Jump to content
Free downloads from TNA ×
The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

What was your grandfather's job etc before & after the war ?


JOSTURM

Recommended Posts

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

post-18142-1170516251.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maternal grandfather was a solicitor, before & after.

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 :blink:

Joan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...