Hi Peter, Please excuse me if I'm misinterpreting your: "My question is: Had the call for the New Army gone out that quickly after the outbreak of war? Or am I mis-reading what's in the Rank or Profession column?" A blacksmith's striker was an assistant to a master blacksmith, also frequently an apprentice but it could also be a trade in it's own right. His job was to wield the heavy hammer and to "strike" the work at the direction of the master smith. The smith would have his "wrong" hand employed in holding the work piece in the tongs so he could only hold a one handed hammer in his "right" hand. The smith would stand on the forge side of the anvil and position the red hot metal on the anvil. When it was in the right position he would hit it with his single handed hammer. The striker's job was to hit the metal in exactly the same place, and with a strength as indicated by the strength of the smith's strike. Generally the blows were made in a sequence with a strict cadence designed to allow the striker to swing his heavy hammer with a natural rhythm. The smith would end the sequence by striking the anvil instead of the work. If you have ever heard a forge at work this sound is unmistakable being a rhythm of hammer blows alternating between a higher pitched "ping" for the smiths guide strike and the heavier "pong" of the Strikers working blow. In some cases more than one striker would be employed in which case they formed a circle and "struck" in a sequence so you would get the smith's "ping" followed by a number of striker "pongs" etc., etc. A quite unmistakable sound. The use of a striker was reserved for heavy work with heavy gauge pieces of metal and where a significant amount of forging or welding was to to be done. The making of a horse shoe, for instance, is light work which can easily be accomplished by a smith alone using his single handed hammer. I mention this because while smiths were needed in the "services" branches of the army in the Gt War, the majority were employed in making horse shoes or doing minor repairs, so that a striker would not have been required. Off the top of my head I can only think that a striker could have been attached to a central maintenance depot where heavy equipment was taken for repair. OR That the "Blacksmith's Striker" profession was his civilian trade and had nothing in particular to do with his army position. Another piece of useless information culled from a lifetime of interest in heritage trades and archaic technologies. :-) Malcolm Archive CD Books Canada Inc. President: Malcolm Moody PO Box 11 Manotick Ontario, K4M 1A2 Canada. (613) 692-2667 WEB SITE: http://www.ArchiveCDBooks.ca > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 18:19:51 +0100 > From: "Peter Appleton" <peter.appleton3@ntlworld.com> > Subject: [GREATWAR] New Army - When did the call go out? > To: <GREATWAR@rootsweb.com> > Message-ID: > <20060907172005.FLFI15733.aamtaout04-winn.ispmail.ntl.com@L2DLaptop1> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Hi everyone, > > I'm helping a friend with her family history and she has shown me a > marriage > register entry for Francis Fothergill, age 45 whose Rank or Profession > is > shown as "Blacksmith's Striker" and then under that what looks like "18 > Platoon" and then possibly "New Army Durham" > > The marriage is dated 13th Sept.1914. > > My question is: Had the call for the New Army gone out that quickly > after > the outbreak of war? Or am I mis-reading what's in the Rank or > Profession > column

Thanks for this wonderful explanation Malcolm. Black Smith Strikers did not die out with the advent of the hydraulic drop hammer. I well remember working at an Engineering company which had a blacksmith's shop. Each Blacksmith had his striker even though they had the drop hammer to do the heavy work. Mind you they were working with quite heavy forgings sometimes weighing a 100 lbs or more . that would have been about 1960. Ted