263 replies to this topic

[bill24chev]

My  grandfather was a Spinner in a cotton mill. He would have been responsible for a number of "Mules" (the machine invented by Samuel Crompton not the four legged type). He would also have been in charge of a number of men with job names such as Little piecer, big piecer and tenter.

In an ironic way the war probably prolonged his life because the cotton industry was responsible for premature deaths due to respiratory illness and for the Mule Spinners an increased danger of prostrate cancer becausae that delicate area of the male anatomy was in continuous contact with part of the machine.He had four years of "healthy " outdoor living as a respite.

A spinner was regarded as a skilled man who had to have served a long "apprentice" starting as a little piecer on leaving school and it was pre WW1 a men only job. This changed post war when like many roles women did the jobs previously a male preserve during the war.

New technology eventually phased out the Spinning Mule. the later ring spinning machines could be worked by one operatkive, usually a less well paid women, that was more efficient in quantity but, arguably, not in quality.

[Ex-boy]

Peter Leonard, on 03 February 2007 - 12:21 AM, said:

I had two Grandfathers (nothing unique there then ?) Both survived the war.

Harry Leonard (ESR & RMLI) started as a Van Boy for Jaeger Clothing Company in 1913 aged 14, and rejoined in 1920. I have his 20 year service gold watch given in 1933 when he was 34.

Joe Sturmer (LRB & Artists) worked in the City of London in Men's Outfitting Shop called 'Copestakes Crampton'. He  joined after demob in June 1919. he also became a lifelong 'Special Constable' from 1921 until 1962.

What's your story ?

Pete

Neither served in the forces. Paternal GF was a builder and involved in military works, probably too old anyway, as his eldest son was in the navy. Maternal GF was I think in a reserved occupation. At retirement in the late 50s he worked at J & E Halls in Dartford. Not sure if he was there in the Great War, but if so he may have been involved in making Hallford lorries.

Steve.

[Drew1918]

My Great grandfather was a labourer and gravedigger until he was called up in July 1916. He dug graves in the 'Canadian Corner' of All Saint's Church, Orpington. These were graves for soldiers who died in the 'Ontario' Hospital (Now Orpington Hospital), Kent.
Perhaps, given the nature of his job, he may have appreciated more than some, the grim reality of what might lay in store for him as he left England for France on 22nd December 1916 with the Buffs, Royal East Kent Regiment.

[Peter Leonard]

Drew,
Know Orpington well. Especially the Old Wards in the Nissan Huts built by the Canadians during WW1. I was still visiting A&E in these in the late 1960's when I was a kid.
Josturm

[john c 100]

Grandad Conley was a boy soldier from East End of London. He was a french polisher. Survived the war to marry as soon as he got home then he and his new wife emigrated to Australia returning to Uk in 1934.Remained a carpenter and french polisher all his life.
Regards John C

[Simon Mills]

According to his attestation documents Granddad Alf (my father's side of the family) was a porter before he joined up in October 1914. He went on to serve as a driver and then a gunner in 106 Brigade RFA. After the war he worked as a painter and decorator. He died in 1973. Alf also had an elder brother, John, who was killed on the HMS Bulwark in November 1914.

Granddad Frank (my mother's side of the family) was too young to serve in WWI but was still young enough to do his bit in the next fracas. He was in the RAF (trained as an air gunner/wireless operator but was rejected due to an unspecified medical problem) and spent most of 1940-1945 as a ground gunner. Before the war he was a garage hand, and afterwards he went to work for London Transport, where he became a trolleybus driver and finally ended his career as a bus inspector. He died in 1987.

To compete the family history, I also have two great great uncles who served in the Middlesex Regiment during WWI. Nathaniel (3rd Battalion) was killed near St. Eloi in February 1915 and Arthur (13th Battalion) was killed near Hollebeke in June 1917. If you include another great uncle and aunt killed during the Blitz, it would seem that my family's lot has not been a happy one.

[Suddery]

Grandad Cecil was a London Scot & Railwayman before, during and after WW1. Joined the Navy at outset of WW1 (with his brother Harold who was killed on the R.Tigris with the Insect Class HMS Tarantula) but was pulled out as a reserved occupation and 'sidelined' to railway duties before enlisting in the R.E; seeing service in France. Dropped dead at a bus stop, next to my Father, in 1959. His other brothers served in the ASC, MGC and Tank Corps - all in France. His wife's only brother, Horace, served in the RFC in WW1 and subsequently the RAF through to the end of WW2. Horace was an artist and inventor who saw all of his paintings destroyed in the Blitz. His story will, I hope, one day warrant more than a brief sentence on a website.

G.Grandfather W.S was in the family fish restaurant and fishmongers businesses. He served in India with the 25th London Cyclists later transferring, with one of his brothers, to the PA Somerset Light Infantry. Both W.S and his wife were the kindest and gentlest of people and occupied their post war London flat with a flight of budgerigars - well that's how it seemed as a boy. They had many brothers who served in many regiments, all London based, including Cavalry, Yeomanry, Rifle Corps and even an attachee to the Egyptian Camel Corps. These are the families of Sudderys and Rourkes I am researching.

Finally, Grandfather S - funny, kind and much more; served throughout WW2 with The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment. A gifted pianist and raconteur he served in El Alamein, Salerno and Monte Casino before contracting tuberculosis.  Like all of his family he was fascinated with cars and driving, very much a zeitgeist for the common man in the post Great War era. Taught my brother and I that war was a hideous thing - he never qualified the statement.

Suddery

[Kitchener's Bugle]

My Great Granddad was one of the original St.Helens Pals later transfering to the Lancashire Fusiliers after they where decimated and reduced.
After the war he worked for the remainder of his life as the School Caretaker at Cowley Grammar School in St.Helens, buying a house very close to the School. He died in the 1950"s.

KB.

[DPas]

My Great Grandfather was already in the Army when it all started. He was in Morris Motors after the war until retirement.

[anthony ozzy]

2 G. Grandfathers - one joined the ASC in 1913 as a baker when he was a boy. Was transferred to the 8th Royal Berks in March 1918 where he was gassed and lost an arm. After the war he found it very difficult to find work - he tried as a hod carrier but could only carry half as many bricks as anyone else so got half the pay!
He could ride a bike and tie his shoe laces however and finished his working life running a fish and chip shop. Interestingly, the authorities used to come round every year to measure his stump to see whether they could reduce his pension.
My other G.Grandfather was a shoe maker and again joined the ASC in 1915 aged 40 - he'd signed up as part of the Derby Scheme. He was sent to Egypt in November 1915, at some point (so the family story goes) he was torpedoed (I'm now thinking this happened on his way home). He was discharged in mid 1916 through illness. Think he then carried on with his trade of shoe/boot making.

Ant

[Gardenerbill]

On the 1911 Census my grandfather William Hodgson is listed as a tram conductor, when he enlisted his attestation form records occupation as munitions worker. I suspect he worked at the Dick Kerr factory on Strand Road in Preston. After the war he worked for a motorcycle manufacturer, he had been a motor cycle despatch rider in the ASC, but it went bankrupt and he was out of work for a time before getting a job at the co-op where he eventually became transport manager.

[BDS]

My Paternal Grandfather, born in 1900 was an apprentice shipyard draughtsman on the Tyne (a reserved occupation) for the duration. He qualified soon after the war ended & was laid off a while later as the demand for warships had eased off & the order books were emptying.

He eventually took the only job he could find which was a clerk for the Water Board, he hated it to the point of developing writers cramp & had to teach himself to write left handed but stuck it until retirement as he had a wife and family to support.
I still have his drawing instruments (German) he was told by the older draughtsmen to wait until after the war to buy his own as the German ones were best.

[Doctord84]

My paternal grandfather was training to be a pianist before the war. For some reason he didn't go back to college after the war - either he wasn't good enough and they didn't want him back or he couldn't afford to continue the study. He did join a touring performing group for a while and was later a gas fitter! My maternal grandfather was in the merchant navy and served at Archangel in 1918-19. Later worked for the Admiralty as a navy storehouseman.

[rose of picardy]

One grandfather was nine when America entered WWI in 1917. He was a chief petty officer in the Pacific navy in WWII. He volunteered as he was already in the Seebees when war broke out.  My other grandfather was  fourteen in 1917.  He started working for the railroad in the 1920s and worked there until retirement.  He was older and in a reserved occupation, so he did not get called for WWII. I did have a maternal ancestor who fought in the Confederate army in the Civil War. My great-grandmother had a letter he wrote from Virginia.