« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 14 June 22 00:44 BST (UK) »
I don’t understand the relevance of fitter .... if you are interested in the occupation ‘engineer’.
My father was born 1910. He attended a technical college from the age of ten, then was employed by a heavy engineering company where he had the statutory five years apprenticeship with day release & evening class plus another couple of years evening class to gain extra exam results thus spent seven years learning to be what is known as a "fitter": the correct title being "mechanical engineer". His parents paid the company for his apprenticeship - the money was used to give him a weekly wage. Being an apprentice didn't guarantee that a company would employ the apprentice when his five year term was finished.
P.S. On one census he had moved into the "Drawing Office" from the "shop floor" and would have described himself as a "draughtsman" designing heavy equipment for the engineering company.
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