Gamekeeper in WW1

[jackhonour]

Hi All,

I have an ancestor who was a gamekeeper but probably left to fight during WW1. What would have happened to his wife and children who were being housed by the estate because of the gamekeeper's job? My ancestor returned to the estate afterwards so would they have housed the family during the war, surely they'd need to get in another gamekeeper to cover the work, putting my ancestor's family homeless.

Any ideas?

Jack

[CaroleW]

surely they'd need to get in another gamekeeper to cover the work, putting my ancestor's family homeless.

Have you considered the possibility that the estate owner may have had other vacant properties and was therefore not dependant on your ancestors property to house another employee

[jackhonour]

They usually had a gamekeepers cottage so the family must have moved out of the cottage and into servants accomodation I presume but I'm not sure

[Skoosh]

Jack, a great reduction in shooting on estates during the Great War, keepers were valued as snipers etc' the Lovat Scouts for example, and many of their clients were in uniform, things were never the same thereafter.
 I would imagine the family stayed on in the keepers house but conditions on estates were all different.

[jackhonour]

Estates must have lost a lot of money during the war if they still had to house the gamekeeper's families. Thank you for your help

[Skoosh]

I don't think that would be the case. Sporting estates were always a loss making enterprise, a fashion set by Victoria & Albert and aped by others, who built lodges at enormous expense in very remote locations. Nowadays they are largely owned by a company set-up, and the costs offset against tax, or supported by agriculture & forestry.
 There was generally cottages going spare for retired folk etc', so doing their patriotic duty and keeping a roof over an absent keepers family would be neither here nor there financially and ensured that the property was kept fired. How things panned out at the end of the conflict was another matter. The glory days for keepers, their cottages and the "Big Hoose", were well and truly over, as country war memorials sadly confirm.

Skoosh.