Scotland - Essential Worker/Unfit for Service WWII

[Russell]

Hi Alan

My father was in a reserved occupation. He was ambulance driver and vehicle maintenance engineer for the Ormiston Coal company in East Lothian. Many companies retained ambulance services although some of the drivers were not acceptable or military service. Since my father had the additional engineering qualification the mining company didn't need to retain an additional engineer for fleet vehicle maintenance. Two for the price of one I suppose

Russell

[StewL]

Hi Stewie

Your Dad would have been classed as an essential worker. My Husband's Dad at that time worked in the shipyard in Greenock and he was too. He later became a teacher and then a principal teacher. The home guard would have been in addition to that. The blitz in Clydebank is still talked about today and I'm pretty sure you could find a whole raft of information on it. It would be worth contacting John Brown's shipyard to find out if they have records of your Dad.

Regards
Janet

Hi Janet
Thanks for the reply, I have seen quite a bit about the Clydebank Blitz, my dad told me my grannie had three differents residences during that short period, she kept having houses bombed. As a boy I lived in Vancouver street pre-fabs in Dalmuir, built to replace the bombed houses, before we moved to Faifley.
I do recall my dad saying he would be working in the shipyard during the day, and on home guard duty at night, when it was his squads turn.

[JanetM]

I haven't been on TalkingScot for a long time (as you can tell). Many grateful thanks to the folk who've replied and I will look into the information they've provided. Janet

[StewL]

There is another aspect that I forgot about in my original post about my father, when he was a boy, he had Rheumatic Fever, and this may also have impacted on him serving in the armed forces, also, my mother was a welder at John Browns, where she met my dad

[paddyscar]

Hello everyone:

What an interesting thread this is!

My father was a machinist with Weir's during the war and he was classified as exempt from service. He did however serve in the home guard. We still have his asbestos 'dog tag'.

I remember when my parents reached pension age, my Mother lamenting that subsidies made to workers hired for the war effort, were not extended to those who were in 'exempt' professions.

I think I will follow up on the sources mentioned.

Frances

[Orlaith17]

Interesting topic. My mum told me years ago that her father wasn't involved in the war as he had a perforated ear-drum. I was visiting grandad one evening years later and the Holocaust series was on TV then. Soon as it came on screen granddad switched channels. I said I had been watching it, and he replied that he wouldn't have it on TV, then said "It was even worse than you see there". I asked what he meant, and he said things were worse than the series portrayed. He was reluctant to say much more, but he did tell me when I asked what he meant that he had been sent out to help clear one of the concentration camps. He wouldn't say any more than that and was adamant he would never discuss it. As far as I know, he couldn't drive. I never knew him drive a vehicle of any sort. I thought it was soldiers who went into the camps, but maybe they did the liberation and others were sent in to clear up later? I'm not aware of any records of any of this.