A: strike poster.
D: Dockers children waiting for a free meal
*
Coffee room where relief was distributed.
The Great Dock Strike of 1889
Hardship
When the men came out, strike funds were almost non-existent and they had nothing to fall back on except patience and the pawnbroker. At first food was distributed to dockers and their families.
Later shilling [5p] food tickets, which were accepted by local tradesmen, were issued. Tom Mann took on the enormous task of organising relief aided by John Burn's wife and Eleanor Marx.
But, despite appeals for help, not enough money was coming in to meet the needs of the increasing numbers on strike.
As the strike progressed into its second and third weeks, there was great hardship in East London. Church missions, the Salvation Army and other organisations opened soup kitchens to supply free meals. But by the end of August many dockers and their families were starving.
B: 'Women wandered for hour after hour with weak and weary footsteps in search of help and in some cases fainted away in the streets; others stood in gaunt-eyed, silent, miserable groups watching the densely-packed mass of men at the doors of the relief office, in utter despair of fighting their way through to the tables at which tickets were being given out.
I have known a big-limbed docker, tall enough for a guardsman, to drop into that seething crowd in the back room at Wroote's*, overcome by want of food and by the foul air and be carried out all but inanimate [lifeless].'
David Schloss. Fortnightly Review, August 1889.
C: List of articles pawned by a crane-driver with a wife and five children:
19 August
Man's Sunday Suit 3s.6d.
20 August
Daughter's New Boots Is. 3d.
Handkerchief and Jacket Is. 6d,
22 August
Man's Tools 2s.
24 August
24 Yards of Calico for children's dress 2s. 6d.
26 August
Daughter's Sunday Jacket and Frock 2s. 6d.
Daughter's Sunday Dress 6s.
28 August
Wife's Shawl 6s.6d.
Flannel (for children's underclothes)
ls.6d.
31 August
Man's Flannel shirt 2s.
3 September
Man's Trousers and Vest 6s
David Schloss, Fortnightiy Review, August 1889
Go back to The Great Dock Strike of 1889 menu |
A: strike poster.
D: Dockers children waiting for a free meal
*
Coffee room where relief was distributed.
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Introduction |
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The Origins |
Building the Docks |
In Operations |
On the Waterfront |
The Dockers|
The Strikes of 1889 |
In the 20c |
In the WW2 |
The Closure |
Contact
Nigel Sagar
Design and Technology
London Borough of Barking
and Dagenham
Email: nigel.sagar@lbbd.gov.uk
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