Dockers and coal trimmers

[Tom Wales]

Does anybody know if dockers and coal trimmers were exempted from military service.

[johnboy]

I might be wrong but I think coal trimmers were in the stokehold of steam ships.

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

Coal trimmers did all the coal related jobs on board ship.

The most important job was to level the heap into all the dark recesses of the hold, so that the load was level, and the ship would float safely.

This involved shovelling and raking coal, consequently there was a lot of dust.

As a result, cardiff coal trimmers had the highest incidence of coal related pneumoconiosis of any coal related trade.

Higher even than the coal miners themselves.

Don't know if they were exempt though.

[Frank_East]

Coal trimmers were deployed both in the Royal Navy and Merchant fleets to trim bunker levels and hence trim the ship.I would have thought that Merchant fleet coal trimmers would have been exempt from military service being involved in activities of national importance.Coaling up tended to be a task for the whole ship's company with few exempt from the task,if they were,it was usually because of other important activities they had to undertake.

Another important role of the coal/bunker trimmer was to ensure that there was a free flow of coal from the bunker to the boiler stoker and coal was not allowed to be "held up". Coal in storage or "left held" up in a bunker feed arrangement, deteriorates in its calorific value (heat content) and is subject to a chemical reaction which can give rise to dangerous fumes from the combustion of carbon and other constituents of coal....coal undisturbed takes in oxygen,generates carbon monoxide/carbon dioxide/sulphur dioxide and creates heat....the cause of spontaneous combustion......a bunker fire could represent a threat to the safety of the ship and its company.

Bituminous coals are more subject to deterioration and degradation in storage or in "held up" situations owing to the contained high level of volatiles while the Welsh steam coals such as anthracite,having a lower volatile content, pose a lesser risk of chemical reaction and breakdown.

[tullybrone]

Does anybody know if dockers and coal trimmers were exempted from military service.

Just wondering if OP query is in relation to a UK port based coal trimmer - a "specialist" docker "trade" - who "trimmed" the coal holds of merchant ships loaded with coal cargo in UK ports.

My gf was a port based coal trimmer post WW1.

Is his query actually were civilian dockers and coal trimmers - not Merchant Seamen - liable to conscription post 1916?

I know dockers could be exempt in WW2.

Steve Y

[Tom Wales]

Thank you Tullybrone for pointing this out. My query relates to dockside workers known as coal trimmers in the South Wales ports. Sorry to everybody else for confusion.

[kenf48]

Coal trimmer is in the list of certified occupations in the appendix to the Miltary Service Act 1916 'Transport Trades' Coal Depots or wharves:- ... Trimmer and Tipper...' In 1917 the age limit for exemption for single men applied from age 41, if married from age 25 years.

Dock and wharf labourers were also listed as a certified occupation under the same heading.

These wide exemptions narrowed as the war continued and there was pressure on manpower. Regulations for ports and port workers depended on whether or not there was a Port Labour Committee. Where there was a Committee, a man, subject to certain conditions could obtain an exemption certificate from the Board of Trade on the recommendation of the Committee. Where the Committee could not deal with his exemption he would be referred to Local and Appeal Tribunals. .

If there was no Port Labour Committee then a dock labourer could seek exemption if they were aged 25, whether married or single, raised to 31 for single men later in the year. A list of ports where there was a Port Labour Committee was published I don't know if it can be found, but it included the Port of London and I guess the bigger ports. I've seen a reference to Cardiff Port Labour Committee.

Ken

[Tom Wales]

kenf48 - very clear - thanks for your help

tom

[charlie962]

What a fascinating thread. A simple question produces a series of expert responses around the subject.

I have a single medal to a man who was a Dock Labourer/ Rigger in 1914 in London but joined up straight away and served as a gunner. So I presume the exemption was only if one wanted to exercise it ? Of course 1914 we are not yet talking of conscription but at what point was there a labour shortage sufficient perhaps to require men to be refused enlistment ? Without being sexist I presume there weren't many women who could replace Dock Labourers? And shipping traffic must have increased enormously during the war?

[johnboy]

The large merchant fleets would not have wanted to lose the trimmers or firemen or stokers.

[mysie]

Hi there is a Dockers memorial in Footdee Aberdeen for Dockers only covers both wars, it is close by to the much bigger one for Soldiers and Sailors.

. Mary.

[kenf48]

I have a single medal to a man who was a Dock Labourer/ Rigger in 1914 in London but joined up straight away and served as a gunner. So I presume the exemption was only if one wanted to exercise it ? Of course 1914 we are not yet talking of conscription but at what point was there a labour shortage sufficient perhaps to require men to be refused enlistment ? Without being sexist I presume there weren't many women who could replace Dock Labourers? And shipping traffic must have increased enormously during the war?

There were many pressures to enlist in 1914, the peak period being between the 25 August and 15 September 1914. Up until December 1914 there was virtually no restriction on who could volunteer for the Army, providing of course they met the Army's basic requirements. Dockers and other transport workers were paid relatively high wages, and were well organised therefore did not enlist in great numbers compared to other occupations. Between August 1914 and March 1916 233,000 men employed in the 'transport trades', which included Port workers enlisted, this represented 22.4% of the pre-war workforce. I don't have a figure for dock labourers, but another consideration was the age and marital status of the workforce given the employment practices of the dockers and their employers. This compared with over 40% of the pre-war workforce engaged in finance and commerce who enlisted in the same period.

It did not take the Government long to realise that large numbers of men joining the Army was having an impact on efficiency. The Admiralty issued an 'on war service' badge in December 1914. The badge was eventually more widely adopted and administered by the Ministry of Munitions so that men in these trades, including dockers in H.M. Dockyards became 'badged men'. In 1915 after National Registration there was an asterisk against the name of men in certain trades so these men were 'starred'.

These distinctions ceased with the Military Service Act 1916 when the first 'Official List of Certified Occupations' was promulgated as Appendix 6 to the original Act on the 10th February 1916. This list was fairly broad in scope but was subsequently amended a number of times as the war progressed. A certificate of exemption was granted by the Local Tribunal on application to any man who was able to show his principal and usual occupation was included in the list. As always there were certain conditions that had to be met.

This was widely published as this poster from the IWM Collection shows, it's interesting in that it's addressed to 'single men' as initially married men were to be exempt from conscription, another hasty "U-turn"!

You are right in that women were not seen as replacing dock labourers, though there was a list of those occupations where they could replace men, and no doubt many women were employed in the ports.

Ken

[charlie962]

Ken, very interesting and clear and concise.

William Storm, the Dock Labourer I referred to, was 28 and married when he enlisted in the RFA on 29th August 1914. His wife, noted as NoK, has an address at a Kent Asylum (Staff or patient?) and there are no recorded children. I found no trace of marriage or census. He served in France 1914-1918 but ended up 'unfit' and being transferred to Labour Corps Agric Co in Feb 1918. Pre-war he worked at Tilbury for the Orient Steamship Co.

Anyway you have provided me very clearly with the framework within which he was operating at the time of his enlistment.I presume patriotic rather than domestic reasons were behind his decision. I wonder what he did when he was demobbed.

Many thanks.

Charlie

[richards13]

Many Cardiff men who lost their lives during the Great War were coal trimmers.