You go to the local school and at 16 you go into apprenticeship with a friend of your father's to learn your trade.
You do well as an apprentice clerk. Wanting to go further, you join a well-respected firm where you enjoy the security and prestige. You go to work on the electric tram – an excellent new invention, which means that you can get more easily from your new house on the outskirts of the city into the centre to work.
You read a newspaper every day and follow with interest the social reforms that the Liberals are proposing. You expound these new theories at the debating society that you're a leading member of. You try to have family holidays once or twice a year. When there's enough money, you take your family to seaside resorts at Torquay, Blackpool and Scarborough.
You move from a crowded house in the centre to a pretty, detached villa on the outskirts of the city. You employ two servants who come by the day to help your wife with chores. You buy meat from the local butcher and other food from the grocer, who's a good friend of the family.
You marry your wife at 17 to escape from humiliation when you realise that she's expecting your first child.
You join the army at the outbreak of World War One and rise to become a corporal. Narrowly escaping death, you return home with serious war-wounds that mean you can't work again. You are awarded a Victory Medal and a Star.
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