GROWING up in the 1940s I had three brothers and a sister. My oldest brother was called Joseph.

When Joe left school my father found him employment at East Hetton colliery. He hated working in the coal mines and he threatened to leave and join the merchant navy.

My brother got his own way after an argument with my father and he was employed on a merchant ship in Southampton bound for America.

Not long after Joe set sail for America his ship was torpedoed.

My father was informed by telegram that he had been lost at sea, but some sailors were picked up by another ship that was going to America.

About a month after the news that my brother was lost at sea he walked in to the house one afternoon and said “Hello mother”.

He explained that he was saved by another passenger ship. My brother went back to sea again and won promotion to some of the bigger ships, including the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth.

He worked as a first class steward looking after the rich and famous film stars and business people.

My brother left to work in the County Hotel, in Durham, and luck came his way again.

Two elderly ladies that he had looked after as a steward on the big passenger ships found him a job looking after the American embassador as a valet.

I remember the last time Joe came home to Coxhoe.

He told me he would regard his home as America because the life he was living there with the rich and famous was too good to leave to for a life of poverty in England.

Sadly, my brother never came home again.

Jimmy Taylor, Coxhoe.