Hi Simon & Jacquie "A cut above a labourer".......I am not so sure where my grandfather was concerned Simon. Why? Well I had three red leather bound books on engineering that were the property of my father and mother and apparently belonged to my grandfather. I was sooo disappointed and annoyed, when the family sold them for a pittance to an antique dealer when mum went into a nursing home. So I presume 1. That there are various forms of engineer....Engineer drivers being the engineers (trains) perhaps after many years service....... head engineer drive perhaps??? 2. Marine Engineers - like my GG who started out as an apprentice engineer. I believe because of the rest of the family working the docks and "marine" being in a lot of the census data, it was to do with ships/ship building. Yes I believe they started out as boilermakers, but how did my grandsfather get his qualifications? I have never found anything concrete. 3. Then there are engineers to do with building bridges. 4. And I believe that engineers also dug the tunnels in the World wars and the Brunel tunnel etc in Rotherhithe (docks area) . Soooo engineers can be all sorts and my grandfather was a Marine engineer and retired as a General engineer........ Perhaps Marine Corps and then retired from the Marines. I wish I could lob myself off at the LMA or somewhere......sigh Ex-Kentish lass in Australia Pam from Adelaide Australia >I suspect that being an engineer was a cut above being a labourer. My >great-great-grandfathers George Knott and George Harrell, both from Strood, >appear to have both worked in the cement works. George Knott is described >variously as a labourer, manual labourer, cement works labourer, burner in >a cement works. George Harrell, on the other hand, was an engineer, an >engine driver in a cement works (I suspect this means a stationary engine) >and even a traction engine driver! The Harrells lived in the nice part of >Strood, while the Knotts moved from place to place among the rough bit. I >suspect that the Harrells were not too pleased about their daughter >marrying my great-grandfather.