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

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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] They argued trawler bosses were sacrificing workers’ lives by cutting corners and their campaign of women-led activism captured the nation’s attention when it took the women of Hull to the Houses of Parliament. a b c d e f Lavery, Brian W. (23 September 2004). "Bilocca , Lillian [Lil] (1929–1988)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/72725. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) Photos of the 17st housewife fighting police, who prevented her from boarding, made headlines. A Sunday tabloid dubbed her ‘Big Lil’. From then on she was lionised and patronised in equal measure by the media – like a cross between Boudicca and Nora Batty.

Sole survivor Harry Eddom recovering in an Icelandic hospital after his 36-hour fight for survival. This is reminded me of something else I meant to comment, but I will do on the working class literature reading guide Bilocca, Denness, Blenkinsop and Smallbone (later Jensen) formed the Hessle Road Women’s Committee after a mass meeting ended with hundreds of Hull women, led by Bilocca, storming the trawler owners’ offices. It was singer Blenkinsop’s mic and PA system they used at the meeting in the Victoria Hall on Hessle Road. In addition to writing an inspiring history of the Headscarf Revolutionaries, Lavery has also written a social history of a world that has largely ceased to exist. With a novelist's eye for colour and detail, he brings alive the fishing industry of the 1960s... The scenes at sea are as vivid as anything in Hemingway or Melville, and winter conditions in Icelandic fishing waters make life at Alistair Maclean's Ice Station Zebra seem tame. ... The Headscarf Revolutionaries is an enthralling read, a fitting tribute to an extraordinary woman, and an important addition to working class history.

By Brian W. Lavery

The women had taken their campaign to Westminster and forced rapid changes to the trawling industry after a meeting with Board of Trade minister Joseph Mallalieu and fisheries minister Fred Peart. Lily’s Headscarf Revolution may have been a naïve one. But it was a powerful action from the heart that caught the imagination of the world and shamed an industry and a government into action. News Headscarf Revolutionaries immortalised as Porter Street flats renamed to honour the women who changed life at sea Lillian Bilocca became an international celebrity. The lone survivor of the tragedies made headlines too. In a tight fishing community, it's dangerous to stand out. The revolutionaries of the Hessle Road Women’s Committee showed the power of grassroots campaigns. The women had no political experience, all being regular people from a regular city. They affected change at the highest level of government in a matter of weeks.

This was the first of three tragedies to strike the Hull fishing industry in the coming weeks. The Kingston Peridot and the Ross Cleveland would soon follow in the disastrous footsteps of the previous tragedy. a b c d e f "Hull fishermen's safety campaigner Mary Denness dies". ITV News. 5 March 2017 . Retrieved 31 October 2017. a b c d "Telling stories of Hull's unsung freedom fighters". Yorkshire Post. 13 June 2014 . Retrieved 31 October 2017.a b "Actress honours safety fighter Big Lil". BBC News. 31 August 2017 . Retrieved 31 October 2017. Owned by Our Readers We're a reader-owned co-operative, which means you can become part of the paper too by buying shares in the People’s Press Printing Society. Dozens of locals donned their fanciest headscarves in Queen Victoria Square to raise awareness and celebrate the achievements of the four revolutionaries, Lillian Bilocca, Yvonne Blenkinsop, Christine Jensen, and Mary Denness. In 1968 three trawlers from Hull, the Kingston Peridot, St Romanus and Ross Cleveland, sank within days of each other in storms off Iceland, killing 58 men.

As a young trade unionist and seaman I was in awe of what Blenkinsop and her Headscarf Revolutionaries achieved and was proud to campaign alongside them. On the 4 th, the Ross Cleveland sank just off the north-west coast of Iceland. Miraculously, Harry Eddom, the sole survivor from the three trawlers, made it to shore. He was found on the 6 th. The same day, Bilocca, Yvonne Blenkinsop, and Mary Denness delivered the petition (now signed by over 10,000 people) to Harold Wilson’s Labour government at 10 Downing Street. They also delivered a list of 88 proposals outlining how to make the industry safer, all of which would eventually be adopted.

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When news of the second sinking reached Hull, Lillian Bilocca, whose husband and son worked on trawlers, began a campaign that became international news and completely overhauled safety standards on British trawlers. Public outcry of the situation died down and life went on. The city of Kingston-Upon-Hull marched on. It relied on the fishing industry at sea and on-shore to live. The tragedy lived on in the family’s heads as their loved ones sailed off once more. Farewell to Hull's last headscarf revolutionary: Yvonne Blenkinsop funeral brings heroic chapter to a close Review by D.D. Johnston, originally published on libcom.org: http://libcom.org/history/headscarf-r...

Now that a film and TV production company has bought the rights to the book by Dr Brian Lavery, the determination of those ordinary women from Hull is set to make it to the big screen. The story of the Hessle Roaders who took their fight all the way to the corridors of power in Parliament deserves to be known throughout the UK. For too long, the achievement of the women, like the city in which they lived, has been overlooked. Dr Lavery should be congratulated for telling their story in such a gripping way and his achievement in securing the interests of the production company is to be celebrated. The eyes of the world were on the Hull fishing community – and the politicians and owners knew it. The women were delighted with the news of Eddom’s survival and the promises from MPs. Christine Smallbone, the sister of the Ross Cleveland skipper Philip Gay, had met with the managers of Hellyer Bros., the ship’s owners, on the morning of the 5 th. Lavery’s book records her impression of the firm’s offices: ‘“Look at this big room, beautiful big polished oak or walnut table…really really big…beautiful carpets…that’s how the trawler owners live…nice…comfortable”’. The extent to which the trawler owners’ profits were prioritised over the safety of the trawlermen, some of whom were as young as 14, was no secret in Hull. But with the British media gripped by the story of the missing trawlers, the Headscarf Revolutionaries made it a national issue.Blenkinsop later accompanied Hull’s three Labour MPs to Parliament to mark the 50th anniversary of the campaign. She was met by Jeremy Corbyn — and former Labour deputy prime minister and Hull East MP 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. Some of the locals who joined today’s march spoke about the importance of the Headscarf Revolutionaries to them. Diana Hoyles said: “It’s such a huge achievement for these women and what they did, particularly in that era. The opening of 1968 was such a time. The Prague Spring coincided with the Civil Rights movement in the US, the anti-Vietnam War riot in Grosvenor Square, the March events in Poland, the occupation at Nanterre, and eventually the May Days in Paris. And to this list we can add the uprising of the Headscarf Revolutionaries, which has now been brilliantly documented in a new book by Brian W. Lavery. The St Romanus sank with all hands on January 11 1968 and then on January 26 the Kingston Peridot suffered the same fate.