The Headscarf Revolutionaries: Lillian Bilocca and the Hull Triple-Trawler Disaster

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She combined a career as a singer alongside being a married mother of four. She toured the country as Yvonne — the golden girl with the golden voice. Yvonne Blenkinsop, the last survivor, was made a Freeman of the City in 2018. The others were posthumously recognised. Yvonne later accompanied Hull’s three Labour MPs to parliament, to mark the 50th anniversary of the campaign. She was met by Jeremy Corbyn – and John Prescott, who had fought alongside her in 1968. One ordinary fisheries worker decided to take things into her own hands. Losing a son herself in the tragedy she saw a need for change. a b c d "Telling stories of Hull's unsung freedom fighters". Yorkshire Post. 13 June 2014 . Retrieved 31 October 2017. In an early interview with me, her fellow campaigner Denness (1937-2017) recalled how, at King’s Cross, platforms were empty and that she, Bilocca and Blenkinsop were the only “real” passengers on the train:

But at the exit, there were thousands waiting and cheering. A newspaper billboard read: ‘Big Lil Hits Town’. I am going over. We are laying over. Help us, Len. I am going over. Give my love and the crew’s love to the wives and families…”

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In the face of ecological disaster there are lessons we should all take from them. People across the world are losing their lives and homes to the impending disaster. Huge wildfires affect diverse eco-systems and flooding threatens a huge portion of the world’s population. During banter with the host, Lillian was asked what fishermen did when not at sea. She quipped in her broad Hessle Road accent: “The married ones come home and take out their wives, then go to the pubs. The single ’uns go wi’ their tarts.” Photographs and other illustrations courtesy of Hull Daily Mail, Headscarf Pride and the research archive of Dr Brian Lavery Skipper Len Whur was Lillian’s fiercest critic, accusing her of putting jobs at risk and ‘interfering in something she knew nowt about’.

Good news for Rita Eddom, with her little brother, reading about Harry’s survival – papers had dubbed her the ‘36-hour widow’. Mary added: “Three women have achieved more in one day than anything that has ever been done in the trawling industry in 60 years.” Gibbons, Trevor (4 February 2018). "Triple trawler tragedy: The Hull fishermen who never came home". BBC News. BBC . Retrieved 8 February 2018.

Author Brian W. Lavery has a long association with Hull, and describes this book as being the result of a promise that he would "set the record straight" about Mrs Bilocca. The book begins with an account of life for fishers on the trawlers. This was an incredibly hard job; the work required huge physical effort, long hours and often took place in appalling conditions. The ships themselves were frequently dangerous with safety equipment damaged or missing. Lavery points out that at the time ships from European fleets had better equipment and sailed with a command ship that helped look out for the smaller vessels as well as providing support. Crew members were handsomely rewarded for their dangerous work, though the real profits were made by the owners.

The St Romanus did not have a radio operator on board — amazingly this was not illegal. On February 4, only one man (the mate, Harry Eddom) was to survive the sinking of the Ross Cleveland, off Iceland. Fifty-eight men perished across 26 days. Not only did she play a key role in one of the most successful civil disobedience campaigns of the 20th century but she also spent her life ensuring that the legacy of that campaign would not be forgotten.All four women received threats by post and telegram. Copies of poison pen letters and other threats kept by Blenkinsop in files were lost in the floods of 2004. The others kept some of theirs which were later published. There are times when history seems to erupt in chorus. Sometimes the cause of synchronicity is obvious, as in the World War that preceded uprisings and revolutions from Clydeside to Moscow, or the economic collapse that by 2011 had sparked revolts as diverse as the English riots and the Arab Spring. At other times, the connections are harder to explain: why was 1848 the year that modernity clashed with feudalism across much of Europe and Latin America? Why did 1649 witness the Ormee of Bordeaux and The Diggers’ colonies in England? Sometimes, it seems, there is simply something in the air. Lillian Marshall was born in 7 Welton Terrace, Wassand Street, Hessle Road, Hull [1] on 26 May 1929 to Ernest Marshall, trawlerman and former Royal Navy engineer, and his wife, Harriet, née Chapman. She left the Daltry Street Junior School, Hull at the age of 14 and worked as a cod skinner. She married Carmelo [Charlie] Bilocca (1902–1981), a Maltese sailor who worked with the Hull-based Ellerman-Wilson Line, and later as a trawlerman. [1] They had two children – Ernest (b. 1946) and Virginia (b. 1950). The family lived in a terraced house in Coltman Street, Hull.

There was an audible gasp,” recalled Mary Denness. “In Hessle Road the word ‘tart’ has a totally different meaning. It simply means girlfriend, and is not offensive.” Another Hull trawler — the St Finbarr — had been lost little more than a year earlier on Christmas 1966 off Newfoundland. Only 13 of her 25 crew survived. Bilocca has been described as a national figure and a local folk hero. [2] She was commemorated by a Hull City Council plaque in Hessle Road in 1990 that reads "In recognition of the contributions to the fishing industry by the women of Hessle Road, led by Lillian Bilocca, who successfully campaigned for better safety measures following the loss of three Hull trawlers in 1968"; another plaque in her honour is at the Hull Maritime Museum. [13] A mural on Hull's Anlaby Road painted by Mark Ervine and Kev Largey depicts Bilocca and her connections with the "headscarf revolutionaries" and the triple trawler tragedy. [11] The St Romanus sank with all hands on January 11 1968 and then on January 26 the Kingston Peridot suffered the same fate. When the sinking of the Ross Cleveland, skippered by 41-year-old Phil Gay, was announced, the bosses, who had earlier snubbed the women, now wanted to meet.

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A colourful march through Hull city centre was done in honour of the Headscarf Revolutionaries today.