Z1205/064

Hungarian immigrant Brickworker b. 06.07.1911 SIDE A (00 mins)Birth & childhood in Budapest, Hungary. (05 mins)High school tours to Istanbul, Paris & Venice. (10 mins)Teenage unemployment, then job in income tax office. Army service during Second World War. Post-war recruitment by English for work in Bedfordshire brickyards, 1948. (15 mins)Sent money home to Hungary to enable mother and divorced sister to subsist. First impressions of England: shabby people, nice countryside, a lot of small houses with their own garden. Lived at London Brick Co. hostel at Kempston Hardwick for 8 years. (20 mins)Hard physical work rough on hands of this former civil servant. ouldn't understand English. (25 mins)Weekly tuition English for foreign workers by Miss Taylor. After 18 months on brick presses, doctor's recommendation leads to lighter (but dirtier) job at brickworks. Police suspicions against foreign workers. Later transferred to job in works laboratory. (32 mins)End of Side A SIDEB (00 mins)British naturalisation. Suffering discrimination from colleagues because he was a "bloody foreigner" (05 mins)Brief return to Budapest in 1970 (?) (10 mins)Quality control work in the brickworks laboratory. (15 mins)Made unhappy by attitude of majority of workers against "foreigners" (20 mins)Active retirement, reading, gardening, helping other older people (25 mins)Reflections on the harmful effect of automation in brick industry. (30 mins)End of Side B.End of interview. Original interview 60 mins

13 November 2001

From: 1905 To: 2001

item

brick worker, immigration, Hungarians, army, taxation, World War Two, lodging houses, LANGUAGE, doctors, police, technician, laboratory, gardening, race issues, Reading, volunteers, Budapest, Hungary, Paris, Venice, Istanbul, Kempston Hardwick