The Life of a Fireman

To Verger Stanley Thompson, 60, of Church of St. Dunstan-in-the was awarded the British Empire Medal last week. Verger Thompson did not know much about putting out incendiary bombs, but he did the best he could.

During a recent raid on the City of London a bomb shower fired the wooden desks and floor of St. Dunstan's schoolroom. Verger Thompson doused desks and floor with water, causing the bomb fragments to explode. Undaunted, Fireman Thompson stamped out the fragments.

The church's dome started burning. Elderly Fireman Thompson scrambled nimbly up an iron ladder to the dome, picked up a hot bomb, hurled it to the ground. Losing his balance, he tumbled down the dome, got wedged against a parapet. Freeing himself, he spotted another incendiary the vestry roof, walked atop a twelve-foot wall carrying a water bucket. The bomb responded to the water treatment by exploding and hurling Fireman Thompson to the concrete pavement below.

Fireman Thompson could not seem to learn. Late that night he was discovered astride a 30-foot wall in the neighborhood, hauling up a fire hose to drench another fire. Last week he was recuperating, expected soon to take a new job of fire-watching, at which he will try very hard to remember not to throw water on incendiaries.

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