Protected occupations in the World Wars
Discussion
My Mum's dad was a foreman at Rolls Royce Aero Engines in Derby. I know he was in the Experimental section and I'm pretty sure that he worked on development of both the Merlin and first jet engines. He and my grandmother lived a street away from the Nightingale Road factory and I never thought anything of the danger until I read this:
I didn't know any of this- they lived there from 1940 to 1984 and never mentioned it.
My Dad's Dad was a butcher for the Co-Op and was called up to be a motorcycle dispatch rider in Africa and Italy. He never told my Dad much about what happened and he died when I was two so unfortunately his experiences have been lost forever.
BBC History site said:
A German plane flying above had seemed to have gotten lost. But then it flew down over the long Nightingale Road and with its machine gun shot down every worker on it.
I later went down to the road. I saw fingers, other loose limbs, arms and legs. There were also bits of metal from the machine gun rounds lying everywhere.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/72/a5274272.shtmlI later went down to the road. I saw fingers, other loose limbs, arms and legs. There were also bits of metal from the machine gun rounds lying everywhere.
I didn't know any of this- they lived there from 1940 to 1984 and never mentioned it.
My Dad's Dad was a butcher for the Co-Op and was called up to be a motorcycle dispatch rider in Africa and Italy. He never told my Dad much about what happened and he died when I was two so unfortunately his experiences have been lost forever.
Not a Grandparent, but one of my Grandparents had a cousin who was a Member of Parliament throughout both World Wars.
I’m not 100% sure, but IIRC the Civil Service exemption applied to MP's. However, when the First World War started practically all the MP’s who were young enough volunteered.
Apart from the moral imperative to ‘do their bit’ it was felt that it would be seen a cowardice not to when asking everyone else to volunteer. Anyone thought a coward by their constituents would be unlikely to be re-elected and therefore a liability to their party. So the Whips leant on them to go.
The politicians felt that since they had got us into the war, the honourable thing to do was to take their chances in battle with the rest of the population. Quite a few Honourable Members got killed.
My relative had barely survived Typhus fever as a child which left him with stunted growth and bouts of ill health for life. Since he wasn’t fit for combat service he ended up in the Directorate of Military Intelligence (The DMI was a forerunner to MI5/MI6). Being knee high to a Gnome left him with an inferiority complex. He overcompensated for this by seeking Honours and medals. He was very upset not to be in a position to win some.
The DMI worked in the shadows. Other MP’s could point to proper Military service. He ended up publishing a book about his wartime experience just to silence career damaging criticism that he hadn’t done anything.
It would be nice to know that today if our politicians got us into a war they would be as honourable as their Grandfathers by taking their chances in battle with the rest of us.
Unfortunately Darwin predicts that if you kill the Honourable Members then you select for Dishonourable ones. Parliament will evolve into a pit full of Dishonourable Snivelly Serpents.
So, exactly how many Honourable members volunteered after getting us into recent wars?
I’m not 100% sure, but IIRC the Civil Service exemption applied to MP's. However, when the First World War started practically all the MP’s who were young enough volunteered.
Apart from the moral imperative to ‘do their bit’ it was felt that it would be seen a cowardice not to when asking everyone else to volunteer. Anyone thought a coward by their constituents would be unlikely to be re-elected and therefore a liability to their party. So the Whips leant on them to go.
The politicians felt that since they had got us into the war, the honourable thing to do was to take their chances in battle with the rest of the population. Quite a few Honourable Members got killed.
My relative had barely survived Typhus fever as a child which left him with stunted growth and bouts of ill health for life. Since he wasn’t fit for combat service he ended up in the Directorate of Military Intelligence (The DMI was a forerunner to MI5/MI6). Being knee high to a Gnome left him with an inferiority complex. He overcompensated for this by seeking Honours and medals. He was very upset not to be in a position to win some.
The DMI worked in the shadows. Other MP’s could point to proper Military service. He ended up publishing a book about his wartime experience just to silence career damaging criticism that he hadn’t done anything.
It would be nice to know that today if our politicians got us into a war they would be as honourable as their Grandfathers by taking their chances in battle with the rest of us.
Unfortunately Darwin predicts that if you kill the Honourable Members then you select for Dishonourable ones. Parliament will evolve into a pit full of Dishonourable Snivelly Serpents.
So, exactly how many Honourable members volunteered after getting us into recent wars?
Yep. My grandfather and his brother welded every join by hand on operation P.L.U.T.O.
He sat on a boat in the english channel day in and day out welding.
He invented the process of welding that specific pipe to withstand such high pressures and the weld was stronger than the pipe, apparently.
He couldn't tell anyone what he was doing as it was all top secret.
Later on in life he went blind partly due to the torches he used to use.
He was very proud of the fact that not a single weld failed during the pipe lines service, and rightly so!
Top bloke although a bit grumpy when I got around to meeting him.
Did lots of charity work too and got an OBE.
Wikilink for anyone interested in pluto.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pluto
He sat on a boat in the english channel day in and day out welding.
He invented the process of welding that specific pipe to withstand such high pressures and the weld was stronger than the pipe, apparently.
He couldn't tell anyone what he was doing as it was all top secret.
Later on in life he went blind partly due to the torches he used to use.
He was very proud of the fact that not a single weld failed during the pipe lines service, and rightly so!
Top bloke although a bit grumpy when I got around to meeting him.
Did lots of charity work too and got an OBE.
Wikilink for anyone interested in pluto.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pluto
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