What might this occupation have involved please: Lady Canvasser

[elliot]

What might this occupation have involved please: Lady Canvasser [at] Furniture Stores

Irene Monica Isobel GAUNTLETT Lady Canvasser [at] Furniture Stores
Birth MAR 1914 • BERWICK-UPON-TWEED, Northumberland, England
Death APRIL 2005 • SOUTH & WEST DORSET, Dorset, England
 

[GR2]

Midland Daily Telegraph, 9-2-1939:

Lady Canvasser wanted, able to sell good furni-
ture; 30/- per week and commission - Apply
before 2 p.m., Friday, February 10th, Lawson and
Co., Coventry, and 76, Walsgrave Road.

[elliot]

GR2
Many thanks for this clue. 
She sounds like a friendly sales floor walker employed to approach all those hesitant, indecisive couples who contemplate and worry about all the expensive brand-new furniture as opposed to sticking with all the old brown stuff inherited from the grandparents.

[GR2]

Berwick Advertiser, 21-5-1936:

     BERWICK ORGANIST LEAVES
                   £5,530
   £50 TO FORMER PUPIL AND FRIEND

   Dr Charles Trevor Gauntlett, Mus. Doc., of
6, Bankhill, Berwick, for 36 years organist at
Holy Trinity Parish Church, Berwick, and
formerly of Oswestry and Newcastle (who died
on December 30th last), son of the Rev. J. G.
Gauntlett, Swansea, left estate of the gross
value of £5,530, with net personality of £4,552.
Probate of his will, dated September 26th 1935,
has been granted to Barclays Bank, Ltd.
   He left £100 to his wife; £300 each to his
children Wilfred Trevor Gauntlett and Irene
Monica Gauntlett; £300 to his daughter, Audrey
Frances Helen Gauntlett on attaining majority;
£50 to his former pupil and friend, Leslie Fell;
and, subject to the disposal of his household
etc., effects, the residue upon trust for his
wife during her widowhood, with remainder to his
three children.

[AlanBoyd]

GR2
Many thanks for this clue. 
She sounds like a friendly sales floor walker employed to approach all those hesitant, indecisive couples who contemplate and worry about all the expensive brand-new furniture as opposed to sticking with all the old brown stuff inherited from the grandparents.

Looking at other items in newspapers I get the distinct impression that the work may have involved going door-to-door. Many job ads combine canvasser and collector, suggesting that they set up hire purchase arrangements. My mother’s first job for the Co-op (late 1940s) involved carrying a suitcase full of shoes door-to-door (and she hated it). She never used the term canvasser, but perhaps that was her official job title.

[AlanBoyd]

For the 1921 census there are two occupation codes whose official description includes "canvasser":

774 canvassers (not dock, insurance or railway)
795 insurance canvassers

I searched the 1921 census for occupation code 774. The word canvasser doesn’t appear in many of the descriptions on the census return. Words that do appear frequently are 'agent', 'traveller', 'collector', and 'hire purchase'.

[hanes teulu]

I noticed there was a Swansea connection - couldn't resist casting around.

Welsh newspapers 
https://newspapers.library.wales/

Search for "John George Gauntlett" - including the "   " as part of search key. Returns 13 hits. Click on paragraph heading for original newspaper item.

[hanes teulu]

One item describes him as Vicar of Holy Trinity. The Church was destroyed 1941 - it's the Church bottom right corner of this pic -
https://www.swansea.gov.uk/article/7844/A-view-across-the-town

[hanes teulu]

He supported the Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881 - took us 80 years to get it reversed (at least in some Counties)!
See bottom col 3
https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3670906/3670911/33/gauntlett?from=search