My Dad and the war.

My uncles worked on the Thames during the war; it was important to keep goods coming into the country, and they were often under fire. The bombers followed the course of Thames and tried to hit the docks constantly. It was certainly no picnic, and one uncle later died from skin cancer, which was said to have been contracted by working with petroleum and getting it on his skin daily. Another uncle was a policeman in London; he too had a risky and often terrifying job. Reserved occupations were certainly not easy in many cases.

yes, it would've been a reserved occupation as he worked in the docks.

my father was a tram and bus driver in london during the war.

have you looked for him on the 1939 index on ancestry

Thanks everyone it seems he was indeed in a reserved occupation then. I’ll have to settle for that.

biolocal = biological

We know that my father in law was doing things in Greece and Yugoslavia but, because it was hush-hush the records won't admit to it!

My father was a casual worker on the Liverpool docks which was a "reserved occupation". He did eventually get called up in early 1944. He never spoke much about the war except to say he was in the navy and was torpedoed twice while serving in in the Far East.

My grandmother told me that young men in reserved occupations were often regarded with hostility by those who were immediately called up. It left them free to play around with other men's wives and girlfriends, which is how my father met my mother.

In contrast the man my mother was engaged to marry volunteered as soon as war was declared in 1939 and joined the army. He was wounded in action and mentioned in dispatches. My mother jilted him when she became pregnant by my father.

This is probably the reason why my biolocal father never spoke about the war.

Dock workers were a reserved occupation in WW2.

See if you can find him on any of the genealogy websites, military records websites or the 1939 register (which will tell you what he was doing immediately before the war and might give you a clue). Some of the sites are free or free for the initial search which might set you on the right track.
My father wanted to join the RAF but wasn't allowed to as he was in a reserved occupation - building tanks.

Aveline he never said he wasn’t to me but there was nothing in his belongings to indicate he was when he died and I can’t find him in the War records although his father is there having served and died in WW1.
I’m just puzzledled!

Maybe he was in the forces? Did he say he wasn't?