Hydraulic Lifting - a job that stopped my granddad fighting in ww2

[Antony1977]

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!

[still_looking]

This previous topic might help shed some light (guessing it wasn't just guns)
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=553069.0

S_L

[jim1]

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.

[mazi]

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

[jim1]

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.

[mazi]

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.

[Antony1977]

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

[jim1]

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.

[Antony1977]

Thank you , my late uncle Donald Tranter worked at Lucas his entire career at the Aston factory if I recall correctly