Beachman's assistant

[Kate]

Hello, does anyone know what this job would have been? It is from the 1921 census and the man worked for LCC Tramways. He was previously an engineer's labourer for the LCC. Thank you

 

[Stuart]

Beachman was a genuine job - but in places with a beach; Great Yarmouth in particular had them. But that doesn't make sense for the LCC tramways. I suspect it's been misspelled or misread (or both) and ought to be brakeman. I found a few of those working for LCC tramways, though the term was found more often in factories or railways.

I imagine the job was applying handbrakes in the depot, where you really do want the parked trams to stay where you park them. I guess any job could have an assistant, which might mean training for the job.

 

[Stuart]

By the way, it's perhaps worth noting that you can do a search in the 1921 census entering only the occupation, as a way of seeing if something unlikely really is an occupation. It works in both Ancestry and FindMyPast, using a tailored search for that census. It needs care with things like wildcard options, and each site's search engine has its good and bad points for this.

 

[Kate]

Thanks very much, with a bit of squinting I can see you are right.