Can anyone read this occupation please, from the 1939

[Raybistre]

Doesn't really convince me but how about Ford Cars Material Layout?

Ray

[sugarbakers]

Food can material layout supervisor ... he who works out how to get the maximum number of cans from a roll of tinplate ... maybe 

[conahy calling]

Was there a canning industry at or near his location?

[Greensleeves]

I'm inclined to agree with the food can material etc, but would like to see if there was actually such a trade and if so, whether our chap could have been practising it wherever he was living at the time.  Do we know where he was living?

[Lydart]

YES !      I've been crawling around in my loft to try and find old family papers .... I find that after the war he was working in the Metal Box Company (I think somewhere in west London) so IF he was working there before and during the war, then we are getting near to an explanation.

He may well have been making tin cans for soldiers baked beans !    Hence a reserved occupation.

Thank you for all the suggestions .... I think we have got there.

[Greensleeves]

Food production and preservation was very important during WW2 since we were heavily reliant on imported food,  and the Atlantic convoys were a precarious method of getting food to the country and thence to the troops.  So it does seem realistic that those who were working in the canning industry would be regarded as being in reserved occupations.

[Lydart]

and I found this online ......

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Metal_Box_Co

If you scroll down, you'll see that after 1935 it says they were making stuff for the war .... which could have included "many different types of food packing including 5000 million cans"

[stanmapstone]

You can download the 'Schedule of Reserved Occupations (Provisional)' 1939 at http://anguline.co.uk/Free/Reserved.pdf

Stan

[Rosinish]

YES !      I've been crawling around in my loft to try and find old family papers ....
He may well have been making tin cans for soldiers baked beans !

making stuff for the war .... which could have included "many different types of food packing including 5000 million cans"

   I hope you don't have grazed knees Lydart & I'm sure your next tin of beans will taste so much better 

I bought beans not too long ago & the tin was very thin & very flexible unlike a normal tin i.e. will soon be a thing of the past! 

Annie