work the following morning he found it to have been caused by the detenation of the bomb. He went to the palace and recieved the medal from the king, when he got back his neighbours in Park street Swinton had decorated the street with flags and bunting fit for a hero’s welcome. My granddad had another narrow escape from a high explosive bomb during the christmas blitz on the Manchester area. He was in the grounds of the works when he heard the bomb coming down, and after throwing himself under a wagon saw it explode within 20 yards of him he was untouched. We never saw much of my dads parents my grandd died 1968, I knew nothing about his medal until my gran mason died in 1977 and it was mentioned in the paper, and it made my day when I saw the article as it was printed in The Swinton Journal of June 27th 1941 along with a photo of him. Thanks to the Library/museum at the crescent Salford having the old newspapers on microfilm and being able to look a something that happened 69 years ago.

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Bill Mason was born in Seedley. He volunteered for the Army at the age of 18 in 1917. In 1941 he was living at 29 Park St, Swinton. His brother, John Mason, was in business for several years as a fish and chip frier at 2, Pendlebury Road, Swinton. His son, William, served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers during WW2.