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

Grandad Clay was a grocers' manager in Sutton Coldfield before, during and after the War; he moved around the Welsh Marches and environs in the 20s and 30s, and was still a grocers' manager, in Swadlincote, Derbyshire when he died at about 50 in 1939. I have a wartime photo of him in a military group which Pals have identified as a VTC unit (WW1 'Dad's Army').

Grandad Price was a Herefordshire farm labourer before and after the War until his retirement about 1960-ish. He served in F&F; I think in the Worcesters.

Jim

[quote name='Peter Leonard' date='Feb 3 2007, 12:21 AM' post='613437']

My grandfather was a tramcar conductor in Glasgow, joined in 1915. He ended up a school janitor after being unemployed for some years in the twenties and thirties. Worked till 1967 when he fell ill and passed away.


Jim

Not from Weobley area , by any chance?
Myrtle

Grandpa Taylor was an electrician by trade. As a young man he worked at the same hospital as his father, until it seems a rather embarassing sittuation occured involving a female member of staff, which I won’t go into now.
On his attestation papers he is given as ‘Tram Conductor’, something that my mother says she had never heard.
After the First World War he was an ambulance driver and then for years up until the 50’s was a Weighbridge Clerk for Marylebone Borough Council. After he and my grandmother retired to Ramsgate, he did some part time work for a taxi firm doing administration and taking calls.

Grandfather S.. was probably that little bit too young, and escaped the draft of 1917, although during the Second World War he was in the Home Guard.
He spent all his life in engineering, including many years in the aircraft industry.

Tony

Sailor and bookie's runner.

Pro soldier from age of 14 then church warden up until his death.
Roland.

GGdad was a chauffeur to a mill owner in Lancs and a driver in the ASC during the war

When his boss died after the war, GGdad was left the contents of the garage - and the Rolls Royce was in there so he got that !

Grandad Hartley was Company Secretary of a cotton firm - before, during and after. He didnt serve - but spent the war making lots of money. My guess, putting two and two together from research, was that it was probably not all legal and certainly not patriotic.

Grandad Brough was a "fireman" at the local gas works. He went back to work and, when he retired in the early 1950s, was chauffeur to the "big boss".

John

Of the 12 members of my extended family who served, all were coal miners.

Grandad Hamblin, listed below was a schoolboy when he joined up and after the war ran his own haulage business which went under in the depression so he became a clerk in a builders merchants in Bristol. Having gone to France in 1917 he never went abroad again! Served in the RAFVR into the 30s and as a policeman (part time) during WWII. Lasted until he was 82 which is not bad for a bloke with a 60 a day habit!

Aww..Go on you tease us with a line like that & then...??



Grandad Drake was a,Boy soldier having run away from Home;{He had 7 Sisters~Who wouldn't poor boy} & joined the Northamptonshire Regiment,serving in South Africa & The Sudan,then a Baker,a profession he carried on with in the Army No 4 Field Bakery ASC,until being Gassed;discharged he became a bit of a Wreck by all accounts,a life ruined by War.Sadly he died in the 1940s before I was born {

Grandad Van,had worked in the Family General store in Wick Road Homerton,before the War,when he served in the RNAS as an Air Mechanic,he was in Engineering after the War,My Grandmother "Nanny Van"{they had dropped the "Hinsbergh" bit during the War,@ Home;,for obvious reasons,though of Belgian extraction} was before the Great War & Pianist in a Silent Movie House in the East End;For a while in the 1920s~30s[in the depression era, he was Manager of a Model Pig Farm in Horsham Sussex,my Dad {a boy of 12 @ the time} recalled having the job of Stunning the Pigs,with a Baseball Bat type "Tool"or "Big Stick" as it was known!!,prior to Slaughter,as they had to be "Bled" to keep the meat White,he didn't last long @ that as he killed the first one outright!!
Grandad or "Pa" as he was always known worked in a Sugar Beet Factory as an Engineer in the 30s & 40s,He also made Furniture,{from amongst other things~Aircraft Packing Cases,I still have a superb sideboard with Ivory Door Knobs & Ebony stringing & made of exotic woods,He also made Umbrella Handles & Walking Sticks,I remember a Greyhound Head Gamp,carved in Ivory & Covered in Snakeskin with Red Stone Eyes,as well as Carved Animal & Oozalem Bird Ornaments of various Woods & Roots with Amber Beaks & Tails,by the time I & my younger Siblings arrived he was just "Pa" who we would visit & be in awe of his beautiful & fairytale Garden with its Rustic Wood Furniture & "Dingly Dell" appearance.to the rear of his Prefab Home in Chelmsford

Gt Gramps was a Stonemason Journeyman, his brothers were a Mechanical Engineer, Barber and publican and his brother in law (my Gt Uncle) was a Sandpit worker. Nice and diverse!

One of my grandfathers was too young. The other was a generation older, and was already a soldier and Boer War veteran. After the war he left the Army and became the local Registrar and guardian. (I am not sure exactly what “guardian” means, but it seems to have been a role in what we know today as social services.) I never knew him as he died long before I was born. I’m told he was badly affected by his experiences in the War, and “was never the same man again”. Curious, as he seems not to have fought in the front line, but was assigned to a clerical post in supplies. I hope to find out more one day ….

Surely you didn't think that I was going to give all his secrets away?

Grandad Pay was a professional soldier, who after he retired from the Army in 1933 went to work for a bank.

Grandad Macey was an engineer, joined the Royal Engineers got to France and then 4 days later was whisked back to Blighty due to his trade. Ended up as chief engineer at Hornchurch airfield in WW2 on spitfires and used to travel around S.E. airfields working on Spits.

Andy

Hi Myrtle

No, he was from Coddington, near Ledbury. He did marry a Webley though.

Jim


Greyhound

Try googling "board of guardians" - as you say, what we now know as 'social services' I'd think.

Jim

Managed the Poor Law and operated the workhouse, so not quite the same as modern social services. Forum member, Bernard Lewis, is an "expert"

John

Cheers, guys. He was also Relieving Officer, so I guess that means he was the equivalent of the DHSS in the local community!

Yes, I think you have it spot on.

John

My maternal grandfather was orphaned in one of the last cholera outbreaks in the highlands, Adopted into a Fife family he was sent to a training ship moored in the Tay, for playing truant. He was an unskilled labourer in the jute mills in Dundee, married with 3 surviving children when he joined the Black Watch. He said to my grandmother, " It will give you a steady pay for six months ". He had already tried to join up for the Boer War but was refused because he was married with children. None of these survived to adulthood. He was captured and died of wounds at the Battle of Loos. My paternal grandfather was conscripted into Seaforth Highlanders Labour Company, Married with 7 children. Wounded 1918, and died of complications 1922. He was a carter driving a pair of heavy horses pulling jute from the docks to the mills.

Grandfather Tierney unforunetly didnt fight in the Great War as he died of heart failure in Wales a few days after his battalion had already departed. He was a labourer as far as I know but he served in the Boar War so I presume he was in the army for a while. I dont know that much about his life only a few pieces! Hes a hard man to track.

Dave.

My great grandfather was a boilermaker. His family were all mill workers from Oswaldtwistle (the mill, Moscow Mill is still there as a working museum, unfortunately the family house has been demolished).

Regards,

Neil.

I haven't been able to trace any Turners that fought in WW1, as they were either too young or too old. But, the Coole line (paternal grandmother), my G-Grandfather (Alfred) died in 1915 (not war related) but was a sailor from early 1889 until 1910 then became a member of the Corps of Commissionaires. At the outbreak of war, returned to the RN for approx 5 months until getting pneumonia and died later in 1915.

The Blatchford side (my mums grandfather), Henry George Blatchford (KIA 1917), was the son of an Innkeeper here in Bristol. Haven't been able to track him down (yet) on the 1901 census.

Les.

Paternal Grandfather was a stonemason and builder who had worked on the Forth Bridge and he built Munition Factories mostly Gretna, Carlisle and Preston. He appears to have been a bit of a b to his family. Died in 1955 on which my maiden aunt said Granny had a good life after he died. (Granny died aged 95)
Maternal Grandfather was in charge of the transport for the family Dairy business. Being an engineer he was good with engines and went into the RFC but ended up in the Argylls until demobbed in 1919. He became a chaffeur after the war having fallen out with the family who had spent the war in the Diary business. He died in 1965.

Aye
Malcolm

My Grandfather [Kit Stowe 8th West Yorks and 18th Glosters] was a collier before and boilerman in William Walker's Mill in Leeds after the war. He died in 1951 aged 57 years. I've only recently come across another Grandfather [Gt.] who served in the Great War. Harry Storr was born in 1880 and died on Boxing Day 1924 as a result of the war [Poss 12th Northumberland Fusiliers]. He was 44 years of age and previously worked as a labourer in a brick yard. My deepest thanks to Chris Noble for the census information and the other details he has kindly provided.

Cheers,
Dave

My Grandfather was a Public School boy fluent in Greek and Latin. For some unknown reason he emigrated to Manitoba, Canada to be a farm hand. (I often wonder if there was a reason to leave the UK!) At the outset of the war he returned (My Mum has a photo of Quebec City in November 1914 as he set sail for the UK.) He served as an officer in Signals. At the end of the war after serving in post-war Belgium he returned to Alberta, Canada to farm. His first wife died at childbirth in the 1920's. He then met my Grandmother who had been a Canadian War Bride from the UK, but had divorced her husband as he was an unsavoury character. They had my Mum, who was their only child.He signed up again with the Canadian Army in WWII serving as a radio instructor in the UK. He sold his farm in the 1950's and moved to near Vancouver, BC and lived to a good age of 84.
Unfortunately I never did get to talk to him about his experiences.

Grandad Goodwin was born in 1880 and as far as I have been able to tell, did not serve (perhaps because he was married with children). There are some tales of Navy in his generation or previous that I have yet to track down, but no-one left to ask alas. He was a plasterer all his life until he died in 1941.

Grandad Woodcock was a colourful character, born in 1892, he was in the RFA and one family story is that he got his MM one day when the shelling was bad and he sought out the nearest injured officer and carried him back to somewhere a little safer and quieter. Probably apocryphal but entertaining nonetheless! Prior to the war he had been a general labourer and council worker (mainly roadsweeper). He suffered the effects of gas and was semi-invalid after the war, with 7 kids to support he became a rag and bone man (think Steptoe and son), probably not always entirely legal. With his horse and cart in South London during the second lot, he scraped a living by salvaging from bombed out houses and sold what was worth having to those who had lost clothes and furniture and a good supply of firewood for what was beyond saving. As a fire-warden he had to deal with incendiaries using dustbin lids and buckets of sand or water. He died in '53 shortly before I was born.

My great uncle worked at the glue factory. No wonder he went off to war - boiling down animal bones to make the end product.

He was killed near the double crassier near Loos.

Stephen

Grandfather Newman was a regular before the war. Left in the 20s and ended up as a Bus Driver in Portsmouth.

Grandfather Deacon was a Printers Reader before he joined up as a Boy Sailor in 1914 and left as a Lt Crd in the 50s. Sore point because he hadn't been a Lt cdr for long so they only gave him a Lts pension.

Nigel

Hi,
paternal grandfather was in the Royal Marines and was in the Zeebrugge raid. He was in the ballot for a VC. At least two forum members have investigated him with an eye to a new book. In 1919 he was wounded in Murmansk. After the war he was almost definitely a Black and Tan, then ended up in the Military Police in Rosyth.
My maternal grandad was a ploughboy in the Banff area before joining the Gordon Highlanders in 1917. So far I have nothing else definite. Possible service in Mesopotamia? Had a lifelong problem with malaria? In the second world war he was a sergeant in the Homeguard and factor of the local estate (Seafield). Ended up with his own croft. Lower Craggan outside Grantown on Spey where I knew him.



LenT

Pops ( Bill Murphy ) was working in the coal mines in Liverpool at age 12 which would be 1907. He came to Canada after the war to work in Saskatchewan. Ma soon followed but couldn't adjust to enviornment which consisted of mud dwellings and no nieghbours for miles. Although the land was free out west they moved here to Ottawa and he worked in the civil service. Its interesting to think of what might have been.

One more thing. Pops had a great singing voice and he loved a pint now and then. I heard he would walk over the bridge to Hull with a nickel and come back whistling.

Hi,
Maternal grandfather was a clerk, served in the RGA and survived, joined Civil Service, Board of Education.
Paternal grandfather was an ironmonger and called up in 1917. He was a Quaker and refused to fight, so went before a Tribunal to seek exemption. This was refused, but was granted on appeal. He had to work in Mumford's flour mill on the Albert Embankment until early 1919. Was an ironmonger for the rest of his life.
Martin

Paternal grandfather - farm labourer in Somerset before, during and after the war. Wife and four children all died in the flu epidemic of 1918-19. Remarried and had a son, my dad.

Maternal grandfather - probably Somerset farm labourer pre-1914 and did a stint in the South Wales pits. RE Tunnelling Company during the war. Post-war became a golf course groundsman and died young in (c48) in 1931 probably due to after-effects of fas.

My English maternal grandfather (see below) was a "Grocers Boy" before the war and afterwards raised the money to buy a Grocers and eventually an Off-license- did very well for himself. Watching "Open All Hours" reminds me very much of him!

My paternal Italian grandfather has always been a great mystery know nothing at all about him! I just remember my Italian grandmother who was always dressed in black and produced great dishes of spaghetti which was and of course is the answer to all the worlds problems.

Hi Everyone,

My Grandfather, Private Arthur Aldis of 9th Queen's Royal Lancers was a butcher according to the 1901 cencus when he was 18 years old. I don't know when he joined up, in fact I don't know anything about him . He was wounded in the first battle of Ypres in November 1914 and was discharged. At the time of his death, apparently from his injuries, in 1919 he was an electrician in the Film Industry, where I don't know, he was living in Twickenham at the time'
Regards
Ken

My grandfather Thomas Beech was a pre war territorial and I have no information on his occupation at all before the war. After the war, he became an electrician at the Players Cigerette factory in Nottingham. he married my grandmother in May 1940 and died, aged 49 in January 1946. Has anybody realised how many men died at a relatively young age after WW1 service.

My other grandfather, George Allen, tried to join up on the outbreak of war and was repeatedly refused as he had FLAT FEET!!!. This was ironic as he was 6 ft 2-3 tall and build like a brick****house. He lived in a lock keepers cottage on the canal near Bromsgrove and worked as a market gardener. His brother, Harry, joined the Royal Engineers. Apparently he got alot of grief for not being in uniform and moved to Nottingham where he worked as a railway guard for fifty years! He died in 1979. He was awarded a Defense Medal in WW2 for working with the Home Guard guarding the railways in Nottingham.

Paternal -Fitter at LMS Railways Depot and Maternal a Postman.

My maternal grandfather was in the RN and served on HMS Cornwallis and HMS Vengeance, was in the Police in WW2 and died later in London, in his bed, whilst at home with my mother and her early family. His first wife (from Belgium) was my mother's mother, but never came out of hospital after her birth, died in Whipps Cross Hospital, London.
My paternal grandfather still researching, but apparently a stage artiste along with his wife, who was born in Germany, later a make-up artiste, died in London also. His brother's son was Rifleman C. Thomas, KIA : still researching. Slim connections for further info but will keep at it.........interesting to see the differnece in values now and then.....

V. Interesting, I have folks in Canada and will be over there in May, however, have you posted this pic on the forum before?? I think I've seen this somewhere?

I don't believe that I posted that particular pic of my Grandfather before. Some group photos before but not the "portrait". Prior to moving to Canada he was lived in Exeter having gone to school in Taunton. Three of my four Grandparents were born in England so I had numerous relatives there. Really only know the ones on my Mum's side.

If you know the town/village he came from you can find some information by writing to the parish church. There is also an Anglo-Italian Family History Society with an online site:

http://www.anglo-italianfhs.org.uk/

There is at least one member researching a Fazzani family. They seem to have originated in Lucca in Tuscany and emigrated to Clerkenwell. Here you are looking at London's "Little Italy". Right area?

There are also the Italian immigration history books by Dr Terri Colpi, one of which is full of old photos.

You could do a lot worse than to enquire at St Peter's Italian Church, Clerkenwell. It is worth a visit anyway, in order to see the memorial to the dozens of London-Italians who returned to Italy for WW1, and were then killed in action.

Also If your grandfather served in WW1, or if he did his military service before emigrating to England, you can claim his service papers.

Try a search of this forum using the word "foglio" to find out more.

My Great Grandfather (Private Alfred Turner - 14th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment) was a shoemaker in Coventry before the war. He followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.

Sadly he was killed in 1918 and though his father carried on in the shoe making business non of his children did so. (His eldest son was left handed and was told that you couldn't have a left handed cobbler!)

Great Grandfather, Dixon Entwistle was a Tackler at Holden's Alexandra Mill, Rossendale, Lancashire.
He was KIA in Belgium.

I can find no record of Holden's Alexandra Mill, does anyone have any ideas?

Alexandra Mill was owned by the Holden's. Try a search for "Alexandra Mill" and "Holden" and possibly "Rossendale" and you will find something.

What's a Tackler?

Grandfather always was a professional soldier also before the war and always served in IR 49, stationed in the German province of Posen.

Great uncle Kurt Thielicke was a student of Philosophy and German language and -literature

Both did not survive the war

Maternal grandfather was a solicitor, before & after.
Paternal grandfather was a "fitter" before & painter & decorator after.

My paternal grandfather Herbert Lawton and his brother John, kia Sep 1917, were carriage cleaners for the London & North Western Railway at Watford before the war. He returned to the job for a while before becoming a wheel tapper and then in the 1920's he worked at Clements Department Store in Watford.

My maternal grandfather was only born in 1914 but his father Henry Joseph Gough joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Sailor in 1899. He was loaned to the Royal Australian Navy in 1913 and was serving on the Australian Submarine AE1 when it went missing in Sep 1914.

Stu

My Grandfather was a miner before the Great War,joined up in September 1914 left in 1919 went back to work as a miner.

All we know about my Husbands Grandfather was the fact he was a bigamist,which our Grandchildren think is cool



Joan