Keith Barclay
I decided to leave the pits and join the army, which was an adventure. I joined the South Wales Borderers in June 1949.
My name is Keith Barclay. I worked in the colliery when I was fourteen. After training I became a post boy. My job as a post boy was to take timber and put it on a conveyer belt for the colliers to hold up the roof. We used to fill trams with coal, which was hard work. We used to fill ten trams a day.
I decided to leave the pits and join the army, which was an adventure. I joined the South Wales Borderers in June 1949. I was nearly eighteen. I hadn't been away from home before. I was one of nine children. We lived in Pentre. I trained for ten weeks in Brecon. We had to train to use and fire rifles. We also had to march on the parade ground.
We went to Eritrea, near Ethiopia. I was a rifleman at first, then became a Vickers machine gunner. The main work was to protect the Italian people. We were occupational troops. The Italians had made slaves of the Eritrean people for many years.
I remember being in a platoon in a place called Burrento near Ethiopia border. We went in single-wing spotter planes to find shifters. We had to drop messages to the nearest patrols on location of shifters. Shifters were bandits or freedom fighters. I felt excited, but it was frightening as well.
In 1951 I decided to go back to the colliery on Class W Reserve to finish five years service. Out in Eritrea I had been injured. I was in hospital for a while.
Over the years I have regretted coming out of the army and have dedicated time to the associations. Looking back I would say that today I am a forces-feeling man, even though I am content with civilian and family life.
