This audio recording is unedited, raw footage of an interview with Mr Eric Tansley (born 1920) discussing his life experiences, from his schooldays to the RAF during the Second World War and his extensive work in the shoe trade.

The interviewee recalls his education, describing schools attended in St Albans, Hertfordshire from infant school to college in London. He speaks about his relationships with teachers and pupils, being Head Boy, and facilities at the time.

He goes on to give a brief history of the shoe trade and mentions his family’s involvement, speaking about the conditions, wages, trade unions and how the industry evolved.

He then describes call up in World War II and volunteering for the Royal Air Force. He describes air crew training as a pilot in the USA, detailing training experiences and conditions. He mentions the racism experienced in the southern states and anti-British sentiment expressed in Detriot, also noting the less visible class distinctions in the USA. He compares these experiences with time spent in Canada, and then his return to the UK and wartime conditions.

He speaks about memories of VE Day celebrations, and then about the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945, detailing information available at the time on the atom bomb. He recalls demobilisation and his return to the shoe industry; including the effects of wartime on production and conditions. He describes Mr Claw buying Trueform shoes, the development of the British Shoe Co. and subsequent transfer to Leicester of the factory. He details the upheaval and loss of jobs this caused and his own disillusionment. He concludes by commenting on the decline of the British shoe trade due to industrial espionage and other markets undercutting costs. This audio recording last 88 minutes and 06 seconds.

The original recording is held by the East Midlands Oral History Archive, (EMOHA ref: 0830, LO/194/145)