Career paths for my fictional, young, non-academic gent in the 1920s/30s

[fictitiousfoibles]

I'm trying to flesh out one of the characters in my novel and am really stuck on a career path for him. Anyone up for taking part in a creative brainstorm?

He's grown up in on an English country estate owned by his mother's family (old money though, again, I haven't decided on how they made their fortunes). Mother lost her brother in WW1, inherited the house and lives their with her husband and their two children. This character is due to inherit it in time but is a dreamy non-academic, non-corporate type - what sort of job would his parents have nudged him into? Ideally it would be a reserved occupation so that his mother (traumatised by loss of brother) can justify his not joining up.

All ideas gratefully received!

Make him an agnostic, perhaps? That would rule out religion as a career, no matter how hard his mother pushes for it.

Yes, he is probably agnostic or if not a very half-hearted Christian

JennyChawleigh

Miss Chawleigh's father and husband perfectly demonstrate the difference between old money and new money, albeit in a different war!

OP, you need to specify whether we're talking gentry here, because most of the occupations suggested would not be appropriate for a young gentleman who is heir to an estate.

Clergy, Navy, maybe the law, were suitable occupations for younger sons of gentry families, who didn't expect to inherit.

If it had previously been a medieval convent, the estate would have been dismantled during the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, so the building itself may have retained a smaller parcel of land than one might have otherwise expected.

Thanks for the thread OP - I'm enjoying this!

Needs more land than that, more like 80 - 100 acres.

100 acres is yeoman level - and not the most well to do yeoman, either. Solid middle class, backbone of the local community, but not gentry. (Historian here, and this is something I know something about.)

OP, we really need more detail as to where your family fit in the society of the time.

Working in an antique shop local or local auction house?

I'm thinking upper class but not titled.

Based on my extensive reading of historical fiction, I don’t think being an agnostic would have ruled out becoming a vicar if family tradition or connections dictated otherwise! Could he be a curate, thus leaving your vicar in situ?

Otherwise, I like the suggestion of struggling artist or composer, if there’s enough family money to keep him afloat. Or private secretary to one?

Cars were taking off then for posh lads. Car salesman, racing driver, mechanic. Not a protected occupation but could train to be an air mechanic to stay out of the thick of the fighting.

Sorry I somehow missed this - this is super helpful and the stuff I am very ignorant about. Appreciate I will need to do much more research and have reserved some books from the library but I want to narrow down what I need to research IYSWIM.

So, if it were just a smallholding of up to 20 acres, what would his family profile be? Why would his mother's family have brought / ended up with the house?

To answer some of the other queries:
He was born in 1916 and half of the book is set at the start of WW2. Ideally he won't be conscripted but wants to sign up. So I'm now circling round to the idea that ideally he would have some not very demanding or necessary role overseeing the family estate or some other family business.

It's a very good point re contemporary fiction from the late 1930s. I have in mind to do that but there is sooo much to do/read and I'm only just coming back to the novel after a long hiatus due to life getting in the way. Any recommendations?

By the way, this is my first time on the creative writing board - I'm a regular mumsnetter but have NC'd - and it's so lovely to get so many responses! Thank you all for humouring me 😊

Excellent questions: not titled but upper class / v well-to-do. He has definitely been to private school. He's affable, loves the outdoors, good at sports, not academic at school so probably not a poet or writer, potentially a good artist but I don't think I can imagine his parents entertaining the idea of that as a career path.

My grandfather fitted fairly well into this description. Went to Marlborough, then the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester. Learned Spanish and went out to South America where he was a cowboy (really). Came back to Britain and worked as foreman to a gang of labourers on the railways. Met my (working class) grandmother in Glasgow. Who was somewhat shocked to take the train down to England to meet his family only to be met by the chauffeur at the station, butler at the front door, etc.

Writer, painter, illustrator, window dresser

What a great story / piece of family history🙂

Clergy?

I've just googled jobs in the 1920s and come across this charming graphic.

What Job Would You Have in Britain During the 1920s? | A Smile And A Gun

I would have been a knocker upper, which seems surprisingly well paid compared with some of the other options. Perhaps because of the early starts, but then you'd you'd have the rest of the day to yourself?

I’m thinking that if he’s posh, he could get the pen pusher investment job but discover he’s rubbish at it.

Another chap starts talking about Henry Ford and the future is investing in this new fangled car company of his. Main character knows all about cars and used to fix tractors on the estate even though his mum called him common.

He ends up running this factory. WW2 starts and he has to make spitfires instead, but he gets to stay home at least.

Going on my family history there was a tendency to get jobs in some far off part of the Empire.

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies I don't suppose you know what the original plan was for your grandfather when he when to agricultural college? Was there an estate for him to come back and manage if he hadn't gone to South America? I'm wondering what size of estate would warrant sending one's son to agricultural college.

Where would the money have come from to have been upper class if it wasn't land? Because if they were cits they probably wouldn't be upper class, unless maybe they were cits back in the very early industrial revolution? But even then I think it would have been a push.

1920/30s was the great depression, no not a lot of good jobs around. Im from smallholding stock. My male relatives at that point went to work in mills, pubs or farm labourers. You need way more land for him to have had a anything beyond a primary education and not to expect to work with his hands.

Great Depression in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia https://share.google/bEfFjRZGkMVWCRxm6

One of my great-grandfathers was a horse dealer, supplying draught horses to the garrison until the end of WW2. Back then it was as respectable as selling cars and vans.

So, if it were just a smallholding of up to 20 acres, what would his family profile be? Why would his mother's family have brought / ended up with the house?

They would be very small farmers, possibly needing some additional source of income. Mother might have inherited because she was the only surviving child of her parents. What does her husband do?

They might be very wealthy apart from the land, due to investments in railways, shipping etc and have a gentry lifestyle and mix with the local gentry but that wouldn't make them 'old money'.

Where was the son educated? Public (boarding) school or local grammar school? That says something about where they fit in society too.

Ideally he won't be conscripted but wants to sign up. So I'm now circling round to the idea that ideally he would have some not very demanding or necessary role overseeing the family estate or some other family business.

A not very demanding or necessary role won't prevent him from being conscripted. But as he was 22 or 23 at the start of the war, he likely wouldn't have been called up immediately. My father was born in 1916 and he wasn't called up until 1941 or 42 - would need to check. (Was sent into the Navy) He wasn't in an essential occupation.

Your character might not have been able to volunteer immediately, either. Unlike WW1, they didn't take masses of volunteers. Conscription was in place from the start, again unlike WW1, and it was all done in an organised way, with younger men called up first.

The estate really wasn't big enough to see estate management as a career. The house was nice (I've seen it), a comfortable country house in several acres, but certainly not Pemberley. From what we can gather, it was always accepted he was going to travel. There didn't seem to be any real pressure on him ti get a sensible job. He was the oldest son, too.