Former South London Press hack Eric Gould has returned to his old stomping ground after nearly 60 years to delve into the archives and dig out the stories he wrote in the war.

The 80-year-old Second World War reporter, who now lives in Salisbury, last saw the inside of the office the day he quit journalism in 1949 for PR.

He joined the paper in March 1942 as a messenger boy at the tender age of 14 after the wartime school lessons he attended stopped.

During two stints at the SLP Eric worked at both the head office in Elephant & Castle and the current base in Leigham Court Road, Streatham.

Eric was interviewed first time round for a job in the paper's old printing works but things turned out differently.

He said: "My parents, for some reason, thought I could earn a lot of money as a printer and the South London Press was recommended to me.

"I went for an interview there with the then managing director Frank Hayes. He told me I was not cut out for printing and he said, 'Reporting is more your bag' and gave me a job."

Eric's father Harold was told in the appointment letter his son would start on a wage of 18/6d – to rise to £1 at 15 and £1.3.6 at 16.

The letter said: "We hope you will impress upon your son the necessity of becoming proficient at shorthand as soon as possible and that you will advise him to begin his studies immediately, if he has already not done so."

Eric's job was to run errands mostly from the Elephant office to the House of Commons, Fleet Street and the Ministry of Information with his leather satchel stuffed with paper.

Incredibly, every Friday he travelled by bus or tram from the head office with all the Streatham office staff's wages – which amounted to around £600.

Four months later Eric was promoted to the junior position of editorial learner writing film reviews, proof reading and helping out with the printing.

And in March 1943 he became a fully-fledged reporter for Southwark dodging the V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets that were raining down on his patch.

He said: "Somehow the SLP managed to keep publishing throughout the war years despite the shortage of skilled staff – most were serving in the armed forces – and the scarcity of materials such as newsprint.

"There was also disruption caused by the air raids and the need to rely on youngsters like me not to let the editor down when interviewing Government ministers, leaders of the armed forces and the like."

Then in July 1945 Eric was called up for the Army and sent to Greece where he edited a Forces daily newspaper for three and a half years.

Eric said in its heyday the SLP sold around 250,000 copies – around ten times its circulation figure now.

He said: "It was a highly respected publication and you always knew, if you wanted an interview and you said you were from the SLP, you would get it."

In 1948 Eric returned to the SLP as a district reporter for Battersea before leaving a year later to go into public relations.

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