'engineer colliery'

[solsticedreamer]

this is my great grandfathers occupation as listed in my granddads birth certificate. great, great grandfather was a coal miner and my granddad joined the merchant navy to avoid having to go down the mines.

could anyone shed some light on this?

[Peter_uk_can]

Which war ?

Google "Bevin Boy's" to read more about miners and conscription in WWII

[peter nicholl]

Although there may well have been a time when miners did it all with picks and candles in their hats, for many generations mines, or collieries where coal is involved, have run on machinery. They may have been steam powered, electric or hydraulic all of which would require engineers to keep them running. A typical photo of a mine shows the winding gear, a good example of the type of engineering.
Of course you may well know all of this and were just wondering why he joined the Merchant Navy
Peter

[solsticedreamer]

thanks for the reply!

Peter-uk, he was in the DLI during WW1

Peter.n-thanks for that information, no i didnt know all the little details you gave, they were useful in knowing more.

i spoke with my dad last night and he said my granddad joined the merchant navy at a really younge age~so now more things to investigate!

[Geoffers]

i spoke with my dad last night and he said my granddad joined the merchant navy at a really younge age~so now more things to investigate!

For Merchant Navy try saerching TNA's catalogue (it's free and a good reason to have a cuppa while you browse)

'Word or phrase' field enter a surname
Year range' - leave blank
Department or Series code' enter - BT372

If you are looking for a surname that occurs a lot add a space and then an initial - e.g. Smith J in the word or phrase field.

If you still get no hits and you know for sure where he was born, try entering that in the word or phrase field - e.g. Smith J AND london
(Note that AND must be in capitals).