Starting his career as a fire-cadet at sixteen the author rose to senior rank, always in an operational role. A steady ‘plodder’ more than a high flier he learnt his trade craft serving, and commanding, the Capital’s busiest and most challenging fire station, Brixton. Awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct he also rowed himself into the Guinness Book of Records whilst raising many thousands of pounds for charity. A talented organiser he was involved in delivering some of the London Fire Brigade’s most high-profile public events during the 1990s including royal visits and the unveiling of the national Blitz memorial by St Paul’s Cathedral. A fireman first and foremost he provides a valuable human story into the life and history of the London Fire Brigade from 1965 to the late 1990s.
As a teenager at a South London comprehensive school, young David Pike is advised by his careers master to seek employment at a local engineering factory. Determined not to do so, 'Pikey' first considers the Metropolitan Police; disappointed at their rejection, he sees an advertisement for the Londo...
What is a firefighter?They are the person next door…They are like you and me with warts and worries and unfulfilled dreams.Yet they stand taller than most of us.The latest book from author and retired fireman David Pike, I Was a London Firefighter is an anthology of factual narratives and fictiona...
London's Firefighters is a wonderfully readable, lavishly illustratedanthology of articles, fiction and verse about the London Fire Brigade,most of it gathered from the Brigade's house magazines London Fireman(1966-82) and London Firefighter (1982-2005).The book's editor David C. Pike, himself a ret...
After his autobiography Beyond the Flames and his eclectic anthology London's Firefighters, David C. Pike's latest book about the London Fire Brigade, Fire-Floats and Fireboats, takes as its focus the history of firefighting on the river Thames. Starting in Roman times and bringing the story right u...
