Munitions Vickers Factory Dartford - Danger Money

[greymarehill]

Hello

My Grandmother, Mary Wilson, worked for Vickers Munition factory in Dartford filling detonators with gunpower. Her wages were 6s 5d a week but after several explosions she joined in a strike to demand a farthing an hour danger money.

After the War in 1922 she got married and wasn't allowed to work any more because factories would not employ married women.

Does anyone know whether Vickers would have kept records and where they would now be held?

Was a strike common? I'd love to know the history of this. I virtually ignored the role my grandmother played in WW1 in favour of stories from my Grandfather who was in the Infantry but when you think of it, filling detonators with gun powder was a pretty dangerous job! It's a wonder that I'm here at all!

Yvonne

[TonyE]

The Vickers archives are held in the Cambridge University Library.

Strikes were very common, particularly during 1917/ early 1918 when war weariness was setting in and civilian life was getting tougher.

Regards

TonyE

[sjustice]

As an aside to this, it's interesting to note les salaires des femmes de l'autre côté de la Manche.

In November 1915, the British Government sent a Mission to France. It's purpose was to discover how the French had managed a huge increase in munitions output even though, "one-eighth of the country and five-eighths of the former metallurgical productivity", were in enemy hands.

A fact that the Mission, and Parliament, probably did well not to share with (Mrs.) Tommy Atkins was one concerning women’s wages. A particularly common task for les femmes was shell boring and filling and at the time of the Mission’s visit, with the franc at 8¾d, the mean earnings of a female worker in France amounted to 4 shillings, 4½ pennies. Per day. This was for a 10-12 hour day with the mean at 10 hours, 45 minutes.

There was no trades union involvement in munitions production in France.

Kind Regards,

SMJ

[westkent78]

Slightly off topic, but does anyone know if the Vickers records at Cambridge extend to the period pre WW2-post WW2? Sounds like they should.

Matthew

[sjustice]

Slightly off topic, but does anyone know if the Vickers records at Cambridge extend to the period pre WW2-post WW2? Sounds like they should.

Matthew

Yes, they do. The bulk of the collection covers the period 1870-1970 but there are many later deposits as well. Note that this collection will grow in future as quite a number of documents remain classified by the MoD and have not been released.

SMJ

[westkent78]

Thanks Simon.