The project to create a history of my former place of employment is coming along slowly. It's amazing what is turning up in the research and the gaps are slowly filling, though I suspect some may remain when the project reaches its final form and shape. Even so there will be a lot for those who worked there, those who attended courses and those interested in what it was all about, to chew over. We're hoping to be able to get some of the surviving leaders of the whole enterprise, and as many of the former staff and even students as we can manage to find and fit in to contribute short reminiscences as well.
The history of the organisation is, at first glance, quite short. However, it is not so straight forward, because it did arise from a need identified in 1923, exposed cruelly in 1940 in places like Coventry, and resolved in emergency measures which shaped the fire service for the next sixty years. It is a history worth the telling.
Future generations will, I hope, find in it some salutary lessons as well.