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

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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. Lillian Marshall was born in 7 Welton Terrace, Wassand Street, Hessle Road, Hull [1] on 26 May 1929 to Ernest Marshall, trawlerman and former Royal Navy engineer, and his wife, Harriet, née Chapman. She left the Daltry Street Junior School, Hull at the age of 14 and worked as a cod skinner. She married Carmelo [Charlie] Bilocca (1902–1981), a Maltese sailor who worked with the Hull-based Ellerman-Wilson Line, and later as a trawlerman. [1] They had two children – Ernest (b. 1946) and Virginia (b. 1950). The family lived in a terraced house in Coltman Street, Hull. a b c d e f Lavery, Brian W. (23 September 2004). "Bilocca , Lillian [Lil] (1929–1988)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/72725. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) 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.

Photos of the 17st housewife fighting police, who prevented her from boarding, made headlines. A Sunday tabloid dubbed her ‘Big Lil’. From then on she was lionised and patronised in equal measure by the media – like a cross between Boudicca and Nora Batty.

The Imperial Typewriters strike, 1974 - Ron Ramdin

The eyes of the world were on the Hull fishing community – and the politicians and owners knew it. The women were delighted with the news of Eddom’s survival and the promises from MPs. The four women fought for tougher laws after the Triple Trawler Tragedy in 1968 that claimed the lives of 58 fishermen. The march, which fell on International Women's Day, was led by Ian Cuthbert and David Burns of BBC Radio Humberside. 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. a b "The Headscarf Revolutionaries and Lilian BIlocca". Barbican Press. 1 March 2015 . Retrieved 31 October 2017. a b c d "Telling stories of Hull's unsung freedom fighters". Yorkshire Post. 13 June 2014 . Retrieved 31 October 2017.

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. Lavery largely resists analysis, describing events with impassioned objectivity. The book is meticulously researched and his admiration for Lil and the campaign is most revealed by his commitment to understanding the community he’s writing about and describing events as fully and accurately as he can. He saves his analysis for the afterword:

Good news for Rita Eddom, with her little brother, reading about Harry’s survival – papers had dubbed her the ‘36-hour widow’. 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.

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. Three plaques will be unveiled on Friday, August 18. The three Headscarf Revolutionists honoured will be Yvonne Blenkinsop, Mary Denness and Christine Jensen MBE for their part in improving the safety standards at sea in the 1960s, which has saved thousands of lives. They were led by Lil. a b c d e f "Hull fishermen's safety campaigner Mary Denness dies". ITV News. 5 March 2017 . Retrieved 31 October 2017.

Lillian lost her job, and part of the community she had fought to help turned on her. An appearance on the Eamonn Andrews’ Show saw her star fall with stark rapidity. One ordinary fisheries worker decided to take things into her own hands. Losing a son herself in the tragedy she saw a need for change. A colourful march through Hull city centre was done in honour of the Headscarf Revolutionaries today. Upon the four women’s return to Hull, Denness told the waiting press: “We have achieved more in six weeks than the politicians and trade unions have in years.”

Gibbons, Trevor (4 February 2018). "Triple trawler tragedy: The Hull fishermen who never came home". BBC News. BBC . Retrieved 8 February 2018. In three weeks in January and February 1968, the Hull trawlers St Romanus, Kingston Peridot and Ross Cleveland all sank in freezing North Atlantic waters. Fifty-eight men from the city’s Hessle Road fishing community died. After the St Romanus and Kingston Peridot were reported missing, and with her own son on board a trawler north of Iceland, Bilocca started a petition demanding safer working conditions. The petition was soon circulating widely; hundreds of women collected thousands of signatures. As Brian W. Lavery notes in his detailed account of the ‘Headscarf Revolutionaries’, the Secretary of the Hull branch of the Transport and General Workers’ Union encouraged any men not at sea to assist the ‘fighting fishwives’—they had drawn more attention to the issue in a few days than the union had managed in years.a b c d e f Willetts, Chloe (19 August 2015). "Quest for change penned in memoir – Kapiti News – Kapiti News News". The New Zealand Herald . Retrieved 1 November 2017. Blenkinsop and three co-campaigners, led by Bilocca, rose to fame after the Triple Trawler Disaster of 1968 in which three trawlers, from the city’s Hessle Road fishing community, sank in as many weeks in atrocious North Atlantic seas. But at the exit, there were thousands waiting and cheering. A newspaper billboard read: ‘Big Lil Hits Town’.