263 replies to this topic

[Rob Bulloch]

Hello  All.
           My paternal Grandfather Robert Bulloch was a 1st hand melter in the Lanarkshire Steelworks in Motherwell Scotland he did not see service due to his job, my maternal Grandfather George Clarkson was machine fitter, served with the HLI transferred to the Royal Scots survived the sinking of the Aragon and the HMS Attack survived the war moved from Scotland to Watford Herts worked as a fitter in Scamells Trucks, home guard WW2, died in 1945, I wish I could have talked to him about his experiences.

                                             Cheers Rob

[mickgall]

one was a RSPCA inspector before and after, the other was a merchant seaman, before ,during and after

[LANCER]

my wifes grandfather Cpl Ironmonger tank corp drove a three wheel wet fish delivery van before the war. After the war he drove a delivery van for boots the chemist.

Frank

[Sue Mahon]

My  paternal grandfather Albert Firth was an electrician before the war. After the war he was sent to the local lunatic asylum with shell shock and he died there in 1965.


My maternal Grandfather  Arthur Fairbrass went to Canada as a labourer on a ship from Liverpool in 1903 and joined the army. He joined the the BEF in WW1 after the war he settled in the UK and worked in a mill

Sue Mahon

[Chris CPGW]

My Great Grandfather was a Head Butler before and after the his war service ( served in R.A.M.C as a driver)

Regards
Chris

[Sparky53]

Dad's dad was a medical student at Aberdeen University and joined U Company 4 Gordons. He went on to be a General Practioner in Stoke on Trent and was Lord Mayor of Stoke on Trent in 1949.

Mum's dad was an apprentice at the Longton gas undertaking and went to the Abertillery gas undertaking in 1914. He went on to work as a District Gas Distribution Superintendant in Stoke on Trent and was awarded the BEM for his work.

Jane

[centurion]

My Grandfather (Mother's side) Pre war Concert pianist, accompanist (which is how he met my grandmother who was a concert soprano) organist, minor (very) composer. War time  Private Royal Dublin Fus (saw action first on the Somme). Post war Church and Cathedral organist, music teacher (and an early protagonist for Esperanto).

[ollydot]

Both grandfather's too young but one greatgrandfather was a shipwright just before but had been a regular soldier and fought in Boer war, he didn't survive Great War. Other greatgrandfather was dead before war started.

[Sue Light]

I have a feeling that mine were not at the top of the pile!
My maternal grandfather was a bill poster (Bill Stickers is innocent   ) who joined the Army Service Corps in 1916; went on with the Army of Occupation into Germany; had a great time apparently; came home, deserted his wife and six children, and lived happily ever after continuing to climb up and down ladders as a window cleaner, while supporting someone else's children.
My paternal grandfather was a Romany gypsy and as far as I know avoided any sort of military service or contribution to good causes.
Somehow my father became a regular soldier, serving from 1929 to 1946, so redressed the balance just a little.

Sue

[Diane Alden]

My grandfather was a wire weaver with Barnard, Bishop and Barnard factory in Norwich before the war. Making things such as wire netting etc.

He enlisted in early 1915 and was killed in September 1916 when my dad was just 3 years old.

Diane

[bob lembke]

My grandfather was a fascinating character who I really was ignorant about before I found his WW I letters and then did a lot of research.

He was born a Prussian peasant. The family traditionally served in Ulan=Regiment (1. brandenburgische) Nr. 3 as enlisted cavalrymen, but he opted to enter the artillery, and when he became a NCO and had invented some technology he was trained to be an explosives expert (Feuerwerker), was posted to a Guards regiment, and then on to be a Feuerwerk=Offizier, or a technical explosives officer. Thus he was able to rise from the peasant class to be a professional Prussian officer, quite a difficult feat. However, he had two families, one sort of a business marriage, with a woman he did not even live near, and also an unofficial relationship with a Danish woman, with whom he had two children, one being my father, sort of a love family. When my official grandmother found out about the second family she poisoned him with Deadly Nightshade (which my wife grows in our food garden). He was disabled and had to give up his active duty status, but later recovered and was able to join the Reserves. Instead of prosecuting his wife criminally he sued her in a civil action (she was wealthy), and suddenly became a gentleman farmer. A bit later he became the manager of the Berlin stockyards.

Did really interesting stuff during the war as a staff officer, and got the EK II and EK I within the first 2-3 months, but that is not the topic. His letters from Belgium are very dramatic and sensitive; he was much more sensitive at that time than my father was at that time, Pop was simply a very dangerous thug at that time; storm trooper, flamethrower operator, Freikorps fighting, shooting Communists, and then Schwartze Reichswehr and work as a bodyguard.

After the war g-f had some role at the Berlin stock exchange. After the war he had a series of lawsuits with the patriarch of a very wealthy and powerful family, who had tried to bribe him with an astonishing sum during the war to pass a lot of defective and dangerous artillery ammunition from one of their ammunition factories. He won in court and then challenged the patriarch to a duel with automatic pistols; the other man refused (g-f was a crack shot; he loved the broomstick Mauser C 96, as an artillery officer), and the other man was thrown out of the Reserve Officer's Association. (I had not realized until lately that there was active serious dueling in Prussia; there was, and very bloody-minded; no leaping about with sabres dramatically slashing away, but multiple shot duels with automatic pistols till someone dropped.) He died in the 1930's.

Bob Lembke

[Yoshi]

My grandfather worked as a riveter in the shipyard both before and after the Great War (and despite losing a leg). He died young in 1945 so I never met him.
The other Grandfather worked in Belfast Rope Works I think and suffered from respiratory problems for the rest of his life. He died in the 60s and I vaguely remember him.

[Rodge Dowson]

Good question, before the war 1913 apprentice on GWR at Swindon Works - enlisted 1917 to field company Royal Engineers Belgium 1917 18, after back to Swindon then completed a total of 51 years service on the railway from apprentice to body shop Forman

Swindon rail works were cradle to the grave, father to son jobs back then!

Percy William Loveday - he inspired my interest at the age of 7 in the Great War.

[Heid the Ba']

Paternal grandfather was a delivery boy before the war, picked up a serious head injury at 2nd Ypres and worked in the office of a foundry in Kirkintilloch once recuperated.  In Hitler's War he was a sergeant in the Home Guard despite being virtually blind (my 17yo father was given the rank of sergeant so he could guide him about).  My father always said Dad's Army wasn't realistic as they there were actual occurences so surreal no one would believe them.

Maternal grandfather worked in his father's shop and became a pharmacist after the war.  My mother married beneath her.

[Nigel Marshall]

Hi,

Granddad Kilkenny was a clerk before the war, although I cannot find out who for or what line of business he was in. Afterwards he joined the Leeds Corporation Tramways Dept., and by 1924 when he married my nana he was an inspector. He stayed in this job all his working life and retired in 1960 from his post as the Inspector in Charge at the Seacroft Bus Terminus. Family stories of holidays in the Norfolk Broads and other places relate how, wherever they went, they would hear someone call out "Hullo Fred", and it would turn out to be someone he was in the Army with! He died in 1962.

Granddad Marshall was a pup, born in 1913, but before his war, he was one of a team of master plasterers employed in the building of the Leeds Civic Hall in the early to mid 1930s. For a man in his early 20s he was given much responsibility. Part of his role was to train unemployed men to become plasterers. A large proportion of the work force recruited for the building project was specifically drawn from the unemployed and unskilled population of Leeds as a way of giving people with almost nothing something which could be of use to them. After the war he went back to plastering. He also bred rabbits.

Nigel

[gRANdson]

My grandfather joined the Artist's Rifles in June 1916 at the age of 17 (after memorising the eye test card, so his blindness in his right eye would not be discovered!), he then joined the 16 Royal Warwickshire Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant in January 1918. In March, he led a patrol against a "particularly noisy" German machine gun position at La Croix Mairesse, near Haverskerque. The pin of his Mills bomb got stuck at the worse possible moment and was hit 3 times. He was sent by barge & hospital ship back to England, and it was during his recovery and recuperation that he realised that - in his opinion - the true heros were the doctors & nurses who calmly fixed up all the damage that had been done in the fighting.

He qualified as a doctor at Kings College Hospital and took up General Practice in England - but found it far too dull. He joined MV Calachas and tavelled to the Far East, stopping off in Vladivostcok (where he helped a White Russian family to escape).

He then spent many years in Rhodesia (North & South) & Nyasaland, often the only doctor for many, many miles around. At the start of WW2, he was mightily annoyed to be to told that the wounds he had received had left him unfit for national service...despite a concerted campaign of writing weekly to the War Office asking to be considered!

After the war, he joined the Union Castle line as the Medical Officer on the Capetown Castle and was on duty when a severe fire broke out in the boiler room in 1960. Men died and my grandfather was burnt as he tried to help the injured and dying.

At the inquest, he made certain recommendations about safety on ships - which were adopted and are still in effect today (ie fire extinguishers at certain intervals, first aid training for crew, etc). He was awarded the M.B.E.

He died in 1980 at the age of 81, having had a pretty full - and fulfilling - life.

[oakley316]

Before and after the War, my grandfather drove a powder wagon (& later on the powder truck) for the DuPont Company delivering explosives for use in the local coal mines.  Once the horses got spooked & he chased the wagon down a hill & got control before it crashed with no injuries or damage. Luckily, he made it through the war and his dangerous job without any major injuries.

Ironically in his early 70's, his car slipped out of gear & began rolling down hill. He thought his grandson was in the car, chased it and did jumped into it just before it went over an embankment. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop it in time, it crashed through a metal railing & went over the embankment & crashed into a yard.  He did survive but his leg was trapped between the car & another object & had to be amputated below the knee.  He died in his early 80's.

Cherie

[Reuben Ayres]

Granddad Ayres was a metal-worker before the war. He joined to Royal Garrison Artillery as a gunner and later the Labour Corps (Bombadier). He survived the war and after a couple of years without employment became a coach painter which he remained thereafter. He died in 1969.

Granddad Matthews was a "Laundry Carman" he joined the 2nd/6th Bn Sherwood Foresters on 7th October 1917. After a period of illness he was transferred to the 3rd/5th Bn and then probably to the 11th Bn. He was killed on 17th October 1917. My mother was 5 months old at the time. My grandmother had lost her brother only 2 weeks earlier.

Reuben Ayres

[Suzie-Q]

Grandad Rawlinson was a hairdresser in Leeds before and after the war; Pop Austin was an Electrical Engineer in Sydney before and after.

[mhifle]

My Great Grandfather became the Land Agent for the Lord Lucan estate around Castlebar after his discharge from the Connaught Rangers in 1920.

Mark

[squirrel]

Paternal grandfather worked for the Geat Western Railway on horse transport.
He didn't serve in WW1. As he was a foreman and handled the specialist large jobs his occupation was probably "reserved". He died in 1948.

Maternal grandfather was a Master Tailor before and after the war having spent 4 years in the RFC during the war and did not serve overseas. He died in 1946.

[dutchbarge]

One side (American) was a semi-pro ice skater at Techau Taverns and a fashion model for Roos Brothers Dept. Store.  After the war he became a real estate salesman living well into his 70's.

The other side of the family (Polish-Russian) was a career officer before the war (Russian Army) and after fleeing the Revolution worked in the Pennsylvania coal mines until dying of silicosis at age 42.

Cheers, Bill

[Keith Roberts]

The Grandfather who served, Arthur Roberts, was a clerical worker in the wool textile industry in Bradford. A post war kelly's described him as a clerk/accountant. He joined the ASC at the age of 37 or 38, presumably as a conscript, in 1917, and completed the war in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment.

I have his Victory and General Service medals, but nothing else of his military career beyond a copy of the MIC.

Keith

[gary thomson]

my 2 relatives who fought and died in ww1 were.
L/CPL WILLIAM HARVEY 51190  PPCLI, KIA 4/5/15 HIS OCCUPATION WAS A CRANE OPERATOR AND WORKED FOR THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY WINNIPEG,AND THERE IS ALSO A RECORD THAT HE ALSO WORKED FOR THE CRESCENT STREET CREAMERY WINNIPEG AS A CRANE OPERATOR.

PRIVATE ANDREW HOOD 22440 2ND BATT ROYAL SCOTS, KIA 26/9/17 WHO LIVED AT PRINCES STREET DUNDEE.HIS OCCUPATION WAS AN AIREATED WATER BOTTLER.

all the best gary t.

[Jonathan D'Hooghe]

My paternal grandfather, P J (Jim) D'Hooghe enlisted in the 20th Hussars in 1914. Born in 1897 he was obviously 17 but his enlistment papers state that he was 19! and that his trade was as a hairdresser. He lost his right eye in 1915 and I remember him well as he did not die until 1979 - but after the war until retirement in the 1960s he was a shopfitter and joiner for Boots the chemist.

My eldest son is 17 and an A level student at school, however, he has just completed his TA basic training with 5 Training Regt. R.L.C.  -  Many of them were all so young.....

J