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Former Bryant and May factory on Fairfield Road, Bow, was the setting of the 'London matchgirls strike of 1888'. Most of the buildings have been converted into housing - creating the Bow Quarter Estate. Photo © David Anstiss (cc-by-sa/2.0) |
Ellen Wilton, (b. 1857), younger sister of my 2nd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Wilton (b.1847), had an awful start in life and nothing improved after it. Her father having died in 1858, in 1861, the sisters were inmates in the Great Dunmow Union Workhouse. After her mother remarried, but was widowed again, they moved to London, where we find Ellen and her mother, Catherine Eldred, in 1881, living in Powis Road, Bromley, Poplar.
Ellen (24) and Susan Robison (21), a boarder living in their household, are listed as Match Makers, while lodger, James Howard (18) is listed as a Match Maker (Fusee). (A "Lodger" pays for use of a room only. A "Boarder" pays for a room and meals.) Living little more than half a mile from the Bryant & May's factory in Bow, it is probably reasonable to assume that this was where they were all employed, where the conditions were reported to be so awful that Ellen may well have reminisced fondly about her time in the workhouse.
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Matchgirl strikers, several showing early symptoms of phosphorus necrosis. Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
"If you handled white phosphorus or came into contact with it too much, then it caused serious damage to your health and you ended up with a terrible condition known as ‘Phossy Jaw’ – where you would get severe toothache followed by swelling of the gums. Abscesses would then form on the jaw-bone, and the facial bones would glow a greeny white in the dark. If untreated then ‘Phossy Jaw’ would develop into brain damage and ultimately multiple organ failure."
At around the same time, in the 1870's, Ellen's sister Elizabeth and her husband, James Hockley (a pair of my 2nd great-grandparents), also moved south from Great Dunmow. Their son, Charles Stephen Hockley was born in Bromley-by-Bow, Poplar, Middlesex, in 1874. It's not possible to tell who led, or if they all moved down together, but for Ellen and her coworkers, it can hardly have seemed like the streets of London were paved with gold.
References:
- Britain: The Matchgirls strike - from a spark to a blaze
- Bryant & May ‘Flaming Fusee’ matches for cigars and pipes, London, England, 1861-1895
- Bryant and May Match Factory, Bow, Greater London
- The ‘Bryant & May Match Factory’ in Bow & the ‘Match Girl’ strike of 1888
- Setting the workers alight: the East End Match Girls' Strike
- Bryant and May Strike Bow East London
- The Match Workers Strike Fund Register
- Match Workers Strike, Bow 1888
- Match Girls Strike - The British Library
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