yardsman

Noun

yardsman (plural yardsmen)

1. The foreman or man in charge of the activities in a yard (train yard, prison yard, stock yard, etc).
   • 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.1856, George Laval Chesterton, Revelations of Prison Life
   • This is frequently left to a porter or yardsman, and more especially where an agent is not what is termed an “ outside man.”1861, E.B. Ivatts, The Handbook of Railway Station Management
2. A general laborer in a yard.
   • 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.1918, Australasian Coachbuilder and Wheelwright
   • The yardsman from the leading cart held out a work-gnarled hand.1974, Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, page 201