Firemen WW1

[SamJ]

Are there any listings of Firemen for WW1 or WW2 available? Looking for Frederick Albert Stillwell who was supposed to be in Merchant Navy but may have been a fireman on firewatch - Zeppelins (met my grandmother during a zeppelin raid in London, she may have been confused as to whether he was in the Navy or Fire service)

[km1971]

The volunteers who were on duty during air raids were called fire watchers - http://caber.open.ac.uk/schools/stanway/civil_defence.html I don't believe records were kept. In WW2 they were usually based on top of public buildings and had buckets of sand to pour over incendiary bombs that fell onto the roof. Some also had a bucket of water and a stirrup pump so they could tackle small fires. They usually worked in pairs. Then one man could fetch the fire fighters while one man tackled the fire. My GF did the job on top of a local cinema. He did not receive a medal as far as I am aware. During the day he was a ship repairer.

The original job of fireman was anyone who tended a fire - usually to keep a steam engine going. The railways kept the title until only the driver was required by diesel and electric engines.

On a ship the fireman worked in the engine room. The titles were fireman, stoker and trimmer. Some ships only had the last two. If they had firemen he was in charge of a team of stokers. A trimmer’s job was to see that the coal in the bunkers was kept level so the ship would not develop a list.

Ken

[SamJ]

Thanks Ken, My GF was based on the tops of buildings in WW2, the family lived in Sydenham London at the time, my dad remembers him going out to do his bit, his day job was bookbinder. His brother in law was in the Fire brigade and we've assumed that Fred got involved because of that link. During WW1 my dad thought he did the same thing, my GM said he was in the Navy, sadly she isn't around anymore to quiz.