Jim Radford

Jim Radford is a British folk singer and songwriter, peace campaigner and political and community activist. He is also the youngest known participant in the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944.

Jim Radford was a well known figure in the British Peace Movement and Anti War campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s (particularly in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the British campaign against the USA's Vietnam War). He was also prominent in Direct Action Housing campaigns (e.g. the King Hill Hostel campaign of the mid 1960s, the Family Squatting Associations in London in the late 1960s and early 1970s^[1][2] and the occupation of Centre Point in Central London in 1974). He gained renewed prominence in 2014 when it was discovered by the BBC and the Royal British Legion that not only was he the youngest allied veteran of the Normandy invasion but that he had written a memorable song about his experiences as a young seaman on one of the Deep Sea Tugs that built the Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches (Gold Beach) - and he could sing. Jim Radford performed his song, 'The Shores of Normandy', three times at the Royal Albert Hall in London in the 70th anniversary year of the invasion (2014) and two of these concerts were televised by the BBC (the BBC's own 70th anniversary commemoration event in June^[3] and the British Legion Remembrance Day concert in November^[4]).

Jim Radford went to sea at fifteen when he sailed from his home-town of Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the spring of 1944 as a Galley Boy on the 'Empire Larch'.^[5] The 'Empire Larch' was a Deep Sea Tug owned by the British Ministry of War Transport and engaged in war work (assembling the convoy of block-ships for Operation Corn Cob^[6]) in preparation for the invasion of France. He joined the Royal Navy on turning 18 and settled back on dry land in 1954, becoming an activist in various humanist, political and Peace Campaigns and helping to organise the first of the Aldermaston Marches in 1958 (later adopted by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) and being invited to join the Committee of 100 shortly after its foundation in 1960.^[7] He retired after a varied career which included time as an Engineering Worker, in Fleet Street, as a Press Officer, as Warden (Director) of Blackfriars Settlement in South London,^[8] as General Secretary of Manchester Council for Voluntary Service and in various roles in Community Work and Social Action initiatives. He is a regular attender and performer at maritime and folk music festivals around the UK and although he is best known for his sea-songs and shanties (sung a cappella) he also sings from an extensive repertoire of British and Irish (and some Australian) folk songs as well as political and protest songs.^[9] Jim Radford also remains actively involved in the British section of the Veterans for Peace^[10][11][12] organisation. In October 2015 Jim Radford was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur^[13] by the French Republic "in recognition of... steadfast involvement in the Liberation of France during the Second World War".

The first song Jim Radford wrote himself is also his most successful and best known, having been performed at two televised concerts at the Royal Albert Hall.

Jim Radford is one of three brothers who all went to sea as teenagers and sailed as Merchant Seamen during WWII (his eldest brother, 'Jack', qualified as a Radio Officer at just 17 and is thought to have been the youngest Merchant Navy Officer killed by enemy action in WWII when his ship, the 'SS Cree', was torpedoed in November 1940,^[14] just weeks after his eighteenth birthday). Jim Radford's tribute song to the wartime Merchant Navy, 'The Merchant Seaman', won the Festival on the Moor^[15] 'best song award' in 2009.

References