Employment opportunities for discharged WW1 Royal Navy Sailors

[Leasowe]

Can anybody provide an overview of what employment opportunities were for discharged sailors post WW1 ? Also would be interest to know if there were any training schemes set up by the Government and were discharged servicemen entitled to unemployment benefits post discharge ?

[seaJane]

Discharged wounded sailors were entitled to a pension as far as I recall.

OED records the "out-of-work dole" used in print for the first time in 1919 (29s "this week") - and calls it "the popular name for the various kinds of weekly payments made from national and local funds to the unemployed since the war of 1914–18" - I assume this would extend to sailors.

There's been another thread about an officers' training scheme somewhere but I don't know much about sailors' retraining. I have anecdotal evidence of RN people who went out under the "Geddes axe" of 1925 moving into the Merchant Service, but wouldn't like to say it was a regular thing.

sJ

[David_Underdown]

As they'd have some firefighting training, and in use of pumps etc, traditionally there was a bit of a link between exRN folk going into fire brigades.

[bill24chev]

RN "sailor" covers a wide spectrum of trades and experience.

For example Cooks would probably be looking for work in a similer post and Stewards would have been useful in a bar or restaurant.

Stokers were semi skilled engineers as well as having experience of running boilers and steam engines which there were still many in the Textile Industries.

Torpedo men were trained Electricians.

The British merchant fleet was still the biggest in the world so I would expect there being work for Seamen Ratings., especially as there were many MN casualties in WW1

I don't think the Navy would want to lose expensively trained and qualified Artificers but their engineering skill would be useful to a civilian employer

[ss002d6252]

Slightly off the topic but a relative of mine was a marine engineer pre WW1 - he went on to serve as an engineer in the local paper mill .

Craig

[Leasowe]

Thank you to all that have provided responses, I do know that my grand uncle was in Torpedo school in Deveonport, so he might have ended up in an an electrical trade on shore.

[seaJane]

Did he stay in the area? You might be able to find something in a Devonport/Plymouth volume of Kelly's Directory (ask your local library where to find one).

sJ