263 replies to this topic

[Mons Angel]

My Great Grandad was a professional soldier, then a miner in Wales before the War. He was recalled as a reservist in 1914 and served with 1st Bn. West Yorkshire Regiment.

After the War is more of a mystery. At some point he was discharged from the Army and returned to Cardiff; he died there in April 1921, in Whitchurch Asylum (which was also a military hospital), from General Paresis of the Insane (a hideous result of tertiary syphilis). He is buried in a Commonwealth War Graves Commission grave in Cathays cemetery - the sequence of events, or possible reasons, which led to him being buried in a CWGC grave I have never been able to discover. There's a thread about it on the WFA Forum;  If anyone here has any thoughts...

Mons Angel

[Aneurin]

Mons Angel, on 23 August 2011 - 01:19 PM, said:

My Great Grandad was a professional soldier, then a miner in Wales before the War. He was recalled as a reservist in 1914 and served with 1st Bn. West Yorkshire Regiment.

After the War is more of a mystery. At some point he was discharged from the Army and returned to Cardiff; he died there in April 1921, in Whitchurch Asylum (which was also a military hospital), from General Paresis of the Insane (a hideous result of tertiary syphilis). He is buried in a Commonwealth War Graves Commission grave in Cathays cemetery - the sequence of events, or possible reasons, which led to him being buried in a CWGC grave I have never been able to discover. There's a thread about it on the WFA Forum;  If anyone here has any thoughts...

Mons Angel

I've just read your thread on the WFA Forum.

The Western Mail 9 April 1915 has a brief item, with photos, about the five "Hatterby" brothers, sons of Mrs. Smith, 15 Bute Street, Cardiff. This appears to relate to your great-grandfather's Hattersley family. According to the notes I made, Arthur (Private 1st Bn. West Yorks Regt.) was then a prisoner of war. It is a long time since I recorded this and I suggest you check the Western Mail for yourself to make sure that I got it right.
I believe his brother Horace (RMLI) was killed in action in 1917, while another brother Richard (RE) died on 9 June 1921 and is also buried in a war grave in Cardiff Cemetery.

Gwyn

[Verrico2009]

My step-grandfather George John Pritchard joined the RFA (probably at a young age), fought in the Boer War and was back serving in India by 1911.  Discharged at the end of 1917 after a transfer to the Labour Corps (presumably time-served, as there's no SWB), he disappears from any records so far seen until 1920 when he's suddenly shown as working for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway based near his home in New Cross.  He resigned approximately 18 months short of his retirement date (at the height of WW2, with his son in the RAF and a new grandson who has no memory of meeting him) - yet another mystery - and he and his wife lived on into the late 1950s.

[Bob B]

Pre-War my maternal Grandfather was a Grocers Assistant and Scout Master.

Post war he worked for Brooke Bond. He drove horse and cart and later a Trojan Van around the Cotswolds.
He was their tea salesman, delivery man, book keeper, banker etc. Plus for his customers messenger, parcel deliverer, 'taxi', friend, lodger etc
A job he really enjoyed.

I wish I had known him!

Bob

[NigelP]

My grandfather was a builder's labourer who got fed up of the work and enlisted in early 1909.  Family legend has it that on Xmas Eve he had a row with his boss over how much time off he was to get and decked him and joined the army to escape the police but I take that with a  very large pinch of salt.  he was demobbed having done 12 years and became a postman for over 25 years.

Nigel

[brucehubbard]

What a fascinating thread!

My grandfathers could hardly be construed as war heroes....total war service 4 days.
Grandad Hubbard was a printer. I was astonished to find that he was in a reserved occupation, but then found that he worked all his working life for Waterlows, the Government printers, so i suppose someone had to print all those forms which the Great War generated. Grandmother Hubbard (why are children not called Minnie nowadays?) ran the home in Mawney Road, Romford, looking after my father (born 1909) but also apparently looking after a never-ending number of soldiers billetted with them. I have a very poor picture of her and my Dad, then aged about 7, with a Sgt. Wills in the background. That is all I know of the Sgt...his name....and would love to know more.
Dad was called up in 1940, having been on full-time ARP. He served in the pay Corps. He had been a forceps birth, they slipped, and he could never see out of his left eye. He spent four war years in a civilian hotel in Bournemouth. His one complaint about WW2 was that it was about 25 years too short. After demob, he returned to his desk at a firm of non-ferrous metal merchants in the City of London. An ambitious type, he sat at that same desk for 43 years. Before his death in 1985 I well remember his gardening in his demob suit, which he maintained was the best suit he ever had. I loved the size...."Portly"

Grandad Lock was a farm labourer, living in 1914 in a tied cottage in Stisted, Essex. He volunterred as soon as he had got the harvest in, and served for four days, before the Army detected that he was so nearly blind that he was unlikely ever to make a useful soldier, so he returned to his farm. Grandmother Lock was a Nanny in Domestic Service throughout the Great War. Come WW2, she related how she ceased helping her husband on the land on the Saturday, and on the following Monday, as a member of the Women's Land Army, returned to doing exactly the same thing, but getting paid for it. They had two daughters. Mum (died 2006) was a nurse throughout the war at the Samuel Courtauld Hospital in Braintree, She was Betty Elizabeth, because my Grandmother liked Elizabeth as a name, but didn't want her daughter called Lizzie. My aunt is still with us. Aunty Panzy (I am not kidding!) was at school throughout the war, but was bright enough to notice that it was an offence to go out without your gasmask holder. The Law said nothing about a gas mask, so she used her tubular holder as her handbag (I now have it....with the gas mask)

One of the (very) few advantages of getting to the age of 51 was the realisation that I was too old ever to get called up. Both previous generations were, in some ways, touched by war (Dad and Gran Hubbard lived through the Blitz) and I am eternally grateful to have lived my whole life without having to go through what they lived through.

Bruce

P.S. Putting a little bit back, I am now a battlefield tour guide. I get paid to stand under the Gate at 8!

[drone]

Maternal grandfather was the 1914 equivalent of a custody officer with the police, we think about 1916 he went into what became the military police and later, after the war, was in the B&Ts where he stayed until the Irish kicked them out. He was then still in the custody business and a No2. He went on to be a pit deputy and died of cancer in 1953.
Dad's father we have never discovered what he did, he was a pit deputy after the war, that's how dad met mum, but I can't turn up any definite info about a military career. He was in his 40s when war broke out and my maternal grandmother's father was a very close friend, 82 when he died in 1950 and he had been an NCO in the boer war and we suspect that's where the friendship was struck as he moved from Monmouth to Abertillery to be near my Father's father.

[Mons Angel]

Aneurin, on 30 August 2011 - 10:40 AM, said:

I've just read your thread on the WFA Forum.

The Western Mail 9 April 1915 has a brief item, with photos, about the five "Hatterby" brothers, sons of Mrs. Smith, 15 Bute Street, Cardiff. This appears to relate to your great-grandfather's Hattersley family. According to the notes I made, Arthur (Private 1st Bn. West Yorks Regt.) was then a prisoner of war. It is a long time since I recorded this and I suggest you check the Western Mail for yourself to make sure that I got it right.
I believe his brother Horace (RMLI) was killed in action in 1917, while another brother Richard (RE) died on 9 June 1921 and is also buried in a war grave in Cardiff Cemetery.

Gwyn

Hi Gwyn

Sorry for not replying sooner - I've been away on holiday. Thanks very much for the tip - that's fantastic. My Great Uncle (Arthur's younger son) was called Horace too; now I know who he was named after. I will definitely look up that article - do you by any chance have the article title and page no. recorded? (I live and work in Durham and won't be able to get to British Library Newspapers for a while, so I'd like to order a copy and they ask for that info).

Thanks again

Mons Angel

[Aneurin]

Mons Angel, on 07 September 2011 - 10:24 AM, said:

Hi Gwyn

Sorry for not replying sooner - I've been away on holiday. Thanks very much for the tip - that's fantastic. My Great Uncle (Arthur's younger son) was called Horace too; now I know who he was named after. I will definitely look up that article - do you by any chance have the article title and page no. recorded? (I live and work in Durham and won't be able to get to British Library Newspapers for a while, so I'd like to order a copy and they ask for that info).

Thanks again

Mons Angel

Apologies for the delay, I too have been away.
I've managed to dig out my original notes. In fact, the item appeared in the Western Mail on the 2nd April 1915 (not the 9th). I'm sorry but I don't have a record of the page number or title of the item. It has photos of George (1 West Yorks), Squire (KOYLI), Horace (RMLI), Arthur (1 West Yorks, POW) and Victor (York and Lancs). However, if you ring Local Studies at Cardiff Central Library (029-20382116), they may be prepared to check it out for you. Given that you have a specific date, it shouldn't be too much trouble to find, especially as there are five photos (though under the name "Hatterby"). If you offer to defray their costs they may even copy the item for you.
I hope this is of some use. Good luck.
Gwyn

[Clutterbuck]

This post may be somewhat 'off topic'... but my paternal grandfather was born in 1870 and my mum's dad was born in 1906... so one was too old and the other too young for WW1.

However, and this must be getting close to some kind of record... my father is still going strong at 80; but his grandfather was born in 1816.  So if my father survives another 5 years, which he may well do, he will be able to say his grandfather was born 200 years ago!

[roel22]

My (German) great-grandfather wortked as a weaver in a textilefactory.

Roel

[Mons Angel]

Aneurin, on 12 September 2011 - 11:01 AM, said:

I've managed to dig out my original notes. In fact, the item appeared in the Western Mail on the 2nd April 1915 (not the 9th). I'm sorry but I don't have a record of the page number or title of the item. It has photos of George (1 West Yorks), Squire (KOYLI), Horace (RMLI), Arthur (1 West Yorks, POW) and Victor (York and Lancs). However, if you ring Local Studies at Cardiff Central Library (029-20382116), they may be prepared to check it out for you. Given that you have a specific date, it shouldn't be too much trouble to find, especially as there are five photos (though under the name "Hatterby"). If you offer to defray their costs they may even copy the item for you.
I hope this is of some use. Good luck.
Gwyn

Thank you very much for that Gwyn. I will definitely follow it up.

All the best

Mons Angel

[RJPreston]

My grand father Robert Hindle was" in service" prior to the 1st WW   He followed his father into that trade,. He was a grooms man and always kept his love of horses, but then he learnt to drive a vehicle  so in late 1915 he volunteered and joined the Army Service Corp.

I know very little about him during the war only  that he drove Ambulances at one period and I have a picture of him with 2 other soldiers in Germany in 1919.

After the war he continued in the same manner and was a chofer in St Annes Lancs. this he did until his retirment in the early 1950's.

[hesmond]

Grand dad was pre war Great War solider 8th Hussars ,on reserve and recalled in 14 ,in to 4th Hussars have his diarys for August till December 14 spends most of summer being chased by German cavalry his words ,then wounded in May 15 in Blues for rest of war Nan was on the strength and was in Ireland in 16 ,post war worked on railways LNER staunch union and served as shop steward ,WW2 ARP in East London all the way through the blitz in 1946 mayor of Popular E14 ,died of cancer in 1962 ,intrestingly when nan died not only did she not want to be buried in same plot ,but not even in the same cemetery ,medals disapeared in the 60s but have some super photos full dress mounted on charger .

[WilliamRev]

I hadn't come across this thread before - it is fascinating.

I have written about my my paternal grandfather (shown in my avatar) before on the forum - he started as a Private in the 5th Scottish Rifles, and ended up as a Captain in the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers  - he was an unimportant junior officer, but had a very eventful war, being wounded three times and seeing action at Loos, St Eloi, The Somme (Bezantin Ridge), 3rd Ypres, Cambrai, Battle of the Lys, and the final 100 days among others.

The son of a Glasgow bootmaker, he was he was a very quiet, shy, but bright lad and was about to start his third year at Glasgow University studying medicine when the war broke out. He had been a keen member of the university Officer Training Corps, and when war commenced he was aged 20 and joined up as soon as he could. [Isn't it amazing just how many hundreds of medical students were allowed to join the ranks of infantry regiments and not grabbed by the the RAMC, who would soon be so short-staffed ?]

After the war, in Spring 1919 (once he  had recovered from wounds received Oct '18), he went to the USA as part of the British Mission to the American Expeditionary Force under Lord Northcliffe, for a year, before deciding (very wisely as it turned out given the massive cuts in the army that were about to happen) to leave the army and return to finish his university studies. He qualified as a doctor in 1924, married, and worked in The Gorbals as a GP for minimal wages (no NHS in those days - patients paid if they could afford to) before moving south to practice in Derby (where they mostly could afford to pay). In WW2 he was in the Home Guard, and after the war was a senior member of the British Medical Association and helped to set up the NHS.

William

[Michael Johnson]

Michael Johnson, on 05 February 2007 - 04:50 PM, said:

Grandfather Johnson worked in a pharmaceutical factory, eventually rising to foreman - not bad considering he started work before he was 14.  We have his watch from Rolls & Darlington.

Grandfather Darte was a metallurgical engineer, who came out from Fraance to run a plant in Welland Ontario.  Recalled to the French Army in 1914, he ended up as an interpreter at #2 Advanced Park, R.E., until frantic pleas from the company to Ottawa, and Ottawa to France got him released to go back again, since his plant was supplying almost all of the ferro-silicon used in munitions work, as well as being a leading producer of shrapnel shells.

GF Johnson joined the 3rd Divisional Supply Column C.A.S.C. in 1916.  After a field day in Toronto he contracted pneumonia.  As a result he lost an eye.  My father said that it was from infection, but years later I was talking to my great-aunt's brother (an R.A.F. cadet at war's end) who said that it happened when they were trying to anaesthetize him to drain his lung.  He was struggling so much that the ether got spilled into his eye.  He was invalided with a pension.  The accident is not mentioned in his service papers, but it is suspicious that his brother Matthew later refused to have a hernia operated on, and was invalided form the 166th Bn.

GF Darte continued with his company until dying from a heart attack in 1944.

[privatewickham]

My G.Granfather Frank was a Bell Diver in Dover before the war and helped construct Dover Harbour. It was a truely gruelling job from what my research shows. Basically a team of 3 or 4 being sent down to the sea floor in an iron "bell" - a kind of open floored mini submarine - and leveling the sea bed in preperation for the placing of huge concrete block foundations.

[Wayne Binfield]

One Grandfather in 24th battalion AIF was a farmer both before and after the Great War.  The other grandfather (10th Field Ambulance) was a taxi driver in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales before the War and after the War he built up his taxi business and also owned a chauffer limosine business.  One G/Grandfather was a horse breeder before the War and was gassed repatriated back to Australia before the War ended, unfortunately he died in July 1918 and is buried in Mildura Cemetary, Victoria, Australia.  He was ex-38th Battalion and lied about lhis age.  Putting it down to be able to enlist.  This is asside from three great uncles and two G/Great uncles wh served.



Wayne

[Dean A]

BoilerSmith before hand and then a labourer after, must have been hard to get back into it!

Dean

[daggerphil]

Estate agents clerk in Nottingham before, farmer in Kent after.

[mandy hall]

My grandfather Frederick William Hall (seated in my avatar) worked for Shippams as a factory hand in Chichester before he joined the 12th Suffolk Regiment on 17th November 1915.  He was discharged on the 25th November 1915 as not likely to become an efficient soldier.  He then joined the Royal Engineers on 22 May 1916 as a driver.  He served until 7th March 1919.  He then immediately re-enlisted on the 8th March 1919 and serving in Germany and Ireland.  He was finally discharged on the 7th March 1925 and returned to Shippams were he worked until the outbreak of WW2.  He was on the Army reserve until 6 November 1938.  At the outbreak of WW2 he joined the RAF as ground crew serving until the end of the War and returning once again to Shippams.

The West Sussex Records Office holds a collection of letters written by Shippams employees, including letters from my grandfather and his brother (see signature) who also worked for Shippams. Shippams were a very paternalistic company sending their employees cigarettes and food parcels and at the start of the war continuing to pay their employees.  I am currently reading my way through the letters and it is the highlight of my week to spend a couple of hours reading them.  

Mandy

[pap]

My Great father John William C Glen was a Master Tailor, when he joined the R.F.C in 1916 , they said he was a Sail maker.

[Jim Hastings]

My Grandfather was a compositer apprentice on Fleet St prior to service in the RGA and RE and returned to the newspapers after the war, working on the Daily Telegraph until retirement. Following severe malaria the army eventually moved him from signalman work to some form of army newspaper work, as he was demobbed from the Army Printing & Stationery Depot

Great thread

Jim

[Peter Leonard]

Jim Hastings, on 10 January 2012 - 09:38 AM, said:

My Grandfather was a compositer apprentice on Fleet St prior to service in the RGA and RE and returned to the newspapers after the war, working on the Daily Telegraph until retirement. Following severe malaria the army eventually moved him from signalman work to some form of army newspaper work, as he was demobbed from the Army Printing & Stationery Depot

Great thread

Jim

….........................

As this thread has just passed its 5 year anniversary. I would justlike to thank pals who have contributed to a very interesting range of post war occupations.

What about our long suffering grandmother's?

Grandma dorothy was a London county Council primary school teacher in the 1920,s but she was forced to give up when she married in 1925 in catford.

Nana gertie was a millimeters with her several sisters in bermondsey before marrying in 1923.


Rgds josturm

[80th division]

My grandfather was a timekeeper for the Hope Natural Gas Co. before the war and was an engineer with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad after the war until his retirement in the 1950s.