1939 register

[patty38]

Some of my family told porkies on the 1939 register knocking  a few years off their real age to make them seem younger. Why would they do this? They were women in their 60/70s and at the start of another world war were still working and supporting themselves so why would they need to lie.
Sorry but this really has upset me, they were quiet, unassuming hard working people all their lives so why lie now.

Patty

[PaulineJ]

at a guess , vanity.
They'd fibbed to their beloveds, and they didn't personally fill in the forms?

[patty38]

Both of the ladies were spinsters and the form would have been filled in by the elder probably, so upset that these two harmless ladies found it necessary to lie on an official form.

[mike175]

It may well have been vanity, but it is always possible that they/she made a genuine mistake . . . many people may not have actually been sure of their true age in past times when people were less obsessed with their age. I suppose it would be more unusual in the 20th century than earlier though.

[medpat]

If in work were they lying to keep their jobs. They wouldn't be protected like they are today.

[Deirdre784]

I have found many instances on the 1939 register (particularly with the older people) where the date of birth doesn’t match the quarter / year of the registration, or the birth certificate. In many cases they have the right day (or a few days out) and month but the wrong year, which i have put down to simply not knowing exactly when they were born, rather than any desire to lie.

[Pheno]

I have no idea but was there a threshold above/below which the level of rations was lower/higher?

Pheno

[nanny jan]

I think that those involved in 'heavy work', pregnant and nursing mothers qualified for extra rations.

My grandpa's birthdate  on 1939 Register is wrong, date/month/year; apparently he was surprised to qualify for his pension......he was older than he thought he was. 

[Pheno]

Jan's reply reminded me that my dad's details are correct for his birth day and month but out for his year although I can see what has happened.  Once reconstituted in a horizontal format the columns have slipped out of sync, but because he is with his family and I know their dates it is easy to see what has happened.

Maybe that is what has happened in your case Patty but because there is only those two people in that household and you obviously don't know personal details of those in adjoining households, you can't readily see that this has happened.  Maybe they have just got someone else's year of birth when the register was joined up again after being transcribed.

Remember it was transcribed as individual vertical columns.

Pheno