A ganger both a formal and slang term meaning the
head or supervisor of a small unit or "
gang" of labourers, often unskilled or unqualified, such as the Navvies (Navigational
Engineer in PC English)
dating from the times of the Canals and Great Railways in the United Kingdom.
Referenced in song by the immortal
Dominic Behan ballade "MacAlpine's Fusiliers" with the verse:
"I've worked till the sweat near had me beat with
Russian, Czech and Pole,
At shuttering jams up in the Hydro Dams, or underneath the Thames River in a hole,
I grafted
hard and I got me cards and many a ganger's fist across me ears.
If you pride your life, don't join, by Christ, with McAlpine's Fusiliers."
References: Native UK English speaker and Anglo-
Irish-Hiberno-musicologist (author)
Formal literature: Journal article Mr. Walter G. Cocks, Member, "NOTES ON THE MAINTENANCE OF PERMANENT WAY." in ""Civil Engineering" 1911:"A Bad Top: -this is generally the result of slack joints, which can be caused by bad or insufficient packing, weakness in fish plates, loose fish-bolts, etc., to remedy which necessitates constant attention on the part of the maintenance gangs, the results depending on the intelligence possessed by the GANGERS.
"I've worked till the sweat near had me beat with
Russian, Czech and Pole,
At shuttering
jams up in the Hydro Dams, or underneath the Thames River in a hole,
I grafted
hard and I got me cards and many a ganger's fist across me ears.
If you pride your life, don't join, by Christ, with McAlpine's Fusiliers."
