Monday 21 December 2015

Some nice pictures of snow


For Midwinter...
Midwinter, West London, 21_12_2010
Midwinter window, West London, 21_12_2010

In the (Scottish) hills, 1960s


(Not winter though)

Dingwall station, Nov. 1971
Dingwall, winter 1961-62

Dingwall, winter 1961-62
Upper Knockbain, Dingwall, Ross-shire

Snowballs at midnight, West London, Feb. 2012
West London, Feb. 2012

Glasgow, Feb. 2009





Robins, 24_12_2013

East London, 22-1-2019

Saturday 5 December 2015

Life After Crime and Punishment?

"Trace & Explore Convict Lives" -  From (very) petty larceny to high treason...

Further to previous posts looking at aspects of prison history - specifically in London's NewgateMillbank and Pentonville (combined in online pamphlet) - SmothPubs welcomes news of "The Digital Panopticon" which "follows the stories of the 90,000 people sentenced at The Old Bailey between 1780 and 1875" and invites interested people, no previous experience or qualification necessary, to "help us trace them through historical records, determining what impact crime and punishment had on their lives." Searching on the website is free, as is registering in order to add links to an individual's "life archive"(or to remove false links).

Starting with a name, the sort of information that can be found, with luck, may include:
Old Bailey Proceedings: Date of trial; offence; verdict; sentence, offence location; offence report; sentence report.
Criminal Register: Date of trial; age, year of birth; height; sentence; description (physical); sentence report; other notes.
Coroner's Inquest: Date of inquest on death in prison; location; verdict.
Transportation Register: Date registered; colony, usually Van Diemen's Land; ship; place and date of trial; term of transportation; register text (transcribed quotation). 
Criminal Indent (details recorded when convicts arrived in Australia): Date recorded; age, year of birth; colony, term, ship; height; religion; place of trial; place of birth; offence report.
Founders & Survivors: Date recorded, arrival date (normally the same, and as for Criminal Indent); age, year of birth; colony, term, ship; offence report; previous convictions; gaol report; hulk (prison ship) report.

(Other data sets searchable at the same time or separately are Prison Licences and Bridewell Court of Governors.)

The range of information accessible in this way is more extensive than may appear at first, for example the core records being from the Old Bailey may seem to exclude prisoners tried in Scotland, but in fact many of these will turn up somewhere. There are dozens of 'Mac' or more often 'Mc' surnames. For example, two women called Margaret McRae/Macrae were convicted of stealing in Edinburgh and transported (on the same ship) in successive years, 1847-48 and 1848-49, so that each has 3 linked records. (Apart from the logistics making it impossible that they could be the same person, their ages - 21 and 18 -.heights and birth places - Jamaica and Edinburgh - are different.) Another couple of Scots' records recently linked are:  

  • Transportation
    Register 

     11th March
    1837



    colony
    Van Diemen's Land
    term
    7
    years
    ship
    Blenheim
    tried
    Edinburgh Court of Justiciary
    register text
    "Convicted at Edinburgh Court of Justiciary for a term of 7 years."


    Founders &
    Survivors 

    16th July
    1837

    term
    7
    years
    tried
    Court of Justiciary
    trial date
    14th December 1835
    vdl departure date
    15th March 1837
    vdl arrival date
    16th July 1837
    ship vdl
    Blenheim
    offence report
    "Assault"
    gaol report
    "convicted before connexions <[…]>"
    hulk report
    "good"

  • Founders &
    Survivors 

    16th July
    1837

    term
    7
    years
    tried
    Court of Justiciary
    trial date
    23rd April 1836
    vdl departure date
    15th March 1837
    vdl arrival date
    16th July 1837
    ship vdl
    Blenheim
    offence report
    "Theft by House breaking"
    gaol report
    "convicted before 6 months good temper and sober"
    hulk report
    "very b<[ad]>"

    Transportation
    Register 

    11th March
    1837

    colony
    Van Diemen's Land
    term
    7
    years
    ship
    Blenheim
    tried
    Inverness Court of Justiciary
    register text
    "Convicted at Inverness Court of Justiciary for a term of 7 years."
(This John Flett is no relation, as far as is known, to any other Flett mentioned on this blog). 

Incidentally, occasional blips may occur, for example in two of the records for Lord George Gordon (see also Newgate link above) where his age is given as 11 in 1788, born 1777 (actually born 1751) although he is described as being 5'11" tall and having a beard at the same time. He is one of the minority of prisoners whose names were generally known to history - celebrities, the notorious, causes célèbres, the rich and powerful - and whose stories may now be amplified. 
More importantly, those of tens of thousands of hitherto anonymous transgressors and/or dissidents will be accessible to researchers. For example: Radicals of the 1790s, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, participants in the Newport Rising of 1839, Suffragette militants, and no doubt many more. Writers of historical fiction, too, could come across multiple sources of inspiration here for authentic original story-lines.

An example of the sort of gem that can turn up;
Criminal Indent 1845 Daniel Mcaulay
age 30; b 1815; colony V[an] D[iemen's] L[and]; term 10 years; ship Stratheden
height 62.5; religion catholic; tried edinburgh; place of birth "county donegal"
offence report "rioting and an assault; it was a strike for wages among the colliers; the men who came to do our work we assaulted & turned them off the works; 800 of us struck from the workes & 1 man was killed; it was at ayr, we struck for wages , had 20d per diem"


Thursday 12 November 2015

40-year-old Pamphlet now to be available in Portuguese

Mulheres na Revolução Espanhola

One of the pamphlets now associated with this blog, originally published by the London Solidarity group in 1975 as Solidarity Pamphlet No.48, has now been translated into Portuguese,* in Brazil, from the definitive 2010 text, with additional footnotes. 
*Link to unrevised draft. The intention is to publish a bilingual Portuguese-English edition. 




Women in the Spanish Revolution by Liz Willis (Author's 2010 edition).

Copies of the 2010 version as above are usually available at RaHN meetings and on their stalls at bookfairs.

A Manchester edition, also of 2010, courtesy of the late Bob Miller, is attractively presented (below) but beware mistakes due to mis-scans copied from the internet (some of these may have been corrected in more recent years, since the idea was to print on demand rather than in bulk quantities). 
About the cover, which was his own work, Bob wrote that the final version was his fourth: 
“The image is called ‘Youth’, by an artist called Sim. It is of a young 16-year-old CNT militia member in 1936. It is part of a collection he [the artist] did that year as a fund-raiser for the CNT-FAI.”


Tuesday 13 October 2015

An Ealing Conscientious Objector’s Work of National Importance

As a 24-year-old single man, Hector Welsman Smaldon of 37 Elers Road, West Ealing, became liable for military service in early 1916. He applied for absolute exemption in February, stating his reasons:
I have a distinct objection to Combatant military service, indeed to every form of military service, consequent upon holding certain views in relation to Christianity [... Biblical quotation, “My Kingdom is not of this world...”] This scripture shows clearly that, as a servant of Christ and a follower of Him, I cannot undertake Combatant service. Nor, as  belonging to the Kingdom of God, could I take up any service in support of a system, in which Violence, and the taking of human life, have place, without contravening my principles. (16th Feb. 1916)
When he failed to convince the Ealing Local Tribunal, he took his case to the Middlesex Appeal Tribunal (Case Number: M5513), restating his position:
As a Christian I have great objection to Combatant Military Service as contrary to the Spirit & teaching of Christ. I consider that to serve in the Army in any capacity would be a surrender  of Christian principles. (March 8. 1916)
The Local Tribunal explained its decision:
The appellant stated that he belonged to the Plymouth Brethren: that he could not undertake military service, either combatant or non combatant, for that would sacrifice his christian principles: that he felt it his duty to do all the good he could, but not as a part of any military system.
The Tribunal did not consider that there were any difficulties of conscience, particularly as two other members of the same religious body had expressed their willingness to undertake non combatant service, and the application was therefore refused.
The Military Representative made no observation on this case.
!3/3/16
By the time the Appeal Tribunal recorded its decision, after an adjournment of the hearing, Hector’s situation had changed.
Decision [1st May 1916].
Temporary exemption 6 mos. from today conditional upon his remaining in the position as an attendant at the City of London Lunatic Asylum, or in a similar position elsewhere.

The exemption was granted on the ground that “a conscientious objection to military service has been established”. His normal employment had been as a Traveller for a firm – the firm* – of Ostrich Feather Manufacturers, Botibol & Co., but he had been referred to the Committee on Work of National Importance which wrote to the Appeal Tribunal on 12th April stating they had been informed that the Medical Superintendent of the City of London Asylum located in Dartford, Kent, had “employment suitable for Mr. Smaldon” and that it was desirable he should take up his duties on the 17th. The arrangement evidently suited him; he asked for it to be made permanent rather than temporary. Instead he had to go through the process of applying for repeated extensions of his exemption throughout the war, resulting in a massive 80-page compilation of filed paperwork. 

He was not usually required to attend the hearings, however. The Medical Superintendent testified to the quality of his work, and didn’t want to let him go A couple of attempts by the local Military Representative to have his exemption withdrawn got nowhere. He stayed in post at least until the end of the war, possibly longer – it was in Dartford that he married, in 1921.

Hector Smaldon was far from being the only CO directed to work in a “lunatic asylum” (there were upwards of 60 as recorded on the Pearce database) but must have been one of the first, and possibly least reluctant. Among his co-workers in 1916-19 were about a dozen overall, for varying lengths of time; Richard Thomas Shirley of Westminster found the work didn't suit him, while Robert William Miller of Islington complained that the strain 'of 14 hour days with lunatics' was making him ill. About 30 COs appear to have been recorded as ‘certified insane’ during the war, but there are few if any matches between the asylums to which they were committed (including Hanwell in at least 4 cases) and those to which their (to some extent) co-thinkers had been sent to do their 'work of national importance'.

Smaldon Family background

Hector’s older brother William James was also a CO, whose objection was recognised by the Ealing Tribunal to the extent of granting him Exemption from Combatant Service only. Apparently without lodging an appeal, he was drafted into the Non-Combatant Corps, and within a few months was in France. He survived to be demobbed after the war, late in 1919.   


The 1911 Census shows the Smaldon household: Hector Welsman (mistranscribed as Welsham on ‘Find my Past’) aged 19, a Clerk in a Drapery Warehouse, living at 37 Elers Road with his widowed mother, and 26-year-old brother William James, a Tramway Motor Man. Both brothers had been born in Hull. There were three boarders, William and Harold Lucas, probably father and son, and Harold Davies whose brother (probably) was also present on census night, visiting from Taunton. In 1901 Hector's and William's father, a ship's watchman, was still alive, and the family were living in Kingston upon Hull.
The Smaldons’ (and boarders') address in West Ealing
Hector eventually returned to his county of birth, Yorkshire, where he died in 1987.

*Botibol: a name to conjure with in ostrich feather circles...
A. Theft from a specified place, 8th October 1912: BREWER, William (32, carman) pleaded guilty, of ... breaking and entering the warehouse of Cecil Munton Botibol and stealing therein 144 ostrich feathers and other articles, his goods...          Sentence: Three years' penal servitude.      http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?div=t19121008-16
B. Lady Hawk's Folly - Google Books Result. Amanda Scott - 2013 - ‎Fiction      https://books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=1480415294            “... to Oxford Street and the premises of W. H. Botibol, plumassier, in order for Mollie to purchase a pair of ostrich feathers to wear in her hair that evening...”
C. The works of William Makepeace Thackeray: i. "By Saint Botibol, say not false," groaned the elder warrior...        ii. "... A small prince's coronet of gold, from which rose three pink ostrich-feathers...”       https://archive.org/stream/.../workswilliammak15thacgoog_djvu.txt


20190205_120148-1 (1).jpg
A further sidelight on asylum attendants around this time.
Source: https://libcom.org/files/occupational-hazards.pdf - p.53 of pdf, 48 of pamphlet

Monday 21 September 2015

Protesting against CBW: At Porton Down, 1965

In the official history of the Biological side of the British government’s CBW Research Establishment at Porton Down there are several references to demonstrations being held there  by activists opposed to weapons of mass destruction (a phrase which was in use at least since the early 1950s, the time of the Korean war.) One of these took place just 50 years ago, in September 1965.  
An affable West Country policeman was impressed to hear that some people had hitch-hiked hundreds of miles: 
“I’m sure it’d have taken me many moons,” he commented.
Hammond PM, Carter G, From Biological Warfare to Healthcare: Porton Down, 1940-2000 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002).
Chapter 6 on 'The New Establishment 1948-51' gives an account, of the setting up and construction of the Microbiological Research Department* (to focus on germs rather than gas) as part of the set-up at Porton. [How it appeared to a young female civil servant seconded as one of the first clerical workers there may be seen in fascinating subjective detail in an online publication.]  MRD Experimental Plant No.1 was handed over by the Ministry of Works on 14-10-48, with some work still outstanding, finally handed over to MRD 29-3-49.
Ch.15, 'Public Perceptions' mentions demonstrations, as follows (accuracy of details not guaranteed, obviously):
  • In Spring 1953 pacifists of the Non-Violent Resistance Group held a demonstration described as being against the secrecy of the place.
  • The 1960s brought a rise in protest following the government’s decision that the extension of BW research was to continue; CND and especially the direct-action Committee of 100 were active in this regard.
  • pp.224-5 In an attempted break-in (1963 – reference is made to Spies for Peace and RSGs) two men drove 2 miles within the Porton campus without being challenged, sparking a Special Branch raid on the (alleged) London HQ of the Committee of 100:
  • Special Branch Raids    On Monday, June 24th, at 8p.m., officers of the Special Branch raided the offices of the Committee of 100 and the homes of a number of Committee members… The Official Secrets Act was used to obtain the search warrants and in addition to the material dealing with a forthcoming demonstration at Porton “Germ Warfare” Centre, papers and documents referring to the state visit [by Greek royals, a focus of C100 attention in 1963] were also taken. – “Open Letter to an Old Bailey Court”, pamphlet produced by the Committee of 100, Nov. 1963.

  • A well-planned demonstration (large given the location) in June 1963, attended by about 300 people, led to many arrests, and 3 protestors being jailed. (National Archives file refers: TS 50/142 Threatened demonstration by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at Porton Down Experimental Establishment, 29 June 1963.) Preparation had included a leaflet, “Operation Porton – Against germ Warfare” and the authorities had been concerned about what might happen.  Press coverage included the Daily Telegraph, Express, and Mail on 27-6-63, and the Guardian on 28-6-63. 
    Close-up from document below

     
  • Interest in Porton on the part of the peace movement continued, with a 1964 article or supplement in Peace News on ‘Silent Death’. In May ’65 C100 ‘gave notice of intention’ re. further protest. The date of the 1965 demo, ’called by the Committee of 100, following a more spectacular action in 1963’ was set for 11th September, and a leaflet produced calling people to attend ‘Open Day at Porton’. Troops were again to be available to guard the site, but on this occasion, according to the book, the protest was low-key, with no arrests, and only local reporting [see below, however].
  • Subsequent years (summary)
    • Feb. ’67 Action by Porton Action Group: CND, C100 (p.201, 211 with note on the existence of an active Salisbury branch, which gained ‘considerable support on some occasions’), and War Resisters International.
    • May 1968 vigil  (and 1969). Porton hit the headlines that month, thanks to Essex University students: The events of May, 1968 at the University of Essex started with a protest against the recruitment of students to work at the chemical and biological research station at Porton Down. The University's response to this protest led to massive general meetings, which voted to replace the existing university with a "Free University of Essex". [...] On Tuesday, 7th May, Dr. Inch, a scientist from Porton Down arrived to give a talk on toxic chemicals. [...] 
    • p.232 Dark Harvest Commandos 1980. Dumped ‘contaminated Gruinard soil’ near MoD land.
Comparatively ‘low-key’ or not, the 1965 demo was one in which the authorities took plenty of interest.
Scientists (?) observe Demonstrators

Police at the gate

Scientists (?) observe Demonstrators; police at the gate
Demonstrators expected to be letting themselves in for being caught on camera, but probably few if any realised they would actually be filmed
[Film] CND (CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT) DEMONSTRATION AT THE MAIN GATE OF PORTON DOWN, 1965 [Allocated Title]
16mm  Catalogue number DED 256  Production date 1965; Porton Down (Production company)
Film shot on behalf of the Chemical Defence Establishment [sic] shows members of CND [sic] gathering for a demonstration outside one of the traffic gates into the complex; some of the protesters are filmed trespassing on Ministry of Defence Land. The camera is, for the most part, situated within the perimeter of the Porton Down Establishment. Content description:
Placard on the bridge over the railway at Porton on behalf of a hunger striker reads: "I am fasting to express my contempt for the inhuman work carried out at Porton". A crowd of CND supporters gather at the modest access gate ("Haven Gate"), watched over by older members of the Ministry of Defence Police. The atmosphere is calm. Most of the demonstrators appear to be in their twenties, although there are some older people. Many carry placards: "Porton for the People!", "Reverence for Life - Schweitzer" etc. Camera focuses on their faces; some of the protesters jeer, many give a two-fingered "salute", others try to hide their identities. Many take photographs of the MOD camera itself. Viewpoint moves to Porton Pheasant Road, where demonstrators are filmed climbing gates and fences and trespassing on the broad Porton ranges. Long shots of clusters of people; many are carrying banners - "Porton for Peace" etc. One demonstrator has a large Soviet flag. Soldiers, MOD Police and members of the local constabulary gather up the clusters of protestors and escort them off the land. A small group of protesters climb a meteorological tower on Black Barn Road. Individual protesters are arrested by soldiers and put in the back of an MOD Land Rover; outside, the police take their details (many of the arrestees are sitting or lying on the ground). A group of protesters from the Dundee branch of the anti-war group the Committee of 100 are challenged by police. Some demonstrators sit in road, impeding passing vehicles. Back at Haven Gate, speakers address the crowd. An army lorry tries to leave the complex; it is blocked by the demonstrators who attempt to remove the canvas cover at the rear of the lorry. [Copied from the above link, with a few typos corrected].
No doubt due to this film, there are more pictures from September 1965 at Porton online, available e.g. by searching Images for porton down protest
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
*A note on 'Nomenclature' and control (up to 2002 when the Hammond/Carter book was published, so there have been further significant changes):-
What was the BW section at Porton called?
1940-46 Biology Dept. Porton/ Biological Research Dept., BRD; 1946-57 Microbiological Res Dept, MRD; 1957-79 Microbiology Res Establishment, MRE; 1979-2002- Centre for Applied Microbiol Res, CAMR.
Who was responsible?
It was ‘owned’ by govt. depts. as follows: 1940-59 Ministry of Supply; 1959 briefly Min of Aviation when Min of Supply scrapped; 1959-64 War Dept; 1964-79 MoD [Defence]; 1979-94 Public Health Lab Service under DHSS [Health & Social Services] ;1979-88, DHSS 1988-94, DoH 1988; 1994-2002- Microbiol Res Authority under DoH..
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tuesday 8 September 2015

On the Naming of Winds

(Not a new idea...)

“Public given the chance to name UK and Irish storms”.

From ‘As Safety Saw It’:

What’s in a name?

            Contemporary publications report that a hurricane which tore across America recently at about 100 m.p.h. was known as Ione*, and recalls that last year a similar storm was called Hilda. Here, where during the winter months the wind (we call it breeze) frequently reaches hurricane force there are fascinating possibilities for the local met. men. The weather usually provides plenty of scope and there is a fine range of local names available – Ineag, Dollag or Katag would compare favourably with Ione or Hilda; always provided of course that the met. office issued the usual disclaimer about reference to anyone living or dead. This would prevent misunderstanding should some bodach [old man] put in a claim for insurance on the grounds that Chirsteag [Chrissie] had blown his corn-stack into Broad Bay.

M.S. in Stornoway Gazette, 18 & 21/10/1955
As I See It* column, p.3


*The full collected articles may be read on pdf here (this is an extract from p.4 of the booklet) 



* Hurricane Ione /ˈəʊn/ was a strong, Category 4 hurricane that affected North Carolina in September 1955, bringing high winds and significant rainfall.[1][2] It came on the heels of Hurricanes Connie and Diane,[1] and compounded problems already caused by the two earlier hurricanes. Spawned by a tropical wave which left the African coast on September 6, the system became a tropical depression in the tropical North Atlantic, before turning northwest and developing into a hurricane. After turning back to the west east of the Bahamas, Ione turned northwest and northward, moving across eastern North Carolina before moving east-northeastward out to sea. Ione caused $600 million (2005 USD) in damage, much of it to crops across North Carolina. As a result of Ione's impacts seven people lost their lives.
From Wikipedia