ACW            My mother's time in tailoring

At one time I did have a proper written account from my mother about some of the oddities (as seen today) that she met during her working life.  I will try to reproduce these stories from my memory .  Here goes !

My mother had an elder sister who was just a Victorian. My mother just missed Good Queen Vic as she was born on the fifth of July 1901.  She said that the family remembered her birthday because it was the day after the anniversary of the USA Declaration of Independence.

Lucy Eleanor (my mothers elder sister) was much brighter than my Mum.  But she was a trouble-maker.  One of her brothers said many years later that he was a very lucky man who DIDN'T marry Lena.  But Aunt Lena was good to me and I bought a piano with the money she left me in her Will.

When she left school Lena was to be put to "Old Smith" a tailor near their house.  I don't know the details, but Lena never started work at that shop.  My mother's mother sent Annie instead, and Mum was taken on.  Mum became quite a good improver (the name given to an experienced apprentice) but after a full year she asked for  a rise and old Smith refused.  Mum left for two reasons:

(a) she had talked to other people and they reckoned she was being underpaid (b) Old Smith used to knock his missus about, even in front of the workroom staff. 

In those days the police actively refused to get involve with "domestics".  Only if an injury was severe and the victim was hospitalised, would the police take action.

My mother looked in the local press and found an advert for a girl at a nursery.  Mum went to the house address that was in the advert.  The man she saw was obviously the proprietor.  Let's look at you hands ducky"  My mother showed the man her hands and he replied "They're not the hands of a nursery worker".  The job that my mother had applied for was for a market-garden worker, not a children's nursery worker, as she thought.

The man fell in.  He asked my mother why she had left her last job, and Mum told him.  Mum told me that the chap wrinkled his nose as she explained old Smith's conduct.

"Can I be your father for a few minutes?"  Mum nodded.
"Go to the Junior Labour Exchange in Kingston and tell them what you have just told me.  I've heard that they treat youngsters very well."

Mum did as she was recommended and was interviewed by a woman member of staff.  The woman did the same nose-wrinkle when Mum recounted Old Smith's activities.  The woman said to Mum, "We've got a vacancy on our books for an improver at Strutts at Surbiton."  So Mum went along to the shop in Surbiton and saw the proprietor.  Mum told her story yet again.  When she said to the owner that she had worked at Smith's, he replied "horrible little man, but a good tailor"

"I'll take you on for a week's trial"  He offered my mother a wage that was better than what she had had at Smith's,

On Monday morning, the first thing she was given by the workroom manager was a piece of serge cloth and asked to make a buttonhole.  When the man saw her effort he exclaimed "That's excellent,  I'll tell the boss that we want to keep you."

With bespoke tailoring there is a lot of work that can be shared among many levels of expertise.  Mum became a regular member of staff and got arise after six months.  In my mother's reminiscences she talked about some of the work she carried out.  Although the shop wasn't in Saville Row, they had a very high-grade clientele.  She even pressed (you don't 'iron' fabric in the tailoring trade) one of Earl Haigh's suits.  He was the Chief of the General Staff in WW1.

Mum worked on coachmen's overcoats.  They were made of moleskin.  Yes, the REAL moleskin, not the stuff that is called by that name today.  The coats were never hung on a peg, they were just stood inn the corner of the room.  They were stiff enough to stand without any support.  She worked on a suit for a bookie.  She told me that it was the only time she had ever seen a buttoned pocket in the inside sleeve of a jacket.  Extraordinarily difficult for a pickpocket!

The whole of the staff, including the boss, were Jews.  The owner "Sidney Shattock" had changed his name from "Solomon Shatofski" when he fled from one of the Russian pogroms.  She got friendly with a young woman who was also a refugee.  Mum told me that she learned quite a bit about Judaism from this girl.  On one occasion the lass confided in her that she would never be able to get married as she had no family to put up a dowry for her.  Mum was appalled.  It was only with great difficulty that she managed to get the message across that in England a girl didn't need a dowry to get married.  "But how am I likely to meet a man who would marry me?"

My mother didn't frequent dance halls as a rule, but she decided to take the girl along with her to one and see what happened.  Young Jewish girls are generally very good looking and this lass was no exception.  As matrons they often used to go to fat.  The girl spoke quite good English with a Russian accent.  It had an attractive addition to her voice.  Mum decided that the girl would have no difficulty in finding a fellow.

What the outcome of this ploy was, my mother never told me.  She did say to the girl "Don't tell him you are Jewish until very much later."  In those days Jews and Catholics had tails and horns.  Even in 1950 when I brought home my intended first wife, my mother was most upset that Jeanne was a Catholic.  But when she got to know Jeanne after a bit, she fully accepted her.  Part of the acceptance was that Jeanne's father was a pit worker and very working class,  As Mum was born into the very lowest of the low, she accepted anyone from the "gutter" who behave well.  In fact Mum tried to dissuade me from meeting a Land-girl with whom I corresponded whilst in the army.  "She'll be above our class".

Mum kept up tailoring for most of her life.  In 1918 she paid £25 for a new 32K15 Singer workshop sewing machine.  (We still have it in the family), and even now the only thing that has ever been replaced are needles and two straps that drive the machine proper from the treadle mechanism.  'Singer' is an American company, but have a very strong presence in Britain.

As my old man walked out on the family in 1930, being able to take in work and do it at home was the salvation of my mother, brother and I.  See page CAP for some details of that part of our life.  My mother eventually ended up as an alteration hand at Prices Tailors Clarence Street Kingston. (they used to be "Fifty Shilling Tailors" before the war).  Mum told me that 'ready-mades' were looked down on by the bespoke trade.  The term "bag-making" was regularly used.