Help deciphering info in the 1939 Register

[roycymru]

Hello

Please see attached. I am looking at the entry for Ernest W. Reeves. Above the year 93 is written 99 and next to this a word I can’t make out O B th. Any ideas? Is this supposed to indicate a correction to his year of birth. Also his profession is Railway coy? I have no idea what a Railway coy? might be.

Thank you

[Neale1961]

I believe it says his occupation is a Vanman with a railway company.

[BumbleB]

Not sure about the date query - FindMyPast give date of birth as 15 November 1899 in their transcription.  Occupation is a Van Man for a Railway Co(mpan)y.

[Gillg]

Occupation Railway boy, I think, then Van Man. Can't read the faint letters above, though, which seem to link with the 99 entry.

[garden genie]

Standard civil service practice would be for the OBA to be the initials or reference of the person making the change of date, when a correction came in from elsewhere in the NHS. I still find myself initialing things I have done occasionally and I left the civil service nearly 40 years ago!

[MollyC]

Did his declared age in 1939 affect whether he may have been called up for military service?

[JenB]

Agree with Neale and BB - the occupation is Railway Co[mpan]y Van Man

[roycymru]

Thank you everyone lots of useful information there. Therefore the consensus is that he was born 1899 and was a Van Man for a railway company. The 1939 register extract is from 10 Kingston Road, Cardiff

Current thinking is that the Douglas B Reeves with him is his illegitimate son David Bryant Reeves born 1930 Llanelly as David Bryant, son of Violet Elva Bryant (1910). David going on to marry a Valerie Isadora Williams.

I have been trying to find more about Ernest with no success. There is no Ernest “W” Reeves birth registered in Dec Qtr 1899 or Mar Qtr 1900. Ernest in 1939 state he was married and there is a marriage of an Ernest Walter Reeves to a Sarah Miriam Russ in 1918, in Cardiff, they had a son also called Ernest Walter 1918, who baptism address was 14 Station Road Cardiff, who died later the same year. Whether this is the same Ernest I don’t know. I can’t find the couple in 1921 or any obvious candidates for Ernest W Reeves in earlier censuses.

[rosie99]

The Ernest who married Sarah Ruff was a soldier according to their son's baptism in 1918, have you checked CWGC website in case he died.