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

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Yvonne Blenkinsop and Chrissie Smallbone joined Lillian on the stage. The two women were well-known in the community, especially Yvonne, a local cabaret singer. The women met with the ministers, after which they learned that Harry Eddom had been found alive. His survival became worldwide news. 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.

Lillian Bilocca: Plaque for woman who revolutionised safety at sea". BBC News. 22 January 2022 . Retrieved 22 January 2022. is the 50th anniversary of 1968 and among all the mass movements and great upheavals seen in that year, there were countless other events that year that made their mark on history. One of these is the struggle of the women of Hull to improve the safety of the fishing trawlers that their husbands, fathers and sons crewed in the dangerous northern waters around Iceland. The beginning of 1968 saw three trawlers sink in one of the most powerful storms that fishers had ever seen. 58 men lost their lives and there was only one survivor. 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. Hull’s mural depicting Lillian Bilocca, who led a campaign to improve safety conditions on board North Sea trawlers

These four women took on trawler bosses and the establishment and won, making the world’s most dangerous profession — deep sea trawling — safer by far. Lillian Bilocca had three sisters. [2] [3] Her father, husband and son all worked at sea on the Hull fishing trawlers and Bilocca worked at an on-shore fish factory, filleting the catch. [3] [4] [5] She became known as "Big Lil". [6] Headscarf Revolutionaries trawler safety campaign [ edit ] 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.

Their campaign captured the public imagination and shamed bosses and government into immediate action. Fishing was suspended off Iceland until the weather improved. Owners were legally forced to launch a ‘control ship’, the Ross Valiant. A new full-time ‘mother ship’ later replaced it. In October 1968, a public inquiry resulted in the Holland-Martin Report into Trawler Safety. All the demands of the Fishermen’s Charter were met, most before the inquiry, and the remainder soon after. Today, the phrase I coined for my book title, the Headscarf Revolutionaries, has become shorthand for these brave campaigners. On the day the book was launched in 2015, four plaques were unveiled by the Lord Mayor in Hull Maritime Museum to commemorate their campaign. I remember sitting in a semi-circle with the MP JPW Mallalieu of the Board of Trade and he laughed when I called him petal,” Blenkinsop told me during one of our many chats while researching my book, the Headscarf Revolutionaries.

The Imperial Typewriters strike, 1974 - Ron Ramdin

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. 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. While the government claim that climate activists are terrorist groups, they simply cannot label huge swathes of the population as “extremists”. The story of Billocca proves this. Described as an extremist at first by the opposition, they eventually had to listen to her and the 10,000 people behind her. In an early interview with me, Mary Denness recalled their arrival at King’s Cross: “It was full of journalists, union men, photographers and TV folk. When we got off, the station was empty, and the platforms were surrounded by those barriers they use on royal visits.” 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.

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.” 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 Lavery.

By Brian W. Lavery

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.

Their other conditions involved ensuring that all trawlers in the UK were fully equipt with necessary safety equipment and that safety ships would be sent to monitor conditions and be a ship's first port of call should one ever be in trouble. 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] Blenkinsop’s private legacy is four children, 10 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren. Her beloved husband John predeceased her in 2004.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. 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. When Mary Denness was called up to the stage, there was booing. Lillian shouted: “Are you booing her because she’s a skipper’s wife? Well, I don’t remember any skippers coming home!” The suitably chastened crowd went on to vote them all in as the Hessle Road Women’s Committee. In the highly charged atmosphere, the women marched on the owners’ offices, but were fobbed off.