Big Red Book

Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

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THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Tom Breaks, retired fire officer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London Airport.

Tom was born the son of a fire chief at the fire station in Bradford and joined the fire service at the age of 21, serving in the days of the horse-drawn steamers. During the First World War, while serving with the British Army in France, he received the Croix de Guerre for tackling a fire caused by enemy aircraft and, as a result, was put in charge of a team of military firefighters.

Returning to the Fire Service after the war, Tom rose up the ranks, becoming a Sergeant at Nottingham, a Station Officer and Chief Inspector at Salford and reaching the top post of Chief Superintendent at Sheffield in 1923. He was seconded to the Home Office during the Second World War and helped establish the Auxiliary Fire Service, the army of men and women who would be instrumental in tackling the ravages of the Blitz, which led to the creation of the National Fire Service.

"Somebody's landed me in for this!"

programme details...

• Edition No: 189
• Subject No: 190
• Broadcast: Mon 26 Mar 1962
• Broadcast time: 7.30-8.00pm
• Recorded: Mon 22 Jan 1962 7.30pm
• Venue: BBC Television Theatre
• Series: 7
• Edition: 26

on the guest list...

• George Greaves
• Bill Atkins
• Jack Ryan
• Audrey Hartley
• Douglas Outram
• Marjorie Flush
• Albert Flush
• Lance Fairlamb
• Frank Taylor
• Harry Thomas
• Sydney Jowett
• Leslie Garside
• Eric Searston
• Bertram Weerasinghe
• Hector - son
• Graham Tennant
• Harry Marshall

production team...

• Researcher: Arthur Sellwood
• Writer: Arthur Sellwood
• Director: David Croft
• Producer: T Leslie Jackson

• with special thanks to Odath Weerasinghe for his contribution to this page

Life Savers

heroes of the emergency services

Photographs of Tom Breaks This Is Your Life - and a photograph of Tom Breaks's big red book

The Ceylon Observer January 1962

Phone call summons him to appear on TV in England

by an Observer reporter

A telephone call from the BBC takes Mr B.E. Weerasinghe, the General Manager of Pure Beverages Ltd to London today. Mr Weerasinghe is to appear on the BBC television programme This Is Your Life.

Mr Weerasinghe is seldom at home in the evening. Providentially he was when the telephone call summoning him to London came late on Wednesday evening.

This Is Your Life is a fortnightly programme, starring a colourful personality. The star is brought by some device to the BBC studio – quite unaware that he is to be interviewed on television.

Here he is confronted with people from his past. This fortnight's star is Mr Tom Breaks OBE, formerly Chief Fire Officer of Region No. 1 in World War II.

UNDER BREAKS

Mr Weerasinghe, Colombo's Fire Chief from 1933-46 received his early fire training under Mr Breaks in 1932-3.

On being asked by the BBC whom her father would most like to see, Mr Breaks's daughter is said to have replied: "I am sure it would be Mr Weerasinghe from Ceylon".

So Mr Weerasinghe, a former Golf Champion of Ceylon and the President of the Havelocks Gold Club flies to London today at just 36 hours notice.

Ceylon Daily News January 1962

FLYING TO UK FOR TWO MINUTES ON TV!

(By a 'Daily News' reporter)

Memories of nearly 28 years are revived today by the flight to England of Mr B.E. Weerasinghe, retired Fire Chief.

Few passengers on today's BOAC flight will know that Mr Weerasinghe is making a special trip at the request of the BBC to appear for about two minutes on a TV program – This Is Your Life.

Mr Weerasinghe was not aware of his good fortune till he received a telephone call on Wednesday evening from Mr Arthur Sellwood of the BBC asking him whether he could come to London at BBC expense.

How the BBC came to know Mr Weerasinghe's telephone number and for what purpose is a story in itself.

Years ago in 1932, young Bertie Weerasinghe was undergoing a year's training as a fire officer under the benign guidance of Tom Breaks, Chief Fire Officer at Sheffield. Tom Breaks and "Weera" became great friends.

Tom Breaks is now nearly 67 years of age and retired. He and "Weera" have not seen each other since. But the BBC will bring them together again. It will be on the program This Is Your Life.

People from different walks of life are brought to this program every week. On Monday the BBC will present Tom Breaks.

How did the BBC know that Tom Breaks and "Weera" were so intimate?

This Is Your Life is a program that cannot help being autobiographical. Pieces of Tom Breaks' life had to be put together, so BBC researchers burrowed into the past with the help of Tom Breaks's only daughter. She was only eight years old when B.E. Weerasinghe was a young fire officer in training, under her father.

The BBC staff men asked her whom her father would like to meet most. She unhesitatingly replied "Weera. My father always recalls his memory. He is from Ceylon, and he was Ceylon's Fire Chief."

So the BBC followed the trail and were able to get at the quarry in his own home.

The careers of the two fire officers were the same. While Tom Breaks ended up as Fire Chief in Sheffield during the war his pupil became Fire Chief of Ceylon also during the war. He was Assistant Civil Defence Commissioner for the whole island.

Bertie Weerasinghe, who is now Managing Director of Pure Beverages Ltd, leaves this evening. He will be staying in London for a month or so with his son, Ranjit, who is a chartered accountant.

The Sheffield Star 10 October 2012

Recruit all fired up

Chief-elect learns his trade in city

It was a dilemma faced by a city 12,000 miles away – but which was solved right here in Sheffield.

Eighty years ago this month, on the other side of the world, a 28-year-old engineer had just been announced as chief fire officer of Colombo in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

The only problem? Young Bertram Weerasinghe – who was to oversee a team protecting 250,000 people – had no previous firefighting experience.

Now, Midweek Retro can reveal how a solution was sought right here in the Steel City.

For in October 1932, Bertram was sent to South Yorkshire to spend 12 months living at Central Fire Station in Division Street while learning his trade.

And the story of how this exotic stranger fought dozens of blazes, made lifelong friends and was even eulogised in the national press has been recalled this anniversary by his son Odath.

"My father had a great affinity with Sheffield," says Odath, a retired IT systems auditor who lives in Australia. "The UK had one of the finest fire services in the world back then but this arrangement was still very unusual."

Bertram already had strong links with the city when he arrived here. He had studied at Sheffield University four years previously, and had married a Scottish girl before moving home to take up an engineering post.

"He didn't really enjoy that work," says Odath, 65, one of Bertram's five children. "Then he learned Colombo Municipal Council was looking to recruit its first native fire chief and he applied for the job. I think the officials were impressed by his ambition and keenness, so they said he could have the post if he trained in England for a year."

Thus, Bertram got in touch with Sheffield Fire Brigade and was taken on.

His wife Evelyn lived in a flat in Fulwood Road while Bertram stayed at the station itself under the command of Superintendant Tom Breaks – later famous for commanding London fire units during the blitz.

And his arrival was considered so unusual several national newspapers ran the story. "It is very fascinating work," Bertram told one. "I have ridden on your fire engines; I have watched and assisted your firemen. They are quick and smart on the job. Not a minute is wasted. The art of firefighting is to be there before a fire really develops and put it out."

It was an art he learned well.

Bertram's diaries record him dealing with blazes across the city, from cutlery factories in Rockingham Street to furniture factories on The Moor. One official report noted he "worked like a Trojan".

And the memoirs also show him being accepted into city life at a time when men from other parts of the world were far from a common sight.

He played golf at Sitwell Park in Rotherham, drank in the Three Merry Lads pub in Fulwood, and regularly took Evelyn to the city's cinemas.

The friends he made here would remain for life. In 1962, When Tom Breaks appeared on the BBC TV show This Is Your Life, Bertram was flown to London to appear as a special guest.

By that time, of course, Sheffield was but a memory for him.

After his year finished he returned to Colombo and stayed in his post until 1946. He was awarded an OBE for work during World War Two when he was an assistant civil defence commissioner.

After retiring from the brigade he held various executive posts before passing away, aged 67, in 1971.

The Sheffield Star 2 December 2019

Sheffield's brave fire chief Tom Breaks fought many blazes - and a tiger

By Helen Shepherd

It's not often that the life story of a Sheffield firefighter will include an account of single-handedly taking on an escaped tiger, but then Superintendent Tom Breaks was no ordinary fire chief!

A decorated firefighter, an inspiring leader and a pioneer in the organisation of fire services in Britain, Breaks spent 14 years as head of Sheffield's fire brigade.

In that time he developed the brigade into one of the most efficient in the country and laid the foundations for what would become the National Emergency Services Museum (NESM).

His remarkable career is remembered at NESM, which houses the former superintendent's personal collection and keeps on permanent display numerous items from his time in Sheffield and beyond.

Born in Bradford in 1890, Breaks had the fire service in his blood. He grew up in stations as the son of a chief and joined the Nottingham brigade aged 21.

When World War One intervened he enlisted as a private but his skill as a firefighter soon came to the fore. In 1917 he received the Croix de Guerre and Palm for his efforts in tackling a fire caused by enemy aircraft and later was put in charge of a team of military firefighters.

The Croix de Guerre was the first of many decorations Breaks received during his career, culminating in the award of an OBE. His impressive collection of medals now forms part of the permanent display at NESM.

Following the end of the war he returned to the fire service, arriving to take over as superintendent of the Sheffield brigade in 1923, aged 32. As chief, his courage and leadership became legendary. Which leads neatly back to the story of the escaped tiger.

In 1933 a tiger featuring in a show at the Sheffield Empire escaped into the theatre's cellar. It had already badly mauled one man by the time the fire service arrived on the scene.

Breaks disappeared into the cellar armed only with a fire hose, using the water to drive the frightened animal down a makeshift tunnel and back into its cage.

One former colleague, Jack Ryan, recalled: "In all he was down there alone with a savage tiger for more than an hour and all we could hear from up top was its roaring and snarling."

"A dozen times I was certain he was a goner. It was a wonderful moment for me when he came back safe and sound!"

That recollection came in 1962, when Breaks was honoured in an episode of the BBC TV series This Is Your Life. On that programme another former colleague remembered the night the chief saved his life.

In 1929 firefighter George Greaves was tackling a major blaze at Worralls in Sheffield when he fell through the roof and plummeted 40 feet to the basement, trapped under mounds of rubble.

Breaks had been caught in the collapse too but, having fought his way free, went back into the building, slashing tendons in his hands as he tore through glass panes to reach the injured firefighter. Greaves, who spent six months in hospital, recalled that his chief visited him every day.

It wasn't just in the face of danger that Breaks showed his leadership and dedication to the service. He was instrumental in the opening of a new central station at Division Street, recognising the need to expand not just the service's operational space but also to provide better accommodation for men and their families.

He introduced open days at the station, teaching the importance of fire safety and how people could help themselves in the event of fire. And in 1931, recognising the importance of preserving the heritage of the service he loved, he began a small collection of historic objects at the Rockingham Street station that would lay the foundation for NESM.

Breaks left Sheffield in 1937, moving to the Home Office as fire brigades inspector and helping to set up the Auxiliary Fire Service, the army of men and women who would be instrumental in tackling the ravages of the Word War Two Blitz.

This led to the creation of the National Fire Service and the beginnings of the fire service we know today.

He spent his later years in retirement in Northumberland.

Speaking on This is Your Life in 1962, firefighter Bill Atkins summed up his former boss with these moving words. "Tom Breaks never just ordered firemen into a blaze. He said 'come with me' and led them there."

A fine epitaph for a fine man.