Author Topic: Strange employment in 1921 census  (Read 1934 times)

Offline Kingsclere

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Strange employment in 1921 census
« on: Thursday 29 December 22 17:54 GMT (UK) »
What do you make of this? Trying to make sense of what's recorded as a great uncle's employment. He was living in Wandsworth as a steam wagon driver but appears to have been working for "Strand Hotel Ltd" whose business was "pig wash collection & fat manufactors" located at 16 Charles Street, Haymarket, London SW1.

Surely he was joking?

Google hasn't helped at all! :-\




Online BumbleB

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Re: Strange employment in 1921 census
« Reply #1 on: Thursday 29 December 22 17:56 GMT (UK) »
Would you be willing to give us his name, so that we can look at the entry for ourselves?

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Offline Stanwix England

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Re: Strange employment in 1921 census
« Reply #2 on: Thursday 29 December 22 18:05 GMT (UK) »
The newspapers from that time have adverts for that address. For example, the Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser has an advert from Friday 12 August 1921.

REDLINE MOTOR SPIRIT
For cars and cycles
Efficiency and economy
Union petroleum products
Head Office: Waterloo House, 16 Charles Street, Haymarket, SW1

It's quite a prominent advert, with a little picture of an oil can, so the company must have had a fair bit of money to be able to put it in.

I guess if Waterloo House was an office, there could have been other businesses located out of there.
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Online Erato

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Re: Strange employment in 1921 census
« Reply #3 on: Thursday 29 December 22 18:06 GMT (UK) »
Could it be pig mash collectors?  Maybe he drove a vehicle that went around collecting garbage, agricultural waste and such to feed pigs.
Wiltshire:  Banks, Taylor
Somerset:  Duddridge, Richards, Barnard, Pillinger
Gloucestershire:  Barnard, Marsh, Crossman
Bristol:  Banks, Duddridge, Barnard
Down:  Ennis, McGee
Wicklow:  Chapman, Pepper
Wigtownshire:  Logan, Conning
Wisconsin:  Ennis, Chapman, Logan, Ware
Maine:  Ware, Mitchell, Tarr, Davis


Offline Stanwix England

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Re: Strange employment in 1921 census
« Reply #4 on: Thursday 29 December 22 18:14 GMT (UK) »
Found another advert for the same address.

Lancashire Evening Post - Thursday 20 October 1921.

It's long, but it's basically for Iron Ox tablets, which were advertised as a remedy for anaemia.
By the Iron-Ox Company Ltd.

Maybe the pig fat went in the tablets!!! :o
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Offline Kingsclere

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Re: Strange employment in 1921 census
« Reply #5 on: Thursday 29 December 22 18:16 GMT (UK) »
Could it be pig mash collectors?  Maybe he drove a vehicle that went around collecting garbage, agricultural waste and such to feed pigs.

Yes, "mash" makes more sense; I was thinking pig swill. It's the association of Strand Hotel with hog wash and fat making that's most puzzling!  ;)

Offline Kingsclere

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Re: Strange employment in 1921 census
« Reply #6 on: Thursday 29 December 22 18:18 GMT (UK) »
Found another advert for the same address.

Lancashire Evening Post - Thursday 20 October 1921.

It's long, but it's basically for Iron Ox tablets, which were advertised as a remedy for anaemia.
By the Iron-Ox Company Ltd.

Maybe the pig fat went in the tablets!!! :o

More intrigue! But why Strand Hotel?

Offline manukarik

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Re: Strange employment in 1921 census
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 29 December 22 18:19 GMT (UK) »
Could it be pig mash collectors?  Maybe he drove a vehicle that went around collecting garbage, agricultural waste and such to feed pigs.

Agree with this.
Pig wash (aka Pig's wash or Pigswill) = waste food or other edible matter fed to pigs
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Offline Kingsclere

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Re: Strange employment in 1921 census
« Reply #8 on: Thursday 29 December 22 18:25 GMT (UK) »
The newspapers from that time have adverts for that address. For example, the Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser has an advert from Friday 12 August 1921.

REDLINE MOTOR SPIRIT
For cars and cycles
Efficiency and economy
Union petroleum products
Head Office: Waterloo House, 16 Charles Street, Haymarket, SW1

It's quite a prominent advert, with a little picture of an oil can, so the company must have had a fair bit of money to be able to put it in.

I guess if Waterloo House was an office, there could have been other businesses located out of there.

Weird. The only reference I found was mention of that address in a Wikipedia article that the secret service (MI5) were based there 1916-1919!