Telephone Operator 1919

[madetotreasure]

Hi. In 1919 France Beaumont Vousden (b. 1895) was a 'telephone operator' working in West London. Can anyone tell me where she might have got her training, or who she may have worked for. I'm thinking that it may have been the GWR (Great Western Railway) at Paddington although her name doesn't come up on Ancestry (GWR). Thanks

[thewideeyedowl]

I believe that the General Post Office (the dear old GPO!) also ran the telephone system in its early years. So far, all I can find is this very brief reference to 'London Telephone Schools' in an old training manual: https://www.philatelicsannex.org/reference/oldbook.pdf.

It might suggest some leads for your research?

Owl

[madetotreasure]

Thank you. The manual is fascinating and I will certainly read it thoroughly for any clues.

[alfiem]

Thanks for the info

[Peter Goodey]

Telephone operator on a PBX (as opposed to GPO) would surely not be a very technical job. I would expect training was "sitting with Nellie".

PS Sorry. I hadn't spotted that someone had nudged an ancient thread.

[Pam Downes]

Don't worry about the ancient thread, Peter.

You've raised another possible meaning of 'telephone operator'. Though would they have had PBX 'machines' in 1919?

Possibly 'no', as it seems the system was developed in the 1930s. https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_telephone_system

Pam

[smj7290]

I remember, in Birmingham where I grew up, that telephone operators were required to train at a special school run by the GPO of Birmingham for at least six months before applying there. My mum wanted to become a telephone operator but instead became an administrative clerk then secretary - she said she never had the time for the required training at the special school. My grandmother, who was a single mum of three children and emigrated from New Jersey in USA, trained at the school for two years before starting her career as a phone operator.

I don't know why Birmingham had this special requirement, because in general you had six weeks of training. We got our first telephone in 1956, after the Royal Mail offered to install a telephone and connect it free of charge (she worked there). The phone operators were always so helpful and very polite to you, and they would always try and dodge obstacles when connecting phone calls to the desired line. If not, they would connect you with one of the mainline London switchboards.

[Peter Goodey]

Possibly 'no', as it seems the system was developed in the 1930s

You may well be right. However the name doesn't appear in the records of Post Office appointments available on Ancestry. I'm assuming, perhaps rashly, that she didn't work for the GPO.

A bit of digging reveals a host of other possibilities when the telephone system was less developed.

Apparently there was something like an equivalent of a sub post master whereby someone could have exchange equipment installed in his own premises on behalf of the post office and acted as a telephonist (telephonist, not telephone operator, seems to have been the standard GPO terminology). I've no idea what their employment status was in relation to the Post Office.

The Dictionary of Occupational Terms has an alternative meaning for "telephone operator" which was quite simply someone whose job was to answer the phone and deal with the question or request. A theatre box office was the example given.