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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Antony1977 on Saturday 27 July 24 08:02 BST (UK)
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I’d always wondered what my grandfather ( deceased) did in the war, in research he had one of the jobs that meant he didn’t have to go and fight: hydraulic lifting , does anyone know what this job actually was?! My father is also deceased so I can’t ask him!
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This previous topic might help shed some light (guessing it wasn't just guns)
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=553069.0 (https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=553069.0)
S_L
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What info do you have that he was exempted from conscription?
A hydraulic lift operator wasn't a protected occupation in itself.
I do recall a hydraulic lift being used to raise barges from the canal
to an aqueduct.
https://www.fairfields.co.uk/fcs/sectors/moving-structures/anderton-boat-lift/
Most lifting gear in ww2 was powered by electric motors & cranes
or overhead gantries so hydraulic lifts would have limited uses.
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Think out of the box, jim :) ;)
He was a hydraulic (lifting) equipment fitter, car brakes are hydraulic equipment, farm tractors use hydraulics, battleships lift ammo up to the guns from the armoury, the range and uses are huge, and passes unnoticed.
In Birmingham his factory would have changed to war work rapidly.
My lawn sprinkler uses hydraulic power to rotate it :) :) :
Mike
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His job was lifting which rather leaves out car brakes & mowers.
If he was in the RN it would say that.
The exemption was basically if the job could be done by someone else
other that a man of fighting age.
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I think the point I am making is that the skills as a fitter ie: pistons, high pressure joints and couplings
etc. could transfer to making parts for most war equipment as mains electric was absent from the battlefield.
Was not Birmingham home to Birmingham small arms?
Mike
I perhaps should have mentioned that other posts on the other thread say in 1939 he was in Birmingham as a hydraulic fitter.
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Hi having issues replying, here goes 4th attempt
It was my dad that said grandad didn’t fight in the war due to his job. With a little help I discovered he was a hydraulic lifter /lifting
Unfortunately both my dad and grandad are no longer here to ask , and I’m at an age that family history is now interesting to me
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Being a hydraulics engineer would alter it slightly.
It makes me recall my days at Lucas's.
As a maintenance engineer we had hydraulic lifting equipment
which raised trailers from ground to unloading bays.
Whether they were there during the war I can't say but Lucas
was a shadow factory WW2.BSA might have had something similar
if he worked there.
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Thank you , my late uncle Donald Tranter worked at Lucas his entire career at the Aston factory if I recall correctly
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Where in Brum did he live at the time?
Most men worked quite close by which might give us
an idea where he might have worked.
My one issue is that he's been mentioned as a hydraulic engineer/fitter/lifter
which is a very niche occupation.
Had he worked in a shadow factory his skills would have been used in any repair/maintenance role.
This makes me think he may not have & worked in such a place & exclusively worked on hydraulic lifting gear in another location but struggling to see where that might be in Brum.
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In those days Alum Rock / wash wood Heath Bham
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I wonder if he worked at the gasworks there.
You can imagine the reluctance to use electric equipment
so close to an explosive substance such as gas.