John J McLelland

I was born in Sunderland, Co. Durham England in 1953 and I had one brother, Robert sadly he is now deceased. I did not have a great childhood and school was not my greatest experience. In 1970 I joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) and spent nearly seven years travelling around the UK, Europe and Cyprus. I worked in the trade of Ground Radar so I had a front seat view when the Soviet Union sent numerous aircraft past the North Cape of Norway on May Day and many other days.

I had a good time in the RAF, the travel, the friends and the experience even today I’m still in touch with friends I made. After the RAF, I tried several jobs and I also got married to Pamela, we had four children, Emma, Laura, Lawrence and Alastair. They are all grown up now and three have children, our granddaughter Kamelya, grandsons Jayden and Sebastian. I went to University in 1985 to 1988, followed by a year in teacher training.

I have always had an interest in history, my grandfather fought in World War One though he never spoke about it, I have done some research on him, as has my cousin Rosie. I was in Cyprus during the Turkish invasion, the war destroyed so many lives in that beautiful Island. People who had lived together for years suddenly became enemies and the atrocities were many, it was a very sad time.

After Cyprus I spent many years reading many aspects of history and travelling around Europe to visit the battlefields of World War One in Belgium and France. I was always interested in local history and felt disgusted when the shipyards were closed in Sunderland. The mines soon followed as our government systematically destroyed heavy industry and the unions that supported them.

I taught in special needs education for nearly twenty years. I worked with locked up children for nearly ten years, it could be quite rewarding but it was sad to see children, in that situation. In 2006 I was quite badly assaulted by a group of pupils and after that I taught very little. I was always looking over my shoulder, I felt I could not work in a classroom again and I left teaching. My injuries were both mental and physical, over the years my physical symptoms turned to osteo-arthritis and every joint in my body was affected. I cannot walk very far, my retirement plans were ruined and I left work for good in my late fifties.

An enforced retirement meant I turned to reading and research, I spent months taking notes about ships built in Sunderland, on the River Wear and I looked into what had happened to them. In time my notes became a little more and my wife, Pamela suggested I wrote a book. It took me five to six years but eventually I finished, ‘Sunderland Built Merchant Ships ……’. The book was published by Amazon in September 2017.

I have been promoting the book, I got a great review from the local newspaper, the, Sunderland Echo, it can be seen here:

https://www.sunderlandecho.com/lifestyle/retro/u-boats-and-their-sinister-toll-on-sunderland-ships-1-8808869

There is still a lot of promotion to do, I’m hoping to sell the book in the Sunderland Museum and the library has a couple of copies as do a few local schools. So far I have sold about 100 copies and I hope the next year will bring me a few more sales.

In the meantime, I’m currently working on a second book, it’s a similar title covering Sunderland Built Ships Sunk by U boats in World War Two. It’s full of interesting stories about the then town of Sunderland, it’s people, it’s industry and it’s shipbuilding product that was known and respected worldwide. I hope to publish that book later in 2018 or in the early months of 2019.

Please enjoy my book and if you have any comment please contact me on:

jjmclelland@yahoo.com

Thank you for reading this, perhaps I’ll tell a bit more soon.

John