Protected occupations in the World Wars
Discussion
Maternal Grandad fought Rommel in Africa 
On the paternal side, he was a couple of days away from being shipped over to mainland Europe when someone found out that he was a signwriter (something he had been trying to keep quiet!), and he spent the War painting up the text on planes/tanks etc
It seems alien to me that he would have wanted to keep his job quiet so that he could go away and fight. Now-a-days most people would be screaming from the rooftops that they were in a protected occupation to avoid being sent off to fight - but my Grandad said back then most of the lads he knew tried to keep it quiet. I suppose people were just more patriotic back then... and probably weren't wise to the horrors and bloodshed that lay ahead of them like we are now.
On the paternal side, he was a couple of days away from being shipped over to mainland Europe when someone found out that he was a signwriter (something he had been trying to keep quiet!), and he spent the War painting up the text on planes/tanks etc
It seems alien to me that he would have wanted to keep his job quiet so that he could go away and fight. Now-a-days most people would be screaming from the rooftops that they were in a protected occupation to avoid being sent off to fight - but my Grandad said back then most of the lads he knew tried to keep it quiet. I suppose people were just more patriotic back then... and probably weren't wise to the horrors and bloodshed that lay ahead of them like we are now.
Asterix said:
PaulHogan said:
My paternal grandfather was a policeman. They issued him with an air pistol in case he had to face a downed airman.
Would they have given him a water pistol had he faced a Naval guy washed up on a beach 
I never met him: he died before I came onto the scene. I have read one of his police logbooks for the year 1940 and it was absolutely fascinating. In beautiful copper plate writing he describes how he caught a couple of young scrotes trying to break in to a factory so he beat them senseless with his truncheon before marching them home to their parents who added to his beating with their own.
Grandfather on my Mum's side fought, flying fighter-escort in the Fleet Air Arm. Another relative on that side was a spy, fluent in German without accent, who spent the war masquerading as a German behind enemy lines. God knows what he saw out there but he never breathed a word of the details to his family.
Most of my Dad's side of the family were involved in mining. His dad couldn't walk properly (polio as a child) so wouldn't have been called up anyway, but worked as a designer for Slazenger and Footprint Tools, among other things, and contributed to the war manufacturing effort supported by Sheffield's steel industry.
It's worth pointing out that, like Coventry, the steel furnaces and sparks from the trams taking the steelworkers home at the end of the working day made them almost as much a target for the Luftwaffe as they would have been at the Front.
Most of my Dad's side of the family were involved in mining. His dad couldn't walk properly (polio as a child) so wouldn't have been called up anyway, but worked as a designer for Slazenger and Footprint Tools, among other things, and contributed to the war manufacturing effort supported by Sheffield's steel industry.
It's worth pointing out that, like Coventry, the steel furnaces and sparks from the trams taking the steelworkers home at the end of the working day made them almost as much a target for the Luftwaffe as they would have been at the Front.
Edited by Twincam16 on Saturday 13th November 13:01
My paternal grandfather was a senior iimmigration officer at Southampton docks. As you can imagin they where busier than ever and protected from conscription. I don't know if he could of signed up? Maybe? But the skill set was deffinately required. Told me a few good stories of having to swim back to port after ships having left with him on board. Sadly dead now.
Maternal grandfather was an auto mechanic. So was conscripted as an engineer for the Luftwaffe. He would not of been allowed to fly or fight.
Maternal grandfather was an auto mechanic. So was conscripted as an engineer for the Luftwaffe. He would not of been allowed to fly or fight.
My maternal Grand-Dad was in his 40s when WW2 started. I don't know if he volunteered or was conscripted but he ended up in the Royal Pioneer Corps because of his age. He was wounded and evacuated at Dunkirk, but I think he spent the rest of the war working in ammunition depots. So not quite a protected occupation, but after that first flurry in 1940 he never saw action again, as far as I know.
mad4amanda said:
My Dads side was a miner in the Durham coalfields
Same here. Seaham colliery. Or Vane Tempest, I forget which.Mum's Dad was in the Merchant Navy and ended up on the Atlantic convoys. Torpedoed three times, according to papers we found after his death.
I simply cannot comprehend what that must have been like.
It's topical, I know, but we really do owe a big debt of thanks to these people.
My maternal grandfather was a farmer, but insisted on joining up regardless. He served several tours as a tailgunner in a Lanc but still survived the war, hence I exist at all. Never would talk about what he did though, saw it as necessary rather than anything to be proud of, and never went back to Germany after the war.
Great Grandfather owned a large manufacturing firm and was 'exempt'. He had German POWs working for him during the war, and I still have the wine bottle with a scene inside it made by one of the POWs. (Scene is of an old boat, similar to HMS Victory battling huge waves. It's pretty cool when you think it's inside a wine bottle 
)
)My paternal grandfather worked at a flour mill and was apparently the only person who could get the mill working again if it stopped (I'm told that flour in a mill sets like concrete if it's not kept moving). As such he was refused entry into the forces, although he did work as an ARP warden when not at the mill. I'm lead to believe that he was never happy that he hadn't been able to go and fight, right up until his death some 20 odd years ago.
My maternal grandfather was an RSM in the Royal Artillery during the war and was stationed in the Middle East and North Africa fr large parts of it.
My maternal grandfather was an RSM in the Royal Artillery during the war and was stationed in the Middle East and North Africa fr large parts of it.
Paternal grandfather was a miner in the Tyneside pits; Maternal grandfather was Merchant Navy, served on the Atlantic conveys, its only in the last few years (he's been dead 22 years) that my mother has told me of his exploits and rank. One that sticks in my mind is a tale that apparently he and his 'old boy' mates would reminisce of, is that of limping a torpedoed ship home with a good proportion of the ship flooded and general carnage.
Makes me wish I knew him properly and heard the tales first hand.
Makes me wish I knew him properly and heard the tales first hand.
Maternal one was in the army and died somewhere on the continent in 1942, body was never found and no-one in the family even knows where it was that he died (must have been one of the hush-hush operations though I guess).
Paternal one was in the merchant navy and died as part of the convoys, so again no body.
Paternal one was in the merchant navy and died as part of the convoys, so again no body.
young_bairn said:
If there was a similair World War today what profesions would be protected?
Uniformed services, medics and nurses both animal and human, educators... 
People whose roles are both essential in the mid/long-term and whose skills cannot quickly be transferred to others. I predict a lot of people genuinely surprised that their mundane middle-management job is entirely superflous to the wellbeing of the country, and a lot of people doing formerly thankless grunt work without which we'd all be scuppered suddenly finding themselves valued for the first time.Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff