Author Topic: WW2 questions  (Read 636 times)

Offline bykerlads

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WW2 questions
« on: Monday 25 March 19 22:09 GMT (UK) »
2 questions about WW2:
   - at what age could young men volunteer for the armed services, as opposed to waiting to be called up? 17 or 18?
   - what was the selection process for women who volunteered to be trained as nurses? 2 of OH's aunts were working in factories, no education after age 14, at the start of the war. Clearly intelligent, they qualified as nurses and then midwives and had excellent careers. The war offered them a great opportunity. Am interested to know how volunteers wth no educational qualifiications were screened for suitability for training.

Offline Viktoria

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Re: WW2 questions
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 26 March 19 09:58 GMT (UK) »
Given that there were any many more Secondary Modern schools ( can’t remember what they were called before) than Grammar  Schools for girls
the majority of girls would not be educated beyond the basic but we must remember it was a sound education in arithmetic ,spelling,handwriting and
domestic duties .
A lot of sound common sense.
A very good basis for further training.
Old ladies now who had that basic education can add up in a wink ,manage their affairs etc .
Families often could not let children who passed for Grammar school go, could not afford the uniform and that they would be at school longer,two to four years.
So many did not go, both boys and girls.
There must have been some tests or interviews of course, but there would be a leaving report from the school which would give a good idea of the girls‘capabilities.
It showed what a lot of intelligence went unrecognised and not channelled.
  But on the other hand those girls  were the wonderful mothers we
remember and the men ,like my Dad ,could not go to Grammar school( Family finances) but ended up in the workforce assembling Roll Royce Merlin engines at Avro’s.Skilled workers ,and where would we have been in the war without them?
Viktoria.

Offline Nanna52

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Re: WW2 questions
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 26 March 19 11:28 GMT (UK) »
Bykerlads, don’t presume that they gave their correct age.  My father added two years to his age so he didn’t need to get his mother’s permission to join.  (18 to 20). 
James -Victoria, Australia originally from Keynsham, Somerset.
Janes - Keynsham and Bristol area.
Heale/Hale - Keynsham, Somerset
Vincent - Illogan/Redruth, Cornwall.  Moved to Sculcoates, Yorkshire; Grass Valley, California; Timaru, New Zealand and Victoria, Australia.
Williams somewhere in Wales - he kept moving
Ellis - Anglesey

Gedmatch A327531

Offline bykerlads

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Re: WW2 questions
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 26 March 19 12:45 GMT (UK) »
Thanks. It looks as if the age was 18. My old dad always emphasised ghat he volunteered the day he was old enough. Apparently, if you volunteered you could say which service you wanted to join. He went into the RAF, did the training but was the moved to the army because fewer airmen were needed by then.
Viktoria,  I entirely agree about the pre-war education system depriving a lot of intelligent children from less than wealthy families of a chance to go to grammar school. I feel that it was the testing and assessments done during the war that revealed this vast untapped national resource of brains. After 1944, it became much less costly to send a child to grammar school and there was a huge change in the backgrounds from which pupils came as a consequence.
I'd assume that some kind of screening or selection process appertained as regards access to nursing training. Or maybe the girls were all put to work in hospitals and given training on the initial  basis of their performances.