Job titles that have disappeared

Comptometer operator.

Toilet attendant

Alima, I was one of those, back in the day .Where did you train?

Flo, we used them in a merchant bank I worked in in London. Those and the National 32 machines which I preferred. Loved the way the carriage would crash from side to side, really felt like you were doing something. Within a year or so, very early 70s, we moved on to computers and became key punch operators.

Park keeper

Knocker upper

Blimey Christinefrance, didn't realise any of us were that old!

The man who emptied the gas and electric meter

Didn't know what he was called...but when he did he made mum a happy lady....and us kids got 2 bob as well

Just realised how wrong that sounds...I meant she was happy to see him......when in a hole stop digging

Did you have a penny or a shilling meter DTE ? We had a shilling one. I can't remember how very full the penny ones must have been or how often they needed emptying. Ours would get petty full as we only had gas which was used for everything.

We had shilling ones Ann but gas and electric ..was a red letter day ..in the late 70s and 80s when children where young It often saved the day when the meter man came by then it was 10p though...couldn't wait to see those piles of silver given back to me ..happy days

What on earth is or was a knocker upper?

downtoearth we just called him the 'meter man'.

I was in a bedsit for a while in 1977 and the meter there only took 50p coins However I was working and was able to get a mid-day meal in the staff canteen so 50p would last me a week on the electric.

Grannyknot in the mill towns a man would come round very early in the morning with a long pole and bang of the bedroom windows of the mill workers to wake them up. I don't know who woke him. This would be 5/6 am. Thinking logically he couldn't have had a very large round!!

GK think the knocker upper had a long stick and went round tapping windows to get people up and out to work ..yhey where employed by factory and Mill owners to make sure employees got there on time ....sure that is what I have read somewhere

Alima I was a key punch operator 1965-66, also a verifier. Went back to it in 1974 before becoming a data input operator, then a VDU (Visual Data Unit) operator.

Secretary.

The demise of the secretary is the downfall of modern society. Nowadays the "bosses" write their own e-mails, full of spelling mistakes, grammatical and punctuation errors, and totally incomprehensible sentences. Misunderstandings abound.

When I was young there used to be a programme called Emergency Ward 10 and on there was a Lady Almoner ( a sort of social worker) I wanted to be one of those.

I was a telex operator for a while.

Not a job I had personally, thank heavens, but I remember a man with a big shovel clearing out the earth closet toilets in our street via a hinged door in the wall below them. I have no idea what his official title was, but I think I can guess what the grown-ups called him

Secretaries are still very much around, JackyB!

Who do you think types all solicitors' letters and business and goverment correspondence?

ana I think that is now done by Personal Assistants, or Executive Assistants, or Business Support Assistants in other words ... secretaries!

Well, I know my hospital consultant has a secretary who types all his notes and correspondence - her job title is just that - Mr X's secretary.

Bus conductor