Bermondsey boy reunited with 60-year-old Dandy comic he starred in
A nine-year-old Tom Burton told readers all about
Tommy Steele, Max Bygraves and Surrey Docks
Tom Burton with his 1963 Dandy edition
Reunited with a 1963 Dandy edition
featuring his love letter about his local area.
Writing
for the comic’s My Home Town page, a nine-year-old Tom mentions all of
Bermondsey’s local favourites including Brunel, Tommy Steele, Max Bygraves,
Turner’s Fighting Temeraire, Surrey Docks, the leather industry, Tower Bridge
and early railway lines.
The reunion came about when Southwark News Arts Correspondent Micky Holland,
an avid collector of Bermondsey memorabilia, received a new purchase.
“I
bought the comic on Ebay for £10 because it was said to have a Bermondsey
connection and I was buying it for a friend’s son who likes reading old
comics,” he said.
“When
I saw the My Home Town page and Tom’s name as the contributor in there I knew
that there was a good chance of tracking him down on the internet and giving
him my copy if he didn’t have one himself.”
Micky
put out a request on Facebook for anyone who might know Tom and how to get in
touch with him. He said: “It didn’t take long before Ann Palmer got back to me
and said she went to school with Tom and was in contact with his brother Rob,
so I asked her to put us in touch.”
A
few weeks went by and Micky thought that his mission had failed. “I gave Ann a
reminder and last week Rob Burton messaged me saying Tom doesn’t do Facebook
but he’d spoken to him and he was pleased to accept the offer of my copy.”
Tom writes about
local icons including Marc Brunel, Tommy Steele and Max Bygraves
Tom writes about
local locations including Tower Bridge and Surrey Docks
Tom
now lives in Mottingham and made a date for Micky to deliver the Dandy. When
our arts man arrived he saw that Tom was really pleased to see his page on
Bermondsey and his name in there, but didn’t actually recall writing in. He
said: “I was always writing off to comics.”
Reading
through his contribution Tom saw the prizes he could have won: Complete Cowboy
Outfit; Nurse’s Outfit, Ball-Bearing Roller Skates; £1 Postal Order.
This jogged Tom’s memory: “I remember taking the postal order now,
‘cos a pound was a lot of money to a 9-year-old back then – about eight weeks’
pocket money! I was only getting half-a-crown a week, which would buy me three
Superman comics, so a pound was a small fortune!”
The cover of the 1963 Dandy edition
Tom, who
has no family left in SE16 now, reminisced about schools and work. He went to
the small, two-class St Mary’s near the tunnel, then on to Bacons, before
training to be a dealer in stockbroking.
“Me and
the stock exchange parted company under dubious circumstances,” he said. “The
people I worked with see me as someone from an alien place who didn’t fit in
socially so I left to join the fire brigade,” where he still works today.
Tom
Burton ended by saying he had a wonderful childhood and looks back on
Bermondsey with fondness and might even frame his My Home Town page and hang it
proudly on a wall in his house.
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