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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: annelid on Monday 06 October 08 12:39 BST (UK)

Title: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: annelid on Monday 06 October 08 12:39 BST (UK)

Hello

Can anyone tell me what this profession actually is?

Signalman (then it gives his number), Royal Signals (Groundsman) (I think it says groundsman!)

Thankyou

Anne

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: nanny jan on Monday 06 October 08 12:55 BST (UK)

Hi,

Can you scan and post just that section of the marriage certificate? 

It looks as though he is in the Royal Signals but groundsman............?


Nanny Jan

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: toni* on Monday 06 October 08 12:55 BST (UK)

guardsman more likely  :)

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: nanny jan on Monday 06 October 08 12:58 BST (UK)

Doh!  Of course  :-[   Time for coffee I think...........



Nanny Jan

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: annelid on Monday 06 October 08 13:19 BST (UK)

Hopefully there should be a copy for you to look at, DH isn't here to help me do the scanning!!

Thankyou for your help

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: grub on Monday 06 October 08 23:15 BST (UK)

I think it says "Groundsman"

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: PrueM on Monday 06 October 08 23:35 BST (UK)

Looks like groundsman to me, too  :-\

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: nanny jan on Tuesday 07 October 08 08:40 BST (UK)

Having looked at the scan...........hmmm........I'm confused!  :-\    Groundsman does not seem to fit with being in the Royal Signals.


Nanny Jan

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: toni* on Tuesday 07 October 08 09:20 BST (UK)

it does look like Groundsman but equally it could be Guardsman if the G was elongated using what you see as the GR of groundsman, the next letters could obviosully be an a & u followed by an R and a  D
SMAN is the same in both cases
and Guardsman would make more sense


unless Groundsman was taken literally to mean a man on the ground ?

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: toni* on Tuesday 07 October 08 09:22 BST (UK)

perhaps these may be able to help you?
http://www2.army.mod.uk/royalsignalsmuseum/index.htm

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: Graham Whitehead on Tuesday 07 October 08 09:45 BST (UK)

I have spoken to a retired Grenadier Guardsman and he thinks that perhaps in the days after semaphore a 'groundsman' in the Royal Signal Corps might have laid out the wires (before the signals became 'wire=less').

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: Richard Knott on Tuesday 07 October 08 09:54 BST (UK)

Nowadays 'groundsman' refers to someone who is in a team installing aeriels but works on the ground. There is a reference to one in The Wire fairly recently although it may have changed its meaning: http://www.army.mod.uk/documents/general/TheWire_05Feb.pdf
(see page 39).

Having said that, my father was in the Royal Signals for 30 years and I never heard him refer to a groundsman.

Richard

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: stanmapstone on Tuesday 07 October 08 10:30 BST (UK)

A Signalman was the lowest rank in the Corps of Signals, the same as a Gunner in the Royal Artillery. As such he was not necessarily occupied in signals (or gunnery), he could have been employed at the headquarters/camp looking after the grounds around the buildings, or the polo grounds for the officers  :).

Stan

Title: Re: Profession on a marriage cert
Post by: annelid on Tuesday 07 October 08 14:40 BST (UK)

Thankyou all very much for the replies, they have been very helpful

Anne
xx