FOWNC Newsletter No 44. May 2002.

Free to members. Price £1.00 to non-members

Chairman's Report - Bob Flanagan

A short but positive report this time. The wind of change has been good to us since January - the difference in dealings with Lambeth officers is remarkable in the extreme. Ken Dry (cemetery manager), and Keith Tallantire and Gideon Taylor (Lambeth Environmental Services), have all worked very hard to re-establish the inpetus lost during the incumbency of the late-lamented Niall Bolger, and the fruits of their labours are beginning to be seen in the cemetery. Although some of the capital budget remained unspent as of 1st April, we are hoping the balance can be carried forward into this year.

Management Advisory Group

In line with the improved atmosphere overall, attendance at the Advisory Group has been improving this year and and much valuable business was reviewed at the January and April meetings. I was again re-elected as Chair with Brent Elliott again becoming Vice-Chair - thanks again to Brent for taking on this role. Amongst other matters discussed, Ken Dry has estimated that there is 20 years supply of burial spaces for new graves available to Lambeth at Lambeth Cemetery. Streatham cemetery is closed for new burials as is Norwood, which to my mind makes it even more imperative that the possible use of some of the redundant Vale Street Depot as a cemetery extension is considered. We have put in an objection to the revised UDP zoning of this site for housing/community use. However, the local community (as expressed in public meetings, not necessarily the same thing as the view of the community as a whole) is strongly in favour of 'affordable housing' on this site so it seems that we will make no progress without support from Council officers. What an opportunity going beggingÉ

The Greek section, and especially St Stephen's Chapel (Ralli Chapel) remains a cause for concern - Nicholas Long undertook to try to contact the representatives of the Greek Community, who own this portion of the cemetery in an attempt to begin a dialogue as to what can be done to halt the rot.

Amongst the capital projects planned for this year is the reconstruction of the tomb to Douglas Jerrold. Don Bianco and Ken Dry have organised the excavation of the site and the vault is thankfully in good condition although filled with soil and other debris. FOWNC are to contribute £1,000 towards the reconstruction cost which will be substantial (more than £10,000) so further contributions will be welcome.

A further important initiative is over signage in the cemetery. Consultants have been appointed to produce suggested designs for the Advisory Group and the Scheme of Management Committee to consider. Work has also begun on the tree and woodland management programme which includes scrub clearance and careful ivy removal from selected areas/monuments.

Finally, our web-site. Lambeth have offered to host this for us, hopefully in collaboration/consultation with Rachel Ward who has kindly run the site as part of her own space allocation for several years now. This new venture should enable us to make back newsletters available as .pdf files (i.e. essentially as printed pages) and to allow us to display colour photos, for example, when available. A further section of the web-site is to be devoted to documenting conservation projects in the cemetery (completed, in progress, and proposed).

National Federation of Cemetery Friends

The AGM this year will be held on Saturday, 8th June at Brompton Cemetery. I plan to go together with Don Bianco - if other members would like to attend please let me know.

Golden Leaves Funeral Plans - Future Forests

Thanks to Mrs A Cooke who has purchased a tree at Upminster and dedicated it to FOWNC. More details of the Golden Leaves scheme from Steve Rowland, 299-305 Whitehorse Road, West Croydon CR0 2HR.

William Allan (1813- 1874) by William M. Dunlop - Part 2 (Part 1 in January 2002 Newsletter)

Allan was the originator of the 'New Unionism' of his time. In the early days, with the aid of Newton, he welded scattered fragments of workers' organization in the engineering industry into a unified society and adapted the constitution and financial system of the Old Mechanics to the needs of a national amalgamated trade union. In long hours of patient labour, he built up an extremely methodical, if cumbersome, system of financial checks and trade reports by which the exact position of each of his tens of thousands of members were recorded in his official pigeonholes. Excessive caution, red-tape precision and an almost miserly solicitude for the increase of the Society's funds were among Allan's defects, but he had to operate in circumstances in which powerful forces continually worked against the union and one slip could have led to its destruction. On the other hand, the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE) was generous in giving money to other unions involved in industrial action.

The skills of British engineers were in demand overseas. When work abroad was fairly permanent, the members banded together and formed branches of the Society to obtain the benefits and assist others corning out on 'travel'. The first of these overseas branches was formed in Sydney (1853), followed by one in Montreal in the same year. The first American branch was formed in Buffalo, New York State (1861), and within ten years there were over 20 branches in the country, including Bloomington and Chicago in Illinois, Cleveland in Ohio, Detroit in Michigan, Newark in New Jersey, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, Providence in Rhode Island, and in New York. The names of the branches are a page in the industrial history of America. Other branches were started in Croix in France, and in Constantinople, Bombay, and Malta.

The success of the ASE made itself felt upon the older types of society in the course of the next great crisis of London unionism, the strike and lock-out in the building industry of 1859-60. A confederation of London carpenters, masons, and bricklayers asked for a nine-hour day. The large building firm of Messrs Trollope of Pimlico dismissed the union representative who presented the manifesto and the union members in the firm came out on strike. The other master-builders in London then declared a lock-out and undertook not to employ anyone who refused to sign the 'document':

I declare that I am not now nor will I during the continuance of my engagement with you become a member of, or support, any society which, directly or indirectly, interferes with the arrangements of this or any other establishment, or with the hours or terms of labour, and I recognise the right of the employer and employed individually to make any trade agreement on which they may chose to agree.

This was obviously a concerted effort to crush union organization in the building industry and unions throughout the Country contributed to the strike fund. The ASE donated £1,000 on each of three successive weeks, and a report stated 'such a subscription had never before been heard of and its moral effect in encouraging the men and flabbergasting the employers helped very greatly in defeating the attack'. It was not altogether a victory, as after six months the strike/lockout ended in compromise, with the workers dropping the nine-hour issue and the employers withdrawing the 'document'.

After this prolonged action the advantages of a national organization became apparent to many carpenters and they decided to follow the example set by the ASE. William Allan was approached and he gave every assistance in the adaptation of the rules of the ASE to suit the carpenters' trade. After a slow start in 1860 with a few hundred members, the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners rapidly gained acceptance in the trade and went on to become one of the strongest unions in the country. The election in 1862 of Robert Applegarth, former secretary of a local carpenters' union in Sheffield, as General Secretary of the amalgamated union, brought outstanding ability and leadership to the office and contributed greatly the growth of the union.

Allan and Applegarth became close associates and with a few other general secretaries formed an unofficial committee, later called the 'Junta'. Their policy was extreme caution in trade matters and energetic agitation for reform by parliamentary action. Although the ASE engaged in a series of bitter disputes on the Clyde in 1866, an activist from another society wrote in that year: 'As a trade union the once powerful Amalgamated Society of Engineers is now as incapable to engage in a strike as the Hearts of Oak, the Foresters or any other extensive benefit society... It formerly combined both functions, but now it possesses only one, that of a benefit society'.

At the Royal Commission of 1867 William Allan and Robert Applegarth were the two chief witnesses for the trade unions, presenting the unions as respectable bodies whose main function was the relief of their members in unemployment, sickness, old age and death. While they did not deny that their aim was also to secure minimum conditions and wage rates in the various industries, they laid stress on the conciliatory and peaceful manner in which they attempted to settle disputes. They maintained the case that the workers had to be treated with equality of strength and not dependent on the patronage of employers. Allan did not shirk a straight answer when the question was asked, 'Is it not in the interest of the employer and the employed to work together?' 'There I differ', he replied, 'Every day of the week I hear that the interests are identical. I scarcely see how they can be while we are in a state of society which recognises the principle of buying in the cheapest and selling in the dearest market. It is in their interest to get the labour done at as low a rate as possible and it is ours to get as high rate of wages as possible and you can never reconcile these two things'.

The Trade Union Act of 1871, which arose from the findings of the Royal Commission, gave the trade unions protection for their funds and the right to deal with internal questions without interference from the courts. But it was not a complete victory. In the same year the government yielded to pressure of employers by passing the Criminal Law Amendment Act, which could be - and was - interpreted by the Courts to make any action, such as picketing by trade unions in defence of their interests, an illegal conspiracy. The employers used the new Act to intimidate the workers. One young man was fined half-a-crown for 'looking at some foreigners smoking' and a woman aged thirty-three got 21 days imprisonment for 'hooting'. Seven women were imprisoned in South Wales merely for saying 'Bah' to one blackleg.

The normal working week of engineers was 10 hours daily, Monday to Saturday. Work started at 6 am and finished at 6 pm, with 30 min for breakfast, 1 hour for lunch, and 30 min for tea. When there was overtime the men continued to 8 pm or 10 pm. With insanitary living conditions and long hours of work, the average age of members of the Society at death 1860-70 was 37.5 years. Nearly one third of these deaths, at the average age of 32, were from tuberculosis. The average age of death of members' wives was 36.

There had long been rumblings about a shorter working week and in the north-east a Nine Hours League had been formed. The leader was John Burnett, a member of the ASE who would succeed Allan as General Secretary, and in April 1871 the engineers in Sunderland struck to enforce a claim for a shorter working day. Although the strike was called without the sanction or knowledge of the ASE Executive, a number of firms agreed to the demand. The Executive had not been prepared to take strike action and when it started had been prepared to offer a compromise, which proved not to be necessary. At the beginning of May at Newcastle the local engineering union representatives served notice to the employers of their intention to take action to secure a nine-hour day. This was done in a conciliatory manner and when the statutory period of notice had expired the men came out on strike. The newly formed Newcastle Employers' Association resolved 'that united opposition be given to the strike that has commenced'.

Funds came from appeals in the district, with the Northumberland Miners' Association giving strong support, and delegates were sent to other districts to solicit aid, but it was not until the strike was 7 weeks old that the ASE Executive urged branches to start collections. The northern employers attempted to form a National Employers' League, but did not get the support of the London employers. In spite of blacklegs being imported from Germany and Belgium, the employers gave way after 5 months, but over the following decades many defensive actions were required to protect the advances gained.

When legislation beneficial to the trade unions was obtained by parliamentary action employers would resort to the courts to put pressure on trade union members. More often than not the judiciary would be sympathetic to the employers. In December 1872 workers in some London gasworks struck to prevent the victimization of trade unionists and under the general law dealing with conspiracy were found guilty of breaking their contracts and sentenced to 12 months hard labour. In the following year 16 women, wives of striking agricultural labourers, were given short sentences of hard labour at Chipping Norton for 'intimidating' blacklegs. Trade union activities were still fraught with danger.

Allan died at his home, 90 Blackfriars Road, Southwark, on 15 October 1874 after a long period of painful suffering from Bright's disease, during which he had continued his work without pause. He was survived by a son and four daughters. The impressive funeral procession to Norwood was headed by the Chatham & Dover Railway Shop band and contained representatives from provincial branches of the ASE, the London Trades Council, the Parliamentary Committee of the TUC, the Labour Representation League and others associated with Allan 'in all those works of social and political amelioration with which he has been connected for years'. On hearing the news of his death the Philadelphia Branch (US) resolved to drape the clubroom in mourning for 30 days.

Jefferys, in The Story of the Engineers 1800-1945, summed up Allan's contribution to the ASE and to the British trade union movement in general:

The rebuilding of the Society after the defeat in 1852, the emergence of the engineers as leaders in the trade union movement and the development of a new conception of trade unionism as respectable, solid and sound, was largely the result of William Allan's expert leadership. His personality, talents and shortcomings were reflected in the activities of the Society following the lock-out, in the same way as Newton's exuberance marked the first two years of the Society's existence ... As taciturn as Newton was voluble, he brought to office a tremendous capacity for hard and painstaking work and was expert both within and outside the Society in negotiations and conferences with members, MPs and employers. His efficiency during these years cannot be questioned... Allan was the first man in the British trade union movement to show how a large nation-wide society could function and prove its superiority over the smaller craft or district societies from which it bad sprung.

Further information on the early life of William Allan, particularly his connection with Carrickfergus, would be welcome. No monument survives on his grave at Norwood (grave 11,488, square 88).

Bibliography

Webb S, Webb B. The History of Trade Unionism. London: Longmans, Green, 1894.

Woodward E L. The Age of Reform1815-1870. The Oxford History of England. Vol XII. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1938.

Jefferys JB. The Story of the Engineers 1800-1945. London: Lawrence & Wishart, for the Amalgamated Engineering Union, 1945.

Pelling H. A History of British Trade Unionism. London: Penguin, 1963.

The Carrickfergus Advertiser featured short articles on Allan on 5 November 1974 and in November 1999.

David Cox junior (1809-1885) - Water Colour Painter by Betty Griffin

David, the only child of the artist David Cox, was born in 1809 at Mill Cottage, Dulwich Common. His mother was Mary nee Ragg. They did not reside for long at the cottage in Dulwich, however, and lived in Manchester and Birmingham before settling at Hereford in about 1814. There David junior attended Hereford Grammar School. He was the constant companion of his father, and was largely taught by him.

In about 1826 the family moved back to London, and David junior took up painting as a career. He was his father's assistant for many years, until David Cox senior moved to Harborne near Birmingham in 1848 (although still visiting London and using Laurel Cottage, Streatham Place as his base for exhibitions).

Meanwhile, David junior married Eliza in 1840; their first child Hannah was born in 1841 in Kennington. They moved to Streatham about this time, first to a cottage near the Potters Leech Pond, by the Crown and Sceptre, Streatham Place. They later moved to New Park Road, and may have lived at Gothic Lodge, although directories have not yet been found to confirm this. Their other two daughters were both born in Streatham, Frances in 1843 and Emily in 1846. The family moved to 82 New Park Road about 1860, next door but one to the artist William Bennett who lived at Milford Lodge; neither of these two houses survive. David Cox junior's last home was Chester House, 26 Mount Ephraim Road, which he bought about 1877 and where he lived until his death in December 1885. The house standing on the site now, however, appears Edwardian in style.

David junior often went on painting trips with his father and various other artist friends, including William Bennett. They visited beauty spots in north Wales, the north of England and Scotland, mainly painting landscapes. He also painted scenes of Streatham and surrounding areas: these include The Avenue on Tooting Bec Common; Hyde Farm, off the north side of Tooting Bec Common; and the mineral wells at Streatham.

There is a painting of Gothic Lodge, New Park Road by David Cox junior; this house, built in 1835 (and still standing, hardly altered), was a popular subject for painters and at least a couple of views exist. He also did some paintings for John Allnutt, a wealthy wine merchant who had a large house and estate at Clapham Common South Side; these include a view of the garden front of the house, and a wedding breakfast scene in the picture gallery. Another local resident, William Leaf of Park Hill, Streatham Common, bought some of his paintings, including The hayfield morning and Home with the plough.

David Cox junior was a member of the new Water Colour Society, and exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was elected an Associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colours. His father left him a valuable collection of paintings, including a portrait by W Boxall of himself (David senior) which David junior gave to the National Portrait Gallery.

He was quite a popular figure locally, having a sociable nature, and was relatively well off. He was a churchwarden at St. Leonard's Church. When he died he left the house to his wife and then, after her death, to their three daughters. He is buried at West Norwood (grave 20991, square 99), a short distance up Ship Path. The base of the monument survives, although somewhat weathered and frequently hidden by vegetation. His wife Eliza is also buried in the same grave, and the inscription shows that she was born in 1819 and died in May 1893. His obituary in the Illustrated London News (December 1885) reported that:

'David Cox junior died on the 4th inst. at Streatham, within a mile or two of the house where he had been born nearly seventy-seven years previously.

'He had throughout his long and laborious life to reap the advantages and drawbacks of being the son of his father, who stands almost on a level with Turner and Constable in the list of English landscape painters. Young David Cox was born at Dulwich, his father being about thirty years old. Times were not in 1809, very propitious for rising artists, and shortly after his son's birth David Cox accepted the post of drawing master at a ladies' school near Hereford.

'David junior had been so entirely his father's companion that it is not surprising that he should have followed his father's example. His progress in popular favour was however slow, and for many years he worked almost exclusively for the dealers, producing plenty of work which gave evidence of freshness and vigour, but of no distinctive individualism. He devoted himself almost exclusively to water colour painting and in 1849, ten years before his father's death, he was elected an Associate of the 'Old' Society where he exhibited, with little intermission to the time of his death."

Footnote: others mentioned above who are buried at Norwood are William Bennett (1811-1871) (Grave , square ), John Allnutt ( -1863) (Grave , square 22/23), and William Leaf (1791-1874) (Grave , square 33).

Legends to Figures

1. David Cox junior (line drawing by Don Bianco from a photograph)

2. Representation of David Cox junior's memorial at Norwood (line drawing by Don Bianco)

3. Dulwich Windmill and Mill Cottage, birthplace of David Cox junior, drawn by David Cox senior.

A Plastic Plaque for Parkes by George Young (FOWNC) & Jen Cruse (PHS)

The unveiling of a plaque to the memory of Alexander Parkes (1813-1890) took place on Thursday 24 January at 32 Park Hall Road, West Dulwich, SE21. Parkes, the inventor of the world's first plastic, lived at this address for several years in the 1880s. The event was instigated and organised by the Plastics Historical Society, which was formed in 1986 to draw attention to the heritage of the plastics industry. Parkes is buried at West Norwood Cemetery (grave 20927, square 7) - no memorial remains although the inscription was recorded in the 1970s.

At 2.30 pm Percy Reboul, chairman of the PHS, addressed the 20 or so onlookers and described the importance of Parkes to the plastics industry. The plaque was then unveiled by Simon Parkes, the inventor's great-great-nephew. Photographs were taken and a small reception was held inside 32 Park Hall Road.

Ron and Joan Hardy, who live at the house, provided excellent hospitality (champagne!) and a few toasts to Parkes were made. Apparently, when a member of the PHS knocked on Hardy's door one Sunday lunchtime they readily agreed to the event. Parkes also lived at two other local addresses for short periods (including the house in Rosendale Road where he died), but when approached, the current owners were uninterested.

The plaque is made of a plastic resin and stone composite, and is the first of a number planned to commemorate significant contributions to the formation and growth of the plastics industry. The PHS are also considering to apply to erect a new monument made of a plastic and stone composite material on the grave in West Norwood Cemetery.

Alexander Parkes was born in Birmingham on 29 December 1813, one of 8 children. His early career, which made full use of both his technical skills and artistic sensibilities, was in the metals industry. In his twenties he was in charge of the casting department of Elkington, Mason & Co, one of the country's leading manufacturers of products such as metal statues and vases. Here, he proved to have outstanding inventive abilities, taking out a number of important patents covering electroplating of metals. In his lifetime he took out over 60 patents including one for a process that still bears his name for the desilvering of lead.

Today, however, Parkes is remembered principally for his invention of the world's first plastic, the semi-synthetic cellulose nitrate material called Parkesine, an early form of celluloid. He shrewdly chose to launch a range of products made from this material at the 1862 London International Exhibition and was awarded a bronze medal. Although his business eventually proved unsuccessful, the concept was handed on to other more commercially capable individuals, and with changes in formulation and improvements in quality, it became a major success and pointed the way to what was to become today's huge international plastics industry.

Legends to Figures

1. Plaque to Alexander Parkes (Plastics History Society).

2. Simon Parkes unveiling the plaque at 32 Park Hall Road - photograph by George Young.

[Brian Bloice article - 2 pages with JB - to include if space]

Meeting Report - Iron & Glass: The Crystal Palace and its Influence by Pam Gray

A one-day conference was held last October at the Institution of Civil Engineers to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the construction of the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. The meeting re-examined the history of the building and its significance. Celebrated as a heroic achievement, and subsequently regarded as an icon of Victorian industrialisation and construction, the Crystal Palace was a dynamic structure which, even after its reconstruction at Sydenham, continued to influence and engage the public's imagination at every level. From the initial funding via the Royal Commission of 1851, whose committee still exists today, to having a direct influence on the design of exhibition buildings in Munich, New York, Paris and elsewhere, to major figures like I K Brunel, Fox & Henderson, Owen Jones, William Cubitt, Henry Cole, and Joseph Paxton who were involved in the development of the "Palace for the People", and to the souvenir market, the conference provided an all-embracing re-appraisal of a structure which, despite its demise in November 1936, lives on as a recognisable icon today.The topics covered included the circumstances which brought the Exhibition about; the mythologising of the Crystal Palace; the significant contributions of Owen Jones to the interior decoration; the removal and transformation of the Palace to Sydenham; Brunel's magnificent twin water towers; the remarkable commemoratives; Munich's Glasplast; New York's Crystal Palace; and the complex influence of the "Crystal Palace effect" on contemporary exhibition building design in Europe.

Review of Recent FOWNC Events - Jill Dudman

Judy Harris, a long-time FOWNC member and well-known local historian, returned on 9 February to give an updated version of her talk on William Roupell and his family, incorporating her most recent research. The story of William losing the family's land and money, forging his father's will, and his trial and imprisonment, never fails to fascinate. The account of his election campaign to become MP for Lambeth is particularly riveting. Judy has thoroughly investigated the family background and analysed William's character. Her book, reviewed in the January Newsletter, is available from the FOWNC bookstall price £7.99 + £1 p&p.

On 16 March we had a departure from our usual type of event in the form of a talk from Tony Rowland on the work of an undertaker. He is a member of the Croydon family firm of Rowland Brothers (established 1875) which has carried out several recent monument restoration projects in the cemetery, overseen by his brother Bob Rowland. In common with many such firms, they began as builders & undertakers, building in the summer and conducting funerals in the winter, when most people died, before the era of modern medicine. The firm has since developed to a major extent; in addition to all the services one would expect, they provide bereavement counselling, and a particular speciality is international work. Rowlands are expert in the matter of bringing home British persons who have died abroad, and were involved in the aftermath of September 11 in New York.

Forthcoming FOWNC Events - May-August 2002

General tours will be held on the first Sunday of each month (5 May, 2 June, 7 July, 4 August). All start at 14.30 at the Cemetery main gate off Norwood Road, and they last for about 2 hours. There is no formal charge but we welcome donations of £1 per person (£0.50 concessions) towards conservation projects.

Sunday 18 August, 14.30: Dedication of Monument to Dr. A. Normandy

This splendid restoration funded by Lambeth, to replace the original monument they demolished in the early 1990s, will be dedicated at a short informal ceremony. A direct descendant of Dr. Normandy will be present. Meet at the front of the walled rose garden (near the crematorium), and we shall walk to the monument which is in the SE corner of the cemetry. If requested an inpromptu tour of the cemetery can be arranged.

Other Forthcoming Events (more information from Bob Flanagan)

Nunhead Cemetery - Open Day - Saturday 18 May, 10.00-17.00

Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery - Lectures

Dissenters' Chapel, Wednesdays 19.00 for 1930: £3 (Friends of KGC £2)

15 May: Edward Young, Night Thoughts, and the Genesis of the Garden Cemetery by James Stevens Curl

19 June: Funerals and Funeral Directing in London: a Look at the Last 100 years by Brian Parsons

21 August: Preservation of the Dead by Andrea Britton

Friends of Brompton Cemetery - The Art of Death Triology by Robert Stephenson

Brompton Cemetery Chapel, Wednesdays 18.30 for 19.00: Donation requested

29 May: Stone Sepulchres & Ancestor Worship

26 June: Cadavers in the Cloisters

25 July: Black Plumes & Victorian Sentimentality

Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery - Open Day - Saturday 13 July, 10.00-17.00

Crystal Palace Foundation - Victorian Day - Sunday 14 July 2002, 11.00-17.00

The Brookwood Cemetery Society - Open Day - Sunday 18 August, 11.00-17.00

FOWNC Committee - May 2002

Chairman & Publications Officer:

Bob Flanagan, 79 Durban Road, London SE27 9RW (Tel: 020 8670 3265)

General Secretary & Tours Organiser:

Jill Dudman, 119 Broxholm Road, London SE27 0BJ (Tel: 020 8670 5456)

Hon. Treasurer:

George Young, 12 Swinburne Court, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8EP (Tel: 020 7274 5267)

Membership Secretary:

Rosemary Comber, 63 Bradley Road, London SE19 3NT (Tel: 020 8653 2741)

Conservation Coordinator:

Paul Graham, Flat 4, 9 St Andrews Road, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 4DT (Tel: 020 8287 6976)

Publicity Officer:

Pam Gray

The FOWNC Newsletter is published three times a year by the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery, 79 Durban Road, London SE27 9RW.

Registered Charity No 1063450. Member of the National Federation of Cemetery Friends

If you would like further information about the Friends, please contact the Membership Secretary (address above). The annual subscription is £3. Copyright FOWNC, May 2002.