yardsman

From yards +‎ man.

yardsman (plural yardsmen)

1. The foreman or man in charge of the activities in a yard (train yard, prison yard, stock yard, etc).
   • 1856, George Laval Chesterton, Revelations of Prison Life:

     He had been sentenced to imprisonment, but without the imposition of hard labour, and he had purchased his post of yardsman in the division allotted to those prisoners, equally with himself, exempt from labour—a class which, at that period, passed their time in utter idleness.

   • 1861, E.B. Ivatts, The Handbook of Railway Station Management:

     This is frequently left to a porter or yardsman, and more especially where an agent is not what is termed an “ outside man.”

   • 1922, Engineering - Volume 114, page 543:

     On each shift is a melting-shop yardsman, working under the traffic department, who is responsible for the fulfilment of the requisition.

   • 1923, Victoria. Supreme Court, The Victorian Law Reports, page 451:

     On presentation by the drover of this docket to the yardsman it was the yardsman's duty to give delivery to the drover of the stock which are in fact at that time in the yard referred to in the docket.

2. A general laborer in a yard.
   • 1918, Australasian Coachbuilder and Wheelwright:

     The duties of a yardsman shall consist of general labourer's work, including unloading and loading goods, stacking and re-stacking material, preparing and making fire for tyring, carrying water for tyring, putting on and taking off wheels, lifting and helping to lift, carrying generally.

   • 1974, Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, page 201:

     The yardsman from the leading cart held out a work-gnarled hand.

• Maynards