Minutes

Highfield WI February 2019 member’s meeting

Monday 25th February 2019, Portswood Pavilion.

 

25 members joined us for our February 2019 meeting. Julia welcomed everyone and gave out some notices

• The HamWIc Spring meeting is on Wednesday 20th March, 7pm at St Mark’s church, Archer’s Road.  Entry is £1 and includes refreshments provided by the Sotonettes,  There will be a raffle.

• The Hampshire Spring Council meeting is on Tuesday 26th March, 10.45-3.30pm at The Guildhall, Portsmouth.  Julia and Maureen to attend.

• Julia is to pin a flier from City College on the Information board with details about various cookery courses available there.

• Hampshire Federation are having a Walk & Cream Tea round Old Portsmouth on Tuesday 16th July.  Spaces limited to 25, so first come, first served.  Cost £15.

Clare asked for volunteers to wash up.

Julia then introduced Sam Johnson, our speaker for the evening.  Sam gave us a most informative talk entitled ‘The Matchgirls Strike 1888, a descendant’s view’. 

The matchgirls were workers at the Bryant & May match factory in Bow, London.  These young girls and women bravely came out on strike after the Fabian society criticised the working practices of the Quaker-owners, which led the owners to sack 3 employees and the Fabians to boycott Bryant & May products.  This was against a back-drop of increasing political and social unrest in the country due to the rise of the middle class and very bad working conditions for the poorest factory workers.  One of the members of the Fabian society, Annie Besant, interviewed some of the matchgirls and published her findings. Annie was able to bring the plight of the matchgirls to the attention of members of the House of Commons.  Less than a month later the strikers had been become organised[CS1] [CS2]  with a committee heading it up which published a list of strike demands (these were all fulfilled by Bryant & May). Following the strike, a Union was set up made up of members of the strike committee and others.  One of these workers was Sarah Chapman who later became a trades union representative and attended the 1890 TUC Conference in Liverpool,

Sam discovered that Sarah Chapman was her great grandmother in recent years and has become very interested in finding out all she can about her.  She found her unmarked grave 2 years ago and is attempting to prevent it from being levelled and therefore lost.  She is also trying to organise to have a permanent memorial to recognise the importance of the Matchgirls strike and the part it played in highlighting the plight of poorly-paid workers.

Sarah then took questions from the floor and was thanked by Julia for her most interesting talk.

Members then had social time with wine and ‘match’ inspired snacks!  The evening came to an end around 9.45pm.

 

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