Many thanks to Chris Greenhill for sending in details of his grandfather’s long career in the print industry, along with his Indenture document, which was signed in 1898.
Chris says: “I gleaned the following from my grandfather’s last surviving daughter, my aunt.
“Joseph Henry Davis (b1884) began a 6 year apprenticeship as a compositor with John White of Sugar Loaf Court, Garlick Hill, London in 1898, aged 14 years. He later worked for Eyre and Spottiswoode, a high-end printing company in London known for printing bibles amongst other things.
It’s not known when Joseph started working for the Tottenham and Edmonton Weekly Herald but it may have coincided with him joining the union in June 1918, following his time serving in the army during WW1.
He became Father of the Chapel and stayed with the paper until the outbreak of WW11 when he was put on war work. After the war he worked at a printers in Stratford, London until retirement around 1949.
However, he soon returned to work, finally retiring in 1954, aged 70 years. Even during retirement he maintained membership of the union and seems to have paid his 1966 subs before sadly dying at the end of 1965.”