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Centenarian Frank serenaded by 8,000 soccer supporters!
 He left
Ireland aged just eight, still looks after his 63-year-old daughter and
is Millwall’s oldest fan. No wonder the crowd rose to him. Tom Fitzpatrick
went to meet Frank Whipple.
The expression reaching a ‘ripe old age’ could have been
written for Frank Whipple after the Irishman recently turned 100 years
old.
But as I approach my interview with Frank I am worried he won’t
be able to recall stories from his childhood.
Will I have to speak loudly? Will he be able to remember dates and names?
As I quietly knock on the door a voice bellows back at me to: “Open
it and come in.”
See, Frank Whipple is nothing like his age suggests he should be.
Born in Cork in 1907, Frank’s memory of his boat trip to England
at the age of eight is not a fond one.
He said: “It took about 12 hours and I remember the weather being
awful and feeling horribly sick.
“After getting out at Fishguard we had a train to Paddington and
then another train to Stepney and there we were.”
Leaving home at the age of eight, the eldest of three children, Frank
says he always felt a sense of responsibility.
He said: “My father Harry never spoke much about why we left but
he was involved in politics.
“He had to leave so he took a ship to America and then onto Canada
where he joined the Canadian Army.
“It became clear we couldn’t return to Ireland so my father
wrote to us and told us to go to London to stay with relatives and we’d
start a new life there.”
With his mother Margaret and younger siblings Madeleine and Joseph, Frank
settled in London where they stayed with an aunt until they got a couple
of rooms of their own.
In the middle of the First World War, Frank says settling in was hard
due to the responsibility placed on his shoulders.
The Irishman said: “My mother was working nights in a factory making
linseed-oil caked for the cavalry.
“When there was an air raid I had to take my sister and brother
to the shelter at the local railway station. There was very little shelter
but we felt there was at least something over our heads.
“Don’t forget I’m only 10 and I’ve got this responsibility.
It’s something that has stuck with me all my life so I’ve
always felt responsible for something or someone.”
Frank’s father didn’t like the work in London and became a
merchant seaman so his mother had to work three shifts a day to make ends
meet for her family.
He said: “It wore her out and she walked into a lamppost during
a blackout one day in 1941 and we lost her then.”
By that stage Frank had settled down and met his wife Lily, getting married
in 1932.
But back to when the Whipples first arrived.
Frank was enrolled in St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic School and says
he excelled in religious examinations despite them “not teaching
him too much” to which his son Harry explains: “Yeah! Cause
he was a rebel.”
But Frank’s interest in football was already blossoming and his
first visit to Millwall FC was the start of an 89-year-old relationship
that is still going strong today.
Playing football at school was to prove an altogether harder task though.
He said: “When I was 13 I was playing football for my school and
because I had no boots the school bought me a pair for six shillings and
four pence (34p).
“The first time I wore the boots I scored two goals so I started
going down to the old fish market at King Edward’s Memorial Park.
“The school found out I was playing on a Sunday so they took away
my boots and banned me from playing for the school team.
“The last game of the season we were in a cup final and were a man
short. The sportsmaster turned to me and said I was on but I told him
no.
“After leaving me out all season I said they could find someone
else. In the last six months I decided school wasn’t for me.”
After working in an engineering firm cleaning the chains from steam wagons
in big pans of paraffin oil, Frank joined Woods’ Tailors and worked
there for most of the next 40 years.
World War II brought a temporary halt to his work as a tailor’s
presser however, when he worked for the Metropolitan Police as a war reserve.
Frank ended up patrolling the streets during the war and says he used
to watch the flames light up the sky.
“It was horrible. Over one period there were 70 air raids in succession,
another one every day.
“One Saturday my wife was in Stepney Green with a relative when
a bomb fell close to the house.
“The whole house was blasted. I went over from my flat and the front
of the house was blown in.
“I managed to get through the door and they ended up being out the
back in an Anderson shelter. I thought this is no good so I sent Lily
and Harry to relatives in Glasgow.
He said: “I’m sure I saw more dead bodies than those on the
front. We used to have to line them up outside the mortuary and wait for
people to identify them.”
Life got better though and the end of the war meant a return to his job
at the tailors where he stayed despite a brief stint working in a coal
mine in South Wales.
Frank’s second child Peggy was born in 1944 and celebrated her 63rd
birthday recently.
Peggy, who has been mentally disabled since birth, lives with Frank in
their flat in Stepney, east London.
Frank has been named as Peggy’s official carer since 2004 but has
been caring for her for the last 30 years since his wife Lily passed away.
Frank said: “I’ve been named her official carer which means
I get an allowance of £25 a week which helps a lot.
“She’s a good girl though.”
Frank was chairman of the Tower Hamlets branch of Mencap for seven years,
a charity that promotes equal rights for people with learning disabilities.
He said: “I was a good fundraiser too. I used to have a Mencap bottle
in 15 local pubs.
“It was tricky though. I used to go into the first pub to collect
the money and I’d stay for a pint. Then onto the second one and
the same problem so you could only collect from a couple of pubs at a
time.”
Frank eventually left the tailors in 1948 and went into factory work but
left after leading a strike just 18 months into the job!
After a period in the Trade Union a lady in the labour exchange secured
a job in a city solicitors where Frank eventually became office manager
and spent seven years.
He said: “They were the best years of my life. They had a philosophy
of never doing today what you can leave till tomorrow.”
A fanatical Millwall fan for 89 years and counting, Frank first went to
see his team at the age of 11.
Millwall recently honoured their oldest fan by treating him to a dinner
to celebrate his 100th birthday.
He said: “I got to go onto the pitch and I loved it. There were
8,000 people singing happy birthday to me and I’m waving back at
them all (Frank waves regally to the crowd, laughing). I get a free season
ticket too you know.”
It’s at this point I make my first blunder of the interview though.
“When was the last time you attended games regularly?” I ask
gently.
Frank looks at me like I’m half-mad. “I’m still going”,
he says.
Then he’s asking his son where Millwall are playing tonight. Disappointment
at missing out on the away gamesis brushed off when he realises they’re
playing Oldham at home the following Saturday.
“You’re at a party on the Saturday though aren’t you
dad?” Harry asks.
“That’s not till the evening though”, Frank replies
and the argument is won. “Alright then I’ll ring Millwall
and let them know we’re coming.
It seems for Frank life begins at 100.
Frank’s century — special dates in his life.
1907: Frank Whipple is born in Passage, Cork.
1914: World War I breaks out.
1915: Moves to London with his mother and two siblings.
1918: Attends first Millwall FC game.
1921: Leaves school and works cleaning steam wagon chains.
1923: Joins Woods’ Tailors as a 16-year-old.
1932: Marries Lily.
1939: Lily gives birth to Harry. the couple’s first child.
World War II breaks out.
Joins the Metropolitan Police as a war reserve for the Civil Defence.
1943: Works in a coal mine in South Wales
1944: Lily gives birth to Peggy, their second child.
1951: Leaves his job at Woods’ Tailors and becomes a factory shop
steward.
1953: Joins the Trade Union.
1960: Becomes office manager of a solicitors’ firm.
1966: Grandson Andrew is born.
1967: Retires to look after daughter Peggy when wife Lily dies.
Becomes Chairman of Tower Hamlets Branch of Mencap Charity.
1995: First great-granddaughter Lois is born.
1999: Second great-granddaughter Jessica is born.
2007: Celebrates his 100th birthday. |
