Striking a Light: The Bryant and May Matchwomen and their Place in History

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The first ingredient for Viking Age fire-making is the steel. Steel fire-strikers are called fire-steels or strike-a-lights. Fire-steels are a very common type of personal equipment throughout the Viking Age, appearing occasionally in female graves, but most commonly accompanying male burials (Koch). The fire-steel was a piece of personal equipment, which could be carried hanging from a belt or in a pouch with other fire-making equipment (Roesdahl, From Viking to Crusader, Catalog #61, p. 244). FREE training and production course // 8 weeks: Wednesdays, 4 October-22 November // JOLT Studios GL1 1RP Although not quite a ‘lady’ in the Victorian sense of the word, she was a high-profile figure when she interviewed some of the matchwomen of Bryant and May for an influential article she wrote called ‘White Slavery’ describing their appalling working conditions.

The NUWM was identified with is leader Wal Hannington (1896-1966), founder member of the CPGB. In 1925 Hannington was one of 12 members of the Communist party convicted at the Old Bailey under the Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797 (in the run-up to the general strike of 1926), and one of the five defendants sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment.

The London transport women workers' strike, 1918 - Ken Weller

A: Why, a girl was dismissed yesterday; it had nothing to do with Mrs. Besant. She refused to follow the instructions of the foreman, and as she was irregular anyway, she was dismissed. Louise Raw must be congratulated for her persistence over many years to try and discover what really happened at Bryant and May in 1888 as she has produced a book of vital importance.

When they went out on strike, the matchgirls were already heavily politicised by the reality of their own living conditions, by Ireland and by the propaganda of the socialist revival, which had paid special attention to the East End. Invented in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, fire pistons or syringes work by the compression of air. When exactly this method originated is unclear, but it is also assumed to be prehistoric. Fire pistons consist of a hollow cylinder made of wood, bamboo, animal horns, antlers, or metal. Tinder is placed in the tube and a piston with an airtight seal is rapidly pushed into it. The air inside the cylinder is compressed and the pressure and temperature are increased until the tinder combusts. The same principle is used in a diesel engine to ignite fuel in a cylinder. Its inventor Rudolf Diesel got the idea for his design from observing the use of a Southeast Asian fire piston. The Match Girls Strike is “integral to our national story”. [It is a] history lesson that should be taught in our schools. Once she realised that there was no celebrity place for her within socialism, Annie Besant became a theosophist, and she ended her very long life travelling the world with a young Indian man called Krishnamurta, who she proclaimed was the new messiah, modestly adding that she was his mother. Yes. The study by Louise Raw: Striking a Light is a great historical work that gets to the story of the women who organised on and off the job, before Besant became a sort of figurehead. A good readBut first, using hitherto neglected contemporary sources, she demolishes the great myth of Mrs Annie Besant leading the strike. This week we are looking at two words which may be confused by learners of English: scarce and scarcely. Improve your English with Collins. William Booth organised conducted tours of MPs and journalists round this 'model' factory. He also took them to the homes of those "sweated workers" who were working eleven and twelve hours a day producing matches for companies like Bryant & May. The bad publicity that the company received forced the company to reconsider its policy. In 1901, Gilbert Bartholomew, managing director of Bryant & May, announced it had stopped used yellow phosphorus. Primary sources (1) Annie Besant, The Link (23rd June, 1888) I’m sure a lot of people would agree that we live in strange times. But do they have to be so strange that Area 51 is making headlines? And what’s this about fish the look like aliens. September’s Words in the News explain all. Cast about as it may, there is no way for Israel now to free itself from a hook that it baited itself.