Bernard Yarwood -

		Born Thornton 1929, then moved to Carleton, first Poulton Road then Bispham Road. His father Fred Yarwood was a Chauffeur and general handyman employed at the 'Big House' in Bispham Road, Carleton. Lived with mother Esther and elder brother Harold (left) and sister Violet in nearby semi detached bungalow Dene Royd. As a boy he worked at Hebson House Farm across the road. Leaving school at 14 he initially worked for Auntie Elsie in the market garden trade, then began apprenticeship as a joiner, although due to lack of work during the war years no real apprenticeship was served. The work was mainly general maintenance, firstly with Boden and Chadderton at Fleetwood, then Greenhalgh on West Drive, Thornton.
1929				1936

Dismissed by Greenhalgh after a dispute over holiday pay, his final job before National Service was with Vickers in Blackpool, a much bigger company than the previous small scale outfits. Employed as a joiner but mainly involved in setting machines for the assembly of prefab houses. There was much demand for this sort of housing in the immediate post War years.

National Service, June 1946 to
July 1948

Left - with best mate Ron Wood 1946

Right - Bernard with Ron and unidentified matelot outside the Cleveleys Hotel in 1948.

First stationed at Preston for 6 weeks basic training then joining 4th Hussars, Tank Regiment (former Cavalry) at Catterick in Yorkshire, 3 months later transferring to Colchester. After 9 months the main body of the regiment were posted to the far east, but those who only had a short time left to serve did not go and were employed training territorials in Kirkudbright, Scotland. Final posting of any significance was at Winterbourne Gunner Near Salisbury, Joint School of Chemical Warfare. This sinister sounding establishment was responsible for the training of military personnel in biological and nuclear warfare, both offensively and defensively. By the time Bernard arrived he didn't really have much time left to serve so was employed mainly in the Officers' Mess as a waiter. After that he served a short time on the staff of the transit camp at Southampton before being demobbed from Aldershot. My favourite story from this period concerns Blackpool's 6th Round FA Cup tie against Fulham at Craven Cottage on 28th February 1948. He managed to get his picture on the front page of the early editions of the London Evening News as the first Pool supporter to arrive at the ground, alongside a rather intimidating looking docker who was the first Fulham supporter to appear. Unfortunately all attempts to locate a copy of this edition have so far failed.

Above all Bernard was a family man, he married Nora Canning from Fleetwood in 1955. They had met at ICI Hillhouse, Thornton where Bernard was a chemical plant supervisor. Guess who he was supervising! Stephen was first to arrive in September 1957 followed by Sheila in 1959.


Sledging with grand daughter Alice, 1996		Three Generations, with baby grandson Ian, 1996.

Having taken early retirement from ICI (1949-1983) at the age of 53 he took up running as a means to keep fit, but it wasn't long before fell walking rather surprisingly began to take a back seat. Perhaps having conquered all Wainwright's peaks in the Lake District he was looking for a fresh challenge. Once his sights were set on running a Marathon there was never any doubt that he would achieve it, he was a determined character and was always prepared to work hard to achieve excellence. It was a pleasure to see him come through the wall unscathed and complete his first Marathon at Abingdon in 1986. By this time he had discovered Wesham Road Runners. This had opened a whole new world of like minded and friendly people (even Preston and Burnley supporters!!) with whom to train and share the highs and lows, the club became a very important part of his life. For a number of years (1988-92 & 1995) the London Marathon was the annual highlight and it was there that he achieved his personal best of 3 hours 21 minutes in 1988 and again in 1989, pretty good for a man of his age.

His biggest adventure was probably the 1992 New York Marathon, but the camaraderie and general good vibes of London was always something special. In later years when his health began to suffer significantly he was always looking to get back on the road as soon as possible, much to Nora's dismay on occasions. Even if he couldn't run he'd come down to the club, Monday night was club night and that was that, a pint or two of Boddingtons afterwards rounded things off nicely. Talking to many of his fellow runners after his death it was gratifying to find that he was held in such high esteem, he was a modest man and it would have meant a lot to him.

Six years later quite out of the blue I was contacted by Brenda Earnshaw from Wesham Road Runners. She had revamped the club Website and had a feature called 'Runners' Profiles' where members were invited to discuss their running history, motivations, interests etc. It had been suggested that a posthumous entry for Bernard would be a fitting tribute as he was still fondly remembered by the more senior club members. Amongst extracts from the page you are now reading were some touching messages from his former running colleagues.

His other passion was Blackpool Football Club, a lifelong supporter who first went to Bloomfield Road with his father shortly before the War. He had many fond memories of the great sides of the forties and fifties, particularly concerning the exploits of Jock Dodds and Stanley Mortensen. He took Stephen to his first match in 1967 when the old enemy Preston were duly thrashed 4-1. From that day Stephen was hooked, he had become the third generation with tangerine blood in the veins, hardly missing a home match until moving south in 1977. Even so he was always well in touch with events thanks to the weekly envelope of Gazette cuttings that Bernard would send, an excellent service that began years before anyone had heard of the Internet.

Bernard's only trip to Wembley was in 1991 (light blue coat, left foreground) for the old Fourth Division Play Off final against Torquay, unfortunately things didn't go to plan and the Pool lost in a penalty shoot out. I don't think he could face the prospect of it happening again so when we reached the same stage the following year he decided to opt out. Pity really because we won that time, albeit on the dreaded penalties again. Despite poor health in the later years Bernard continued to go to as many home games as possible, his final match being against Bristol City in February 1998, just a couple of months before he passed away.