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Archiver > LONDON > 1999-08 > 0933892332


From: Liz <>
Subject: Re: Occupations
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 23:32:12 +0100


wrote:
>
> Dear Eve ,
> Thank you for your reply, the relative a distant cousins father describes
> himself on his marriage certificate as a Carman, on the birth certificate of
> his son he is Carriage Cleaner. Our cousin has checked all the details with
> the appropriate railway authorities (either job name was used by them back
> in the early 1900s so says the man at the railway) and this in fact was the
> job he did. As I said it depends who you talked to but he worked at
> Stratford on the Railway and he cleaned and tidied all the rail carriages
> and during the war his wife took over the job so he could go and serve in
> the Army. The only time he was near a horse was during his army service in
> the Royal Horse Artillery. He ended up driving the trains he had started
> cleaning.

Dear Sharon,

My Oxford Dictionary gives carman as a van-driver or carrier - as Eve
described.
A Carriage Cleaner certainly did what you describe.

So, my question is - why do you assume that he still had the same job
when his son was born as he had when he was married?

I know the 'railway authority' is supposed to have said these jobs were
two names for the same thing, but if so I must say it is the first time
I have heard it used in England.

I would be inclined to think he worked in the environs of the Railway as
a carrier, possibly with a mechanised van depending on the date, and
then moved on to employment as a Carriage cleaner with the Railway
company.

If the source was a railway historian then I too will have to do a
rethink!

Regards
Liz (Greenwich UK)

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