Boy Labour and Apprenticeship

by Reginald A. Bray

	Skilled.	Unskilled.	Higher Education.
Number	8,662	15,910	1,524
Percentage	33·2	61·0	5·8
Percentage, 1906-07	28·5	67·9	3·6

It will be seen that, including those who went to some higher form of education, little more than a third of the boys left school to enter a skilled trade.[114]

Table I.

Class of Occupation.	Number.		Percentage.
	Parent.	Boy.	Parent.	Boy.
Trades and industries	615	347	40·87	18·74
Domestic offices or services	23	46	1·52	2·48
Transport (including messengers, errand-boys, van-boys, etc.)	191	829	12·69	44·76
Shopkeepers, shop-assistants, and dealers	137	133	9·10	7·18
Commercial occupations	61	141	4·05	7·61
General labour	436	215	28·98	11·61
Professional occupations and their subordinate services	11	5	0·73	0·27
General or local government	26	6	1·73	0·32
Defence of the country	5	1	0·33	0·06
Higher education	—	27	—	1·45
Unemployed	—	102	—	5·52
Total	1,505	1,852	100·00	100·00

It is unfortunate that no full analysis has been made of these returns. The value of the information which would have thus been obtained was not supposed to justify the labour and expenditure involved in such an analysis. I have, however, roughly analyzed nearly 4,000 cases, and endeavoured to classify the occupations, in accordance with the table founded on the Census return which will be given later.[115] I selected for this purpose typical districts in London. Table I. includes returns from all the schools in the electoral areas of Bermondsey, North Camberwell, and Walworth; it represents a typical miscellaneous working-class district. Table II. includes the electoral areas of Dulwich and Lewisham; it may be regarded as typical of suburban villadom so far as its inhabitants send their children to the elementary schools. Table III. includes the electoral areas of Whitechapel and St. George’s-in-the-East, districts distinguished by the presence of a large number of small trades and sweated industries. Table IV. includes the collective results of the three preceding tables, and may be taken as fairly typical of London as a whole. It was necessary to exclude the returns of a few schools as incomplete, indefinite, or obviously inaccurate. Parent stands for occupation of parent, boy for occupation of boy. The two do not quite correspond, as in a certain number of instances the occupation of the parent was unknown. I have included the telegraph-boys under “Transport,” as for my purpose this classification was the more suitable.

Table II.

Class of Occupation.	Number.		Percentage.
	Parent.	Boy.	Parent.	Boy.
Trades and industries	347	151	35·57	14·86
Domestic offices or services	14	27	1·45	2·64
Transport (including messengers, errand-boys, van-boys, etc.)	70	350	7·24	34·31
Shopkeepers, shop-assistants, and dealers	100	126	10·34	12·35
Commercial occupations	180	157	18·61	15·38
General labour	144	54	14·89	5·29
Professional occupations and their subordinate services	47	2	4·86	0·19
General or local government	66	9	6·83	0·88
Defence of the country	2	5	0·21	0·48
Higher education	—	76	—	7·45
Unemployed	—	63	—	6·17
Total	967	1,020	100·00	100·00

Table III.

Class of Occupation.	Number.		Percentage.
	Parent.	Boy.	Parent.	Boy.
Trades and industries	349	305	51·09	41·84
Domestic offices or services	25	18	3·66	2·47
Transport (including messengers, errand-boys, van-boys, etc.)	72	189	10·54	25·93
Shopkeepers, shop-assistants, and dealers	91	48	13·33	6·58
Commercial occupations	11	39	1·61	5·35
General labour	116	63	16·99	8·64
Professional occupations and their subordinate services	10	3	1·46	0·41
General or local government	8	—	1·17	—
Defence of the country	1	—	0·15	—
Higher education	—	7	—	0·96
Unemployed	—	57	—	7·82
Total	683	729	100·00	100·00