Popular Lancaster barber for 50 years celebrates his centenary

Despite having his leg amputated above the knee when only eight, Tom spent 50 years as a barber in Lancaster.

So what’s kept him going over 10 decades?

“I hope I’ve never lost my sense of humour,” he said. That’s certainly true as he recounts a century of memories.

Tom was born in Prospect Street where his dad, who worked at Storeys, gave hair cuts and shaves in the front room for extra income. Hairdressing ran in the family as Tom’s uncle was a barber.

It wouldn’t have been Tom’s first career choice though if fate hadn’t intervened. While playing cricket, a ball hit his leg and after not healing for months, bone cancer was eventually diagnosed.

“I was only eight and this was before the NHS,” he said. “I was taken to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary but didn’t know I was going to have my leg off. After the operation, my favourite nurse held my hand and told me. It was then I realised I couldn’t walk.”

While his brothers and sister enjoyed outdoor activities the only sport Tom could do was swimming at Cable Street baths.

He learned to walk again with a wooden leg.

While at Greaves School, Tom was top of the class at painting and drawing which he wanted to pursue when he left school but a careers officer advised him that hairdressing would be an ideal job although it involved standing all day.

“It was pretty poor advice to a boy with only one leg,” he said.

But at 14, Tom did become a barber’s apprentice in Scotforth Road where his boss, Edward Byron, had a contract with the King’s Own regiment at Bowerham Barracks.

“Being peacetime, we just had 50-60 recruits to deal with but war changed all that and the barracks was packed out with soldiers,” Tom said. “Fortunately, they only needed one style of haircut – short at the back and two inches on top.”

Among Tom’s customers from the barracks was a young Jimmy Armfield, who was dreaming of making the first team at Blackpool. That teenage footballer went on to captain England.

Still just 18, Tom was left to cope alone when his boss was called up and later killed in the Western desert. Tom’s favourite brother, Richard, died during the Normandy landings.

By 1941, Tom had opened his own shop in Greaves Road where he stayed until 1986, joined by his friend Bill Rimmer.

Across the generations, thousands of boys and men had their hair cut and styled by Rogerson and Rimmer.

Tom was married to Margaret in 1945 and she was a ‘wonderful’ wife for 65 years. He still lives in the home which the couple bought new in 1968.

Outside of married life and work, Tom was a Storeys FC committee member and was in charge of their pavilion in York Road for 15 years when he met Take That star Mark Owen, who was playing for Kirkby Lonsdale FC.

Tom continues to live independently and refuses to use a wheelchair. He retains that great sense of humour which he’ll share with his extended family travelling from across the country to his 100th birthday celebration.

Attitudes to disability have changed considerably since Tom received his first artificial leg more than 90 years ago and he was once asked to demonstrate how it worked to other amputees.

“They had me walking up and down like a catwalk!” he said.

Here’s some of the news hitting the headlines in 1922:

*The BBC was established

*The iconic Austin 7 car was launched

*Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered.

Among the famous people born in 1922 were footballer Tom Finney, actor Christopher Lee, actress Hattie Jacques, writer Alistair MacLean, tv and radio scriptwriter Denis Norden, and poet Philip Larkin.