A Perfect CV

This is my dad, Charlie. He looks a serious fellow here, doesn't he? This was a works shot taken during his time at Burroughs in the 1950s and 60s. My father came from humble beginnings but was always proud of the way he had kept on studying as an adult and subsequently developed his career from manual worker to a senior managerial role.

I recently came across his old curriculum vitae, taking his career up to the 1960s. It had all kind of details on it and filled in several gaps I had in his movements during the second world war and the 1950s. I never really thought of a cv as a worthwhile document in my family history research but I was wrong. Here's what I discovered:

1936 - 1939: worked as a Message Boy and Apprentice Turner at Babcock and Wilcox (Valve Manufacturers), Dumbarton. 

My dad had mentioned various jobs he'd done as a teenager - paper boy, giving out leaflets on the steamer on Loch Lomond - but I didn't know the details of this one until now. I've even tracked down photographs of the Babcock and Wilcox plant so I can see the kind of environment he worked in. This is also where he must have sustained the injury that led to his hospitalisation for a number of years.

1939 - 1943: period of illness due to hip injury.


I knew that he'd been hospitalised on an island off the west coast of Scotland for the majority of this period but his CV lists the hospital as 'St Andrew's Home, Millport, Isle of Cumbrae'. It appears to have been closed down now but I'm still trying to find any history of the hospital.

1943 - 1952: Capstan & Milling Machine Operator/Setter - various firms in Worcester, London and Manchester


I knew that he'd lived in these three areas but I had no idea what his work was. I wish I knew which companies he'd worked for though.

The rest of the cv covers his career in Scotland and shows him moving up from the manual work to clerical work and thereon to supervisory and managerial roles which I already knew about.

Did your twentieth century ancestors leave cv's behind? If so, have a delve. You may be surprised what you discover.

Filling in the gaps - success!

This is my father, Charles Whittaker Roberton. I can date this photograph to 1947 which lies in the period of time (1939 to 1948) when I could find no trace of my father's whereabouts. He left his home town, Balloch to travel to England but I only had vague recollections of where he said he went during this time, before he settled in London.

I've spent the last few days going through my parents' belongings again and I found two items from that period.

The first is a number of merit cards from The Bennett College, Sheffield who ran correspondence courses. Here are the details,


28 October 1940 - first stage in general arithmetic
6 February 1941 - first stage in workshop practice
17 March 1941 - second stage in general arithmetic
16 July 1942 - third stage in general arithmetic
12 November 1942 - first stage in algebra.

I knew that when my father left Balloch, it was not only because he couldn't cope with the pity from the community following his disability, but also because he wanted to improve himself. The fact that he took it upon himself to re-enter education, albeit through correspondence courses, substantiates this.

The second document I found was a telegram from his parents which reads "Letter received. Best wishes for new venture. Love Mother". It is addressed to the Worcester Industrial Hostel. I looked this hostel up on the internet and found the address to be Blackpole road, Worcester. The date of the telegram is 1 November 1946.

I now know that he spent at least some of those years in between Balloch and London in Worcester.

Keeping a record of your own life

One thing I noticed when making notes on my father's life is that beside the stories he told and some documentation he left, there are gaps in his life where I have no idea where he was living or what he was doing. For instance, he left his home in Balloch when he was twenty years old to live in England. That would have been 1942. I have a record of him living in Blackheath in 1948 but the years in between are a mystery. I have a vague recollection of his saying that he lived in Chester or Worcester before moving to London but that's the only information I can find.

If you're like me and want to hand your family history down to your children, remember to keep a record of your own life too.