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Kate Sclater (or Slater; married name Kate Furnell; 20 October 1863[1] – 1950) was a British trade unionist and match packer. [2] She was among the leaders of the 1888 Matchgirls' strike, and one of the first members of the strike committee.[3][4][5]
Personal life[edit]
Kate Sclater was born in Southampton in 1863, the daughter of Ellen Jane (née Blake)[6] and William Sipping Sclater.[7] She was baptised on 24 January 1864.[7]
She married George Godby Furnell in 1889.[8][2]
Role in the Matchgirls' Strike[edit]
From the crowd of 200 women at the door, Besant brought a small group into her office where they set up an organising committee.[9] On 27 July 1888, the inaugural meeting of the Union of Women Match Makers was held.
mothers of the modern labour movement[10]
"helped improve working conditions by achieving better pay for the female workers (with no unfair deductions for costs of materials) and, importantly, a separate room where the women could take their meals to avoid food contamination by phosphorous".[11]
Death and legacy[edit]
John Emsley wrote that Sclater and the women who formed the strike committee "had their fifteen minutes of glory, changed the world for ever — and were never heard of again."[12]
In 1966 Londoners were offered two British musicals about the 1888 employees’ strike at Bryant & May’s matchworks in Bow, East London. [13] The Matchgirls by Bill Owen and Tony Russell, and Strike a Light!.
The Register of the 1888 strike, held in the Trade Union Congress Library collections, was digitised
with personal details of all seven hundred individual strikers, plus related images and documents. This manuscript item was selected because of its interest to schools, and to both London historians and family historians. The story of the "Matchgirls' Strike" is one of the few episodes from British labor history that is taught in schools and is known to the general public.[14]
In 2021, Sclater was among those remembered by name in an Early day motion in Parliament, remembering the Matchgirls as "pioneers of gender equality and fairness at work who through their strike action and formation of the Union of Women Match Makers left a lasting legacy on the trade union movement".[5]
Campaigning to have a memorial plaque erected for Sclater in Southampton.[15][16]
grew up in Dock Street, Chapel.[17]
References[edit]
- ^ "1939 Register". Findmypast. 1939. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ a b Johnson, Graham (2020-06-10). "Slater becomes Sclater, and what's the Link between the Matchgirls Strike and Ornithology?". Matchgirls Memorial. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ Coates, Ken (1991). The history of the Transport and General Workers' Union. Internet Archive. Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, Mass., USA : B. Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-17964-1.
- ^ poweredbyreason.co.uk, Powered By Reason-. "The Match Girls' Strike". People's History Museum. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ a b "Matchgirls Strike and Match tax protests". UK Parliament. 26 April 2021.
- ^ "England & Wales Births 1837-2006". Findmypast. 1863.
- ^ a b "Hampshire Baptisms". Findmypast. 1864.
- ^ "England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005". Findmypast. 1889.
- ^ University, London Metropolitan. "The Union Makes Us Strong TUC History Online". www.unionhistory.info. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ SAGEF (2013-03-22). "Louise Raw / Bryant and May Matchwomen". SAGEF (in French). Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ Elford, Jana Smith (2015). "The Late-Victorian Feminist Community". Victorian Review. 41 (1): 32–35. ISSN 0848-1512.
- ^ Emsley, John (2000). The 13th element : the sordid tale of murder, fire, and phosphorus. Internet Archive. New York : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-0-471-39455-6.
- ^ "9 To Whom it May Concern: The British Biomusical", A Tanner's Worth of Tune, Boydell and Brewer, pp. 195–221, 2010-12-31, doi:10.1515/9781846158162-011, ISBN 978-1-84615-816-2, retrieved 2024-04-21
- ^ Coates, Chris (2009). "Union History Online: Digitization Projects in the Trades Union Congress Library Collections". International Labor and Working-Class History (76): 54–59. ISSN 0147-5479.
- ^ "They were exposed to dangerous chemicals – can you help preserve the memories of the Matchgirls?". Daily Echo. 2020-07-16. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ "A Plaque for Kate". Matchgirls Memorial. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ Brisland, Martin (2022). Celebrating Southampton. Amberley Publishing.