FF: Kevin Thorne
Back row L-R: WM Sean Absolom, FF Kevin Maslen, FF Keith Avery,
FF Nick Harris, FF Nick Southern, CM Duncan Kent
Front Row L-R Mick Godfrey, SM Mick Pilcher
This story of commitment and dedication began with Mick’s Grandfather, George Hill, in 1913. George was based at the ‘old’ Fire Station on Red Cross Road, Goring where he was Sub-officer for many years. Later, George was joined by Mick’s father, Frank Godfrey, and they served together during the Second World War. During the war they slept in a hut beside the Fire Station from where they were called out to attend incidents in towns as far away as Bath and Bristol, riding the whole way standing up, holding on to an open sided Rolls Royce fire appliance.
By the time Frank retired after 30 years as a fire- fighter, Mick had already joined the Fire Service and during his own 33 years in the job he attended many hundreds of incidents in our local area and beyond. His proudest memories are of the times he helped rescue people trapped in cars following crashes, such incidents giving him, in his own words, a very real sense of ‘job satisfaction’.
The largest incident that Mick ever attended was at Fawley Petrol Refinery in Hampshire where a petrol tanker train had been hit by a goods train and caught fire. Foam supplies were gathered from many of the local airports and after working all night the ‘river of fire’ was finally brought under control.
Having spent a lifetime in the Fire Service, Mick is keen to encourage others to join and to share the sense of job satisfaction that he felt. Oxfordshire has 24 Fire Stations of which 18, including Goring, are crewed solely by retained (part time) fire-fighters.