SalfordOnline.com were saddened to hear the news of the death of James ‘Jimmy’ Rushby who sadly passed away at Salford Royal Hospital on Thursday 7 January after suffering from a heart attack.
Jimmy, 89, was a popular and well-respected figure around Salford and Eccles, and had one of the most fascinating life stories ever told.
As a longtime friend of SalfordOnline.com, Jimmy contributed to numerous news and feature stories on the news website over the past 8 years.
Watch: Hiroshima bombing 70 years on: Eyewitness account of Jimmy Rushby, Salford Royal Navy seaman
Jimmy is survived by his two sons, Peter and Barry.
Speaking with his son Peter Rushby, it becomes obvious that would be almost impossible to record the many, many things that Jimmy did and saw in his lifetime.
Jimmy was born in November 1926 and was brought up in the Ordsall Lane area of Salford.
He went to Regent Road school before a spell at Stowell school on Trafford Road.
Watch: Kyoto – Memories of a Salford Royal Navy seaman
His first job after leaving school was working for the Co-op laundry on Athol Street, driving a horse and cart and picking up laundry from ships that were moored at Salford Docks – now Salford Quays.
He would often tell me amusing stories about the capers that he got up to.
The ones we’re able to print here include taking ‘parcels’ to the Clowes pub on Trafford Road which had been shipped by American Light Line Company.
Jimmy was under strict orders not to open them, so naturally he would take a peek and see the vast wealth of rare and desirable products they contained, including Lucky Strike cigarettes, nylons, Bourbon whiskey and much more.
For his trouble he would be paid a couple of English cigarettes and given a glass of beer by the Clowes landlord. This little earner went on for a while until young Jimmy decided that he wasn’t getting his fair share and started taking a few packets of cigarettes out for himself.
Watch: A Brief History of Salford Reds: Part 3
Sadly his enterprising venture came to an end when the landlord complained that he wasn’t getting his regular rations and Jimmy moved on.
I would love sitting down and talking to Jimmy about growing up in Salford. He told me about an area of the city opposite where the Sainsbury’s store on Regent Road is now. It was called ‘God’s Pocket’, such was the extreme poverty and deprivation it suffered.
He told me about the Salford Christmas Blitz of 1940 when he was just 14 years old.
When he was walking back from his aunt’s house on Sutton Flats to his own home on the Langworthy Estate, Eccles New Road, he got the shock of his life when bombs started dropping all around him.
As he made his way down Fitzwarren Street, he told me that the night sky turned purple and red with the flames from a blazing city landscape. He took shelter in the old Welsh Chapel for several hours before running home, only stopping to pick up red-hot pieces of shrapnel from the bombs as a souvenir.
Jimmy joined the Royal Navy in September 1944 and was sent to a naval training school in Scotland here he met a young George Melly, the celebrated jazz and blues singer, but Jimmy took an instant dislike.
He may have been the first and last man Jimmy didn’t get along with.
His ship was the HMS Anson and Jimmy saw action on D-Day in June 1945, shelling German positions to help protect the American army who were invading Normandy.
For his bravery, he was awarded the Atlantic Star, The Pacific Star and the War Medal 1939-45.
From France he sailed to the Far East and again saw action, shelling Japanese positions on the many islands that they had occupied.
I asked him rather innocently about Hiroshima and the nuclear bomb obliterating the city, and he told me rather matter of factly: “Oh I was there a few weeks later,” and he was!
It turned out the the Americans had asked if any of the crew from the HMS Anson would like to visit Hiroshima on a tour past the ruined city.
With scant protection from the nuclear fall-out Jimmy saw some incredible scenes of destruction. He also visited Kyoto, some 225 miles up the Japanese coast, and told me stories of dancing with young Japanese girls who called him ‘Mr Shimmy’: could this be their translation of Jimmy or a nod to his dancing prowess, who knows?
At one time while stationed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) Jimmy had a pet leopard that slept on his bed, and also had a street fight over a tot of rum with the featherweight boxing champion of Great Britain Johnny King – incredible but true.
After the war, Jimmy had quite a few jobs including being the publican of the Beehive pub in Lower Broughton, for a time he owned a toy shop, a chip shop and a greengrocers, and for a time he was well-known for his pies and barmcakes that he would deliver all over Salford.
Jimmy’s one true love was Salford Rugby League Club – now the Salford Red Devils. At the age of just five he went to his first match at The Willows, the club’s former ground in Weaste.
80 years later Jimmy was also at the final ever match at The Willows.
Watch: Salford rugby history comes to an end with the last match at The Willows
Jimmy’s family were pals with the legendary rugby league pioneer Jimmy Lomas who would come to his house for Sunday dinner in the 1930s.
Jimmy was regular in the Albert Edward pub in Eccles and I would spend many a happy hour listening to his stories, he was a truly exceptional man and I was so glad to have met him.
I would like to leave the final words to Jimmy’s son Peter.
“I was so lucky to have him as my dad, he was more like a mate than a father to me, we went all over the world together, he was a character who so many people knew.
“I shall miss him dearly and will always be in my memories, nobody could have asked for a better father, and what a great man he was.”
Jimmy will be cremated at Agecroft Cemetery at 2.20pm on Thursday 21 January followed by a reception to celebrate his life at the Patricroft Conservative Club, Edison Road, off Barton Lane.
