A nod at our neighbours (4): the Plaistow Land Grabbers - part 1

This is the first of a two-part post on a remarkable piece of direct action taken in the early years of the twentieth century by "The Plaistow Land Grabbers" to address the serious issue of unemployment in the borough of West Ham. The second part, to follow, looks at activities inspired by the Land Grabbers, at the time and subsequently. Their actions are largely forgotten today, but were an important chapter in the life of the developing and radical borough of West Ham.

These two posts are the culmination of a number of pieces of research undertaken by this site and contributors, Mark Gorman and Peter Williams and the active participation of modern day public space cultivators, such as the Abbey Gardens collective in Stratford and allotmenteers, Kevin and Elaine Fieldhouse, who currently tend some of the land taken over 110 years ago by the Land Grabbers.

West Ham had Britain's fastest growing population as the twentieth century dawned, and had already gained a reputation for political radicalism. The borough included the constituency of  the country's first socialist/labour MP - Kier Hardie, in 1892, and hosted the country's first socialist/labour local authority, for twelve months, six years later.

That was the backdrop to a dramatic piece of direct action taken by local unemployed people, in the borough, within a decade. This, is the story of the Plaistow Land Grabbers.

Iconic photo of the "Plaistow Landgrabbers",
 in the triangle Camp, July 1906. "Captain"
Cllr Ben Cunningham, front, far left.
"Organiser"/ "Minister of Agriculture"
Bill King, third from right.

There was a surge of unemployment in Britain in 1902, following demobilisation from the Boer War and the heavily industrialised and intensely populated borough was badly hit. The local Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF)actively began to campaign, door-to-door, against unemployment in the southern part of the borough - principally around Canning Town - by 1904.

Forest Gate resident, anarchist and prominent
anti-unemployment campaigner at this time,
Charles Mowbray

Open air meetings were held in The Grove, Stratford and in the Town Hall, addressed by, among others, the SDF leader, Henry Hyndman. Meanwhile, local anarchists - Charles Mowbray (see here for details), among them - were  agitating against unemployment in West Ham in December 1904, following the laying off of a large number of dockers, due to a protracted period of heavy fog on the river. Matters came to a head when protests against unemployment were held at local churches on Christmas Day that year, and the protestors were threatened with arrest.

The camp exercised the interest of
national publications, like The Sketch

In an attempt to diffuse the tension, the Liberal candidate, and later MP, for the Forest Gate Parliamentary seat, CFG Masterman (see here) met with Mowbray and others at the Liverpool Street hotel. Masterman noted, in passing,  that Mowbray insisted on keeping his overcoat on throughout the meeting, because he had sold or pawned his jacket because of his straightened financial circumstances.

The following year Mowbray and others demanded that the, by now, Municipal Alliance (a broad-based anti- socialist group) council met to discuss unemployment locally. The council rejected the request, so a meeting of 1,500 was organised inside Stratford Town Hall in August 1905, where it was said that the 12,000 local unemployed would not remain docile for much longer, if steps weren't taken to alleviate their position.

In October of that year, Mowbray addressed another meeting of 1,200 at Stratford Town Hall, where "songs, recitations and speeches were given." It was decided that 200 "heads of family" would march to West Ham Workhouse (located in Leytonstone) the following week, with Mowbray at its head. 

Mowbray said the intent was to tear down the gates and demand abolition of the Poor Law in the district and the introduction of directly employed labour by the local council.

The protests fizzled out, but the Municipal Alliance-dominated council became alarmed enough to establish a local Distress Committee. This established a farm colony at South Ockendon, Essex. None of these measures, however, achieved much due, in a large part, to the high number of casual labourers, especially in the docks.

It was an unhappy period for the Labour councillors, powerless after their recent electoral success.

Mowbray continued to agitate on the issue of unemployment in the area and in the following year was linking up with local Independent Labour Party (ILP) councillor, Harry Baldock - husband of local suffragette leader, Minnie (see here and here) - on the issue, in Canning Town.

Meanwhile, SDF-lead  unemployment agitation and campaigning in the north of England  (Levenshulme, Bradford, Salford and Leeds)resulted in the occupation of land locally, for short periods of time, to draw attention to the plight of the jobless.

A combination of this SDF action elsewhere, and the plight and agitation of unemployed workers in West Ham, inspired a local SDF plumber and councillor, Ben Cunningham, and 14 unemployed workers to march on a piece of council-owned, vacant land of approximately three acres, just south of the railway line between Upton Park and Plaistow, on 13 July 1906 - and occupy it.

Headlines from Stratford Express,
July 1906, where the Land Grabbers
are referred to as "Land Jumpers"

(According to Ancestry, Ben Cunningham seems likely to have been born in Croydon in 1860 and moved with his family to West Ham, as a young boy. He lived in Hermit Road, Canning Town, at the times of the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses - although in different houses: at 53, 85 and 67 respectively. He was a self-employed  plumber who had seven children and died in South East Essex in September 1937).

The East End Local Advertiser of 21 July 1906 had this to say:

"The plot temporarily in the hands of the out-of-works is bounded by Northern Road, St Mary's Road, Southern Road and Western Road and is commonly known as Gravel Fields or the Ballast Hole. Some twelve years ago it was accepted as a sand and gravel pit by the municipal authorities and when worked to the depth of 15ft - 20ft it was filled up with street sweepings and the like. This was completed some three or four years ago and since then it has been lying idle, although during the winter before last 500 unemployed were set tidying up the ground and were paid 9/6d each for two days work (ed: 47p, today, or approx £55, adjusted for inflation). The land will be useless for building purposes, as make good of this sort takes about ten years to settle down and become solid."

This land is today partially occupied by Southern Road Primary school and the St Mary's allotments. It had been the subject of an unsuccessful motion at West Ham Council urging the council to allow the local Unemployed Aid Society to have access to it, for allotment-type purposes,  the night before the occupation.

Rare humour - and almost sympathy -
from the Stratford Express, 28 July 1906

By the end of 13 July 1906, 20 unemployed workers were cultivating the land on the site, which was soon known as the Triangle Camp; by Monday, Savoy cabbages had been planted. The occupiers received thousands of young plants and seeds from supporters. Broccoli, and celery were soon added to the crops under cultivation.

The camp was well enough established to have
post-cards of it reproduced - see above and
below - both appearing to show the same
sign-writer at work!

By the Tuesday most of the planting had been completed and the men busied themselves watering the dried ground. Donations,  not just of plants - but food and money too - began to flow in, from well wishers. A Joseph Terrett donated a lamb, which the men dined on, accompanied by peas from another donor. (Terrett seems likely, according to Ancestry, to have been a 33-year old butcher, then living in Park Road, Plaistow).

The same evening some of the men's wives joined the campers and entertainment was provided, via a mouth organ and a wind-up gramophone.

Water supply proved to be a problem for the Land Grabbers, until someone discovered a disused well near the site. This was successfully reactivated, to such an extent that one of the campers was expelled from it for drinking "somewhat liberally" from it!

Ben Cunningham was appointed "Captain" of the occupation and Bill King, "Minister of Agriculture". King decided the land should be divided into four triangular plots, and the site soon gained the name The Triangle Camp. A "headquarters" was established on the site, built from canvas and wooden poles, and was soon dubbed The Triangle Hotel.

Managed by Cunningham, it provided over -night accommodation and dining space for the squatters/land-grabbers. A sign was erected, reading "You are requested not to spit on the floor of this hotel".

Sympathetic national news coverage from
 The Graphic, 21 July 1906 - with the heading
"Every man his own landowner" -
The Plaistow Land-Grabbers at work.

On the wall at the rear of the plot, someone had painted in large white letters "What Will The Harvest Be?" - see photo of the land-grabbers.  Ben Cunningham told the Stratford Express that later someone had later added, perhaps intended tongue in cheek, but what turned out to be prophetic,  the words "One month's hard".

Collections were held to support the camp and its occupants, with one collector, 60-year old labourer, James Cleaver, arrested for begging. It seems likely, according to Ancestry, that he was a bricklayers' labourer, then living at Burnham Street, by the Victoria Docks.

One of the occupiers, named Francis, turned an old cigar box into a collecting box and used the money donated by the curious and local supporters to buy bread and cheese for the Grabbers. The Land-Grabbers also received financial help from William Pooley, a local businessman, who became the leading figure in the “Back to the Land” campaign (see the second part of this post for a full consideration of his role).
 

West Ham's mayor, Alderman Byford, wrote to Cunningham, telling him that, as a magistrate, he was going to take action against the illegal occupation. Cunningham wrote back: "With all due respect to your worship's opinion, I don't consider that I have acted illegally in taking possession of disused land which rightfully belongs to the people."

Land Grabbers remembered today in Abbey
Gardens, Stratford.  For story, see next episode

On 26 July a large body of police accompanied council highways official George Blain to reclaim the land. Blain, himself, was not unsympathetic to the occupation and is said to have donated money to support them. The Land Grabbers were encouraged by a crowd of between 3,000 and 5,000. The Western Times reported that "there was no disorder, and the utmost good feeling prevailed." Blain and company beat a strategic retreat.

The crowd was addressed by French syndicalist Mde Sorgue and Tottenham SDF member Herbert Thomas, who supported the action and exhorted revolution. Others on the left, including local SDF MP, Will Thorne and luminaries such as George Bernard Shaw, however, distanced themselves from the occupation.

Later in July Justice Bricknell granted the Mayor writs against the Land Grabbers and Blain returned to the camp, accompanied by several police, and began to clear it. Cunningham refused to go peacefully, and was carried off.

The "hotel", which included the squatters bedding, was pulled down.

A second group of squatters then occupied the site, but were driven off by the police, later that night
.

Cunningham and others returned to the camp on 4 September, but were denied entry by up to 120 police and 30 council officials. Ben Cunningham was subsequently imprisoned for contempt of court and stayed in Brixton until he apologised for his actions, on 11 October. Two others were charged with offences connected to the 4 September return.

George Pollard, a 35 year old gardener, from Plaistow was accused of assaulting George Blain. He refused to take his hat off when he appeared in court and the police removed it for him. He told the court he was an anarchist-communist and had been looking for work from morning until night, without success. He had six children and told the court he could not get relief payments from the council, saying: "While we have capitalists, be they Christian or otherwise, we are bound to have distress."

Pollard was sentenced to six weeks, with hard labour (oh - the irony, work at last!).

Thomas Evans was charged with assaulting Alfred Thomas Taylor, a West Ham Council official on 4 September and was fined twenty shillings, or 14 days imprisonment in default of payment.

Land Grabbers slogan recalled on
walls of Abbey Road Gardens, today

The magazine, Literary Review, reported on the "anarchist heroes", commenting: "These are the kind of heroes who are supposed by numerous sentimental dreamers in this country to be heralding the social revolution."

Although notionally "defeated" in their attempts to relieve distress through the Triangle Camp, the Land Grabbers did not quietly fade away - but provided inspiration for a new movement - see the next post.

Ben Cunningham  was disowned by the SDF for his actions and was de-selected as its candidate for council election.  He stood as an independent and came a poor third in the election later that year - apparently never again surfacing in formal local politics.

The extent of the scourge of unemployment in the area at the time was illustrated by the fact that  over 1,000 local residents emigrated to Canada and New Zealand, the following year - on government advice.

The area of Triangle Camp, itself, was approved by West Ham Council to become council allotments, in 1910, after the Labour Group had taken control of the council.

We visited the site, now known as the St Mary's allotment site, recently and it remains a successful, thriving allotment site. There are around 130 plots on the site, with a waiting list of the same number again.  It is the most popular in Newham, because of its position. Also, somewhat surprisingly because of the richness of its soil. Given the fact that the Land Grabbers moved onto essentially a council dump, the rich state of the soil today is a testament to the hard work put in by a century of allotmenteers.

St Mary's allotments today, thriving over
a century after the Land Grabbers took occupation

The plot holders are very diverse - almost mirroring the racial composition of the borough.  Those with South Asian and Caribbean heritage have done a fine job in cultivating crops from their countries of heritage and origin. So, a fine array of squashes, together with pumpkin and okra are to be found, among many other crops unfamiliar to the traditional English garden.

There are schools on three sides of the allotments: Southern Road Primary, Plaistow Primary and Lister Secondary. 

There was an open day when we visited and over 50 people attended, the main scene of the activity took place on the position of the Triangle Hotel - see photo below. The allotments are run by a committee, featuring the very convivial Elaine and Kevin Fieldhouse.

Site of the Triaingle Hotel today - equally
welcoming on the open day on which
we recently visited

 Footnote We are indebted to Nick Heath from the www.LibCom.org blog and Neil Fraser, author of Over the Border: the Other East End, Function Books, pub 2012 £9.99 for much of the information in this article. Other sources include Ancestry.com and the www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.

Forest Gate and Irish Independence

From its mid nineteenth century development into a busy metropolitan suburb, Forest Gate has embraced a thriving Irish community (see here for details of early Irish settlements in the area and here for details of early Irish immigrant-inspired Catholic education in Forest Gate).

So, perhaps it comes as no surprise that there was considerable activity in the district campaigning for Irish independence before the creation and recognition of the Republic, in the 1920s.

Forest Gate featured in three fairly dramatic, and probably linked, events around the time of the creation of the Irish Free State in 1921. It is a fascinating tale, revealed here for the first time.

All we can do in this article is to set out the facts, and surmise on the connections and importance of the events.

Some background

The British general election of October 1918 gave Sinn Fein an overwhelming mandate for independence in Ireland, but the British government refused to acknowledge, or act upon this democratic expression. This was not a new turn of events for the Irish people: from 1870 - 1918 those demanding self-determination had held four-fifths of all Irish Parliamentary seats, but to no independence avail.

The Irish MPs elected in 1918 responded in January 1919 by making a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), and establishing the Dail Eireann in Dublin. London would not even negotiate with the body and 34 elected MPs were duly arrested. Finally, in September 1919, London declared the Dial "a dangerous body" and declared it outlawed.

The British government sent over 40,000 troops in to "quell" the Irish, and the Dail went underground. A bitter guerrilla war ensued.

What were the Irish, in Ireland and England to do?

This is where Forest Gate's role emerges.

1. Home of a publisher for "The Rebels"

The Dail responded by publishing an Address to Representatives of Foreign Nations in January 1921 (see photo of cover, below). It was a well produced and tightly argued 40 page foolscap publication, signed by all independence-supporting Irish MPs and was clearly aimed at winning at least a diplomatic war, in an effort to gain independence for their country.

Cover of the Address to
Representatives of Foreign Nations

And imprint, showing it to have been produced
 "On Irish Paper", at the Woodgrange Press,
 (98 Woodgrange Road) Forest Gate

Nothing unusual in this, except for the imprint, at the back of the publication - see above. It was printed by the Woodgrange Press on Woodgrange Road. Quite bizarre.

A 1920's photograph of the
 outside of the Woodgrange
 Press, 98 Woodgrange
 Road - now a mosque

Quite how extraordinary can be gauged by the fact that the owner of this press was Charles Ward, a prominent local Tory (see here for details). He was, in fact, the leading light of the Municipal Alliance, a front for the Conservative party on West Ham council. Charles can be found in the pages of the Stratford Express during the three years effectively covered by this story banging on endlessly about how the Council was wasting money on providing services for poor people - but not once did he mention Ireland in his perorations.

Charles Ward, prominent
 Forest Gate Tory, owner
of Woodgrange Press
 and publisher of
 Irish rebel literature

This was not an isolated printing job for Irish Rebels by the Woodgrange Press. Peter Berresford Ellis, a prominent Irish historian has noted in his history of the Irish Self Determination League (see below and footnote for more details):

In March 1919 the Irish Self Determination League of Great Britain (ISDL) came into being. Its Constitution and Rules were published by the Woodgrange Press, 1920, who also published at the same time a report for the First Annual Delegate Conference Agenda.

We can find no explanation for Ward's role in publishing the rebel material, other than a purely commercial one.  He was later made a freeman of the borough of West Ham.

2. A dedicated local Irish community

The ISDL, mentioned by Berresford, above, reached a maximum membership in Great Britain of almost 30,000, in 1921. While its offices in London (Shaftesbury Avenue) were the focus of police raids and general harassment, the organisation functioned with frequent public meetings.

In March 1921, its London District Committee launched a monthly journal, called the Irish Exile (not printed by the Woodgrange Press). It had a circulation of around 10,000 copies. 

Masthead of The Irish Exile

Reading it today, it bears all the hallmarks of many rather tedious and worthy political publications currently produced. But, each surviving edition (and the publication pattern was pretty sporadic) gave details of what the ISDL's 40 branches' were up to.

The Forest Gate branch's report, however, only appeared once: in the first edition (March 1921). It is reproduced below. It is a brief, but remarkable account. It was by far the most explicit of all the branch reports in terms of details of membership, activities and finances coming from any branch published in any on the nine editions of the paper.  

The branch boasted a frankly intense level of local activity and involvement, with a huge local membership of 324:

March 1921 edition of Irish Exile, with claims of a huge Forest Gate membership of ISDL

We can only surmise that the scale of activity described attracted police attention, and resulted in the branch, if not going under cover, in certainly being more publicly discrete about future events.

The branch showed its presence in the Irish Exile in much more benign ways in future editions of the paper. The December 1921 edition, for example, featured a photograph of a victorious women's sporting team! (see below).

Altogether less controversial activities reported
 from the Forest Gate branch of the ISDL, in
 the second edition of The Irish Exile

The only other specific Forest Gate mentions came in the February 1922 edition, when details were given of three Forest Gate people selling tickets for an Irish event, and two mentions of Irish Language classes being held in Earlham Grove.  These presumably took place in Earlham Hall, located opposite the home of Francis John Fitzgerald - see below.  This ties in neatly with Forest Gate's most intriguing part in Irish nationalist activity, at this time.

3. Forest Gate and gun running

Early in December 1921, Francis John Fitzgerald, a 38-year old chemist of 128 Earlham Grove, was arrested at Euston while seeing his sister off on the Irish Mail. Along with five others, he was charged with stealing and/or receiving a cache of machine guns and hand grenades, stolen from Irish Guards barracks at Chelsea and Windsor, earlier that month. 

128 Earlham Grove, home of Fitzgerald
 and location of the after gun theft "celebration"

The cache of arms was later discovered and amounted to 26 assorted guns (machine guns and rifles) and a quantity of bullets.

On his first court appearance Fitzgerald was released on bail, on sums of £500 for each of the two charges he faced.

It seems the theft was an inside job, with an Irish Guardsman also charged. Fitzgerald was said to have provided the cars (hired from Leytonstone taxi firms) in which the others went to Chelsea and Windsor and stole the guns.

After the raid at Windsor they all came back to Earlham Grove, via a West End drinking club, to celebrate.

The police found large sums of money and ISDL literature at the lodgings of one of the other accused. This was the moment when the Anglo-Irish Treaty (December 1921) was signed, ending British rule in 26 counties of Ireland. 

It seems likely that guns were being assembled in anticipation of  the outbreak of fighting between the republicans (who didn't accept the 26-county compromise adopted) and the new Irish government. 

Politics intervened, with the Home Secretary stepping in to obtain the release of two of the defendants (who proclaimed themselves political prisoners) and their return to Ireland. In early 1922 the British government released all Irish political prisoners, under agreements made within the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

Fitzgerald was, however, discharged for lack of direct evidence linking him with the theft.  

His "story" was bizarre, by any standards, and is worth airing.

Fitzgerald's case was that he was drinking in the Forty-Three Club, in Star Street (just off Edgware Road) between two and three in the morning immediately after the raids on the barracks. 

At this point the men (who, unbeknown to him, apparently, were the gun thieves) came in. He ordered a taxi, from a firm in Leytonstone that he knew and took the men back to Earlham Grove "for some bottles of wine". The men left his house, suitably refreshed, at 6 a.m. later that day.

According to press reports of the trial, on 24 December 1921 (see below for reproduction from Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer):

Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer,
 24 December 1921, with Fitzgerald's "defence"

Fitzgerald went on to say in the statement that it might seem strange conduct on his part associating with and giving refreshments to people who were strangers to him, but that it was a usual thing for him when he had a few drinks.

 The Magistrate decided that the evidence was not sufficient and discharged Fitzgerald.

Interestingly, although Fitzgerald's story was widely reported in the British press at the time; almost all references giving his full address, the Stratford Express (Forest Gate's only local newspaper, at the time) chose not to cover it, at all.

So, three quite extraordinary events occurred, closely linking Forest Gate with the ISDL and the struggles for Irish independence in 1921, with no apparent connection.

Except, Francis John Fitzgerald was the brother of Sinn Fein's propaganda chief, at the time (see below and the next blog on this site for very full details). So, how about this for a link between the three events?

Fitzgerald, a keen republican, was a major force in the extremely active Forest Gate ISDL branch, and popped round to his local printer - on Woodgrange Road - to get ISDL and other similar literature printed.

His activism was such that he was in some ways behind the gun raids on the barracks and by pre-arrangement to met the raiders at a club in the West End, to get a report back on the success or otherwise of the raid. Satisfied that all had gone well, he brought the raiders back to Forest Gate to celebrate?

Not a ridiculous theory, but there is no firm evidence to link the three Forest Gate episodes.

4. Curiouser and curiouser

Although the case against Fitzgerald was discharged in December 1921, when that against the others accused came to the Old Bailey in January 1922, his "innocence" was more than called into question by them.

Roche, the Irish Guards sergeant and the inside man on the arms raid, pleaded guilty and became a prosecution witness in the case. His evidence apparently was not made available to the police court that had discharged Fitzgerald in December 1921 (Portsmouth Evening News, 21/02/1922). 

He stated that Fitzgerald had provided 'an open touring car', which picked up Roche and the other three at Marble Arch, drove them to Windsor Barracks where they stole the guns, then back to the 43 Club, then on to Fitzgerald's employer's factory in Stratford, and then to Earlham Grove (Scotsman, 18/01/1922). The prosecution stated that the presumption was that the car which took them all back to Stratford was carrying the guns from the Windsor raid. 

Fitzgerald, who had always described as "a chemist",  was presumably an industrial one, working (as employee - as suggested here - or owner - see later) in one of Stratford's many chemical works. This claimed visit to the factory makes more intriguing the evidence provided by the police that the notebook owned by Hogan - another of the accused (who proclaimed himself an IRA commandant), included notes on chemicals which could be used to make explosives (Scotsman, 18/01/1922).

Roche's evidence also stated that Fitzgerald's brother was 'the propaganda agent of Sinn Fein' - see next blog for full details (Nottingham Evening Post, 28/01/1922), which makes more interesting an exchange which took place in the House of Commons on 14 February 1922. 

Winston Churchill was then Secretary for the Colonies in the government - and so responsible for answering parliamentary questions about Ireland. There was a series of questions about the role of a "Captain Fitzgerald" in transferring guns between British soldiers and the Provisional Government of Ireland, and whether he was acting on behalf of the Irish Provisional Government or the IRA. Churchill was uncharacteristically coy, or evasive, in his answers.The last which was particularly interesting:

Lieut-Colonel Croft: Had Captain Fitzgerald any thing to do, or was he suspected of having anything to do, with the stealing of machine-guns and ammunition from the barracks of the Guards?

Mr Churchill: How can I answer a question like that? 

It is not clear whether this "Captain Fitzgerald" was, in fact, the brother of Francis Fitzgerald of Earlham Grove, but it seems very likely.

On the one hand, Fitzgerald is a fairly common Irish name, and so it could just be a co-incidence, but on the other - we know that Francis Fitzgerald's brother was "a propaganda agent of Sinn Fein" and the question and answer quoted above point in the direction of an apparent connection at least being raised.

So, were questions raised in the House about Fitzgerald's brother? We assume we will never know for sure.

What we do know, however, was that his confirmed brother was a very interesting character - see the next blog.

Francis, himself, had clearly had a narrow escape from imprisonment with his bizarre court story in December 1921, but that did not curtail his rebel ardor or actions

An article in the Scotsman of 28 August 1922, entitled 'Arms for Ireland: Scotland Yard and Stratford Raid'described a raid by Special Branch detectives on a warehouse in Union Street Stratford. Their haul was boxes full of Hotchkiss machine guns. 

A copy of the article is reproduced below, but its contents are so extraordinary, that we transcribe them below the cutting:

The Scotsman,
28 August 1922

Arms for Ireland 

Scotland Yard and Stratford raid 

The surprise police raid in Union Street, Stratford, London, when a number of boxes containing machine guns were seized, was the result, a representative of the Press Association has been informed of certain information which came into the possession of the Special Branch of Scotland Yard a few days ago.

The information disclosed the fact that something of importance would be found at a certain address. Careful watch was kept on the place for a time in the hope that the person who had deposited the stores would visit it, but, as he did not do so, the police decided to enter. For some time past a close watch has been kept by the police on all ships leaving the London docks as it was known there was an intention to ship arms to Ireland.

No arrest has yet been made in connection with the discovery of the machine guns, but the police are following up their enquiries.

 Irishman's explanation

There was much discussion in Irish circles in London on Saturday as to the raid which took place at the warehouse in Stratford. Five Hotchkiss guns were found and taken away. Mr Francis W Fitzgerald who owns the warehouse concerned and lives in Earlham Grove is a brother of Mr Desmond Fitzgerald, Minister of Publicity to the Irish provisional Government.

Speaking to the Press Association representative on Saturday, Mr Fitzgerald denied that there was anything sinister about the finding of guns on the premises. He admitted he was keenly interested in Irish affairs, but was not active in any way.
The suggestion that the guns were intended for use in this country, he asserted firmly, was a ridiculous one. "I was simply storing the guns", he continued. "I did not buy them, these Hotchkiss guns were perfectly new and in their original cases. They belong to a city merchant who bought them under licence in an open way.

The guns cost roughly £1,000. I told him that in my opinion, the guns would be bought by the Irish Free State army, and he secured them on my recommendation. Lately all members of the armaments ring have been buying in their own makes of guns and revolvers surplus to military requirements with the object of getting everything in their hands.

Armament firms are opening offices in Ireland with a view to doing business with the Free State Army. The man who bought the five Hotchkiss guns was going to negotiate with a view to a deal with the Free State Government.

"The guns were loaded to a van in Charing Cross Road on Thursday evening. On Friday I saw detectives watching. I telephoned Scotland Yard and the guns were taken away. The whole thing was just a commercial deal and quite a legitimate proceeding."

So, another bizarre story from Fitzgerald, attempting to explain away a guns cache he was storing, that does not stack up with his previous activity.  As far as we can see the story ended there, and Fitzgerald wasn't prosecuted.

Quite what happened to Fitzgerald, we do not know.  He may deserve a footnote as a brave Irish patriot, if a full story of the ISDL is ever published.

Footnotes

1. Huge thanks to Mark Gorman for pointing us in the direction of information in this post, and digging around so assiduously.

2. Much of the information on the ISDL, who provide a central and linking theme to these Forest Gate activities, comes from a brief history of the group, written by Peter Berresford Ellis and can be found here. 

Interestingly, he ends his article with a plea for a fuller history to be written: "The story of the ISDL is an essential history waiting to be produced." Perhaps we will have to await its publication to see whether the three bits of the Forest Gate story are linked in the way we posit, above, and Fitzgerald can claim his role as an English-based Irish freedom fighter.

Charles Ward: Forest Gate designer, printer and politician

Newham Council's archives host a collection of original drawings, samples and commercial artwork of Charles Henry Ward, a local designer, printer - and later politician. They constitute the samples book and folio of a fine Forest Gate art-nouveau craftsman.

Self-portrait cartoon of Ward,
perhaps reflecting how he saw
himself, as a leader/Leo

Some of his splendid work would have added considerable panache to the promotional material of many a local and national business, in an era when all artwork was hand crafted - before computer software made us all instant (and usually poor) designers.

Charles was, additionally, a local politician of some significance, eventually becoming a Freeman of the Borough of West Ham. What follows is a brief account of his work and public service, pieced together from a number of sources.  We would be delighted to hear from any of his descendants, with whom it would be great to share more information about him.

Charles was born in Walworth, South London in 1874, the son of Frederick, a print machine manager, whom he followed into "the print". He was indentured as a compositor's apprentice to T Scott, in South East London in the late 1880s.

By the end of his apprenticeship - the quality of his work was being recognised by the professional press, for its "excellent workmanship".


Attracting favourable attention
from printing trade press, 1890's

Ward later moved to Forest Gate, and by the time of the 1901 census  was living in Thompson Road, West Ham, where he was described as an overseer print compositor.

It would appear that he became a business partner of a Mr Whiteway and they established a printing company at 98 Woodgrange Road, which designed and produced work, of a high standard for local and national businesses and organisations.


Letterhead, of the Ward, Whiteway partnership
 and the local papers  they produced, dated 1890s

Well-designed promotional literature,
when still in partnership with Whiteway

Ward later became the sole proprietor of the company. Those premises are now the Jamia Darussunah mosque(see photographs, below).


Poor reproduction of photo
of Ward's business premises
at 98 Woodgrange Road (undated)

The business premises today
- a local mosque

In addition to the jobbing printing work, as the letterhead indicates, the company produced a couple of local newspapers, the Forest Gate Gazette and West Ham Herald. They also had a branch office at 190 Fleet Street, which presumably was used for copy gathering from agencies.  Unfortunately, the only publicly available copies of these publications is in the National Library of Australia!

What follows is a selection of some of Ward's artwork held in Newham archives - to whom thanks are given for being able to access the material.

Much of it consisted of what would normally be mundane work for a local jobbing printer - business cards and stationery, letterheads, invitation cards, adverts etc for local traders - but incorporated unusually high design standards of design for such a press.


Local advertising literature - better
than a bog standard leaflet! (1)

Local advertising literature - better
than a bog standard leaflet! (2)

 He also did some high quality programme-type work for local entertainment venues, including the Forest Gate School of Music  in Earlham Grove (see here for full details of this innovative organisation).


Forest Gate School of
Music party programme

School of Music social soiree
programme, 1899

Well designed tickets for small local event

Programme, for similar event

One of Ward's less successful designs,
 perhaps.  Suggesting he was promoting
 the activities of a Raper and Lothier!

Ward's reputation and quality of work was such that, although operating a relatively small local printers' business, he was commissioned to produce material for a far wider range of clients, in London and elsewhere in the country - some for high profile and high status organisations, as the following selection indicates:


Reputation and work beyond Forest Gate (1)

Reputation and work beyond Forest Gate (2)



Reputation and work beyond Forest Gate (3)

Reputation and work beyond Forest Gate (4)

The innovative company not only produced materials for others, but was an early developer of greetings cards, which it published under its own imprint.

The medium is the message,
some years before Marshall McLuhan!

Assorted Christmas cards - 6 a penny!

Early producers of greetings cards

And blotting paper!

Possibly the Victorian world's
most stylish jam jar cover labels

The materials, unfortunately, are undated, so it is difficult to track the progress of his artistic development.

By 1911 he had moved, with his family, to 26 Clova Road - one of the more salubrious roads in Forest Gate (see photo of the house, today - below), and the company was  transformed into a limited company, the Woodgrange Press, in 1913.

26 Clova Road, Ward's
house, post 1911

It is unclear when it moved a little further up Woodgrange Road to the rather splendid Art Deco building, next to Wanstead Park station - but presumably in the 1930's. The company continued trading there until 1991, when it was dissolved. The lovely building (see below) was knocked down in 2008 to make way for Raymond Chadburn House, which clumsily attempts to incorporate elements of the former Eagle and Child pub into a block of flats.


Art deco print works on Woodgrange
Road, into which Ward and Co moved,
probably in 1930s. Demolished in 2002.
Thanks to Carol Price, for the photo.

We do not know what kind of World War 1 Charles Ward had, but he turned to local politics at the onset of peace and was elected, briefly, as a West Ham Councillor in 1919.  He was re-elected in 1925, for at least a further 20 years.


Charles Ward, 1926

He was a member of the Municipal Alliance, the name under which Conservatives stood in local elections in West Ham, at the time - perhaps not surprising for a small businessman seeking election to an overwhelmingly Labour local authority in East London.

One of the issues that seriously divided the Labour Party and Municipal Alliance on the local council was their attitude to poor relief (over which local authorities had a large say).

The early 1920s saw a great deal of local distress and unemployment in East London, which councils were charged with addressing. This put huge pressure on their budgets, because the rates' yield was low and the demand for poor relief high.

There was a requirement on councils, from the central government, to 'balance the books' a near -impossible task, without punishing the poor, by reducing council staff wages and cutting the dole to local unemployed people.

Some councils, most notably Poplar, under George Lansbury, fiercely resisted these demands, and were indeed jailed for their civil disobedience in doing so.

There were pressures to resist in a similar fashion in adjacent West Ham.

In 1921, for example, the Minister of Health, Sir William Joynson-Hicks said, while struggling with the Poplar Council rebellion that:  "Poplarism is an infectious disease. The infection is already obvious in London Unions, such as Bermondsey and West Ham".

The Municipal Alliance, representing the interest of business ratepayers and the more prosperous of West Ham was fiercely opposed to the kind of civil disobedience being undertaken by Poplar Council, and by implication and spread of it to West Ham.

Charles Ward was very explicit in this opposition, when in an election meeting in 1922 he said "The Municipal Alliance does not believe in doles, and if the candidates were returned, they would do their best to stop this out-going of public funds".
 
Reactionary attitudes like this almost sounded the death knoll for the Alliance in West Ham, and Labour almost obliterated it at the election (Labour 18 seats, Municipal Alliance 6). Ward, however, survived, representing the Forest Gate ward, the most prosperous in borough, for many years.

In 1925 West Ham councillors and Poor Law Guardians were summoned to the Ministry of Health, to account for the £1.8m deficit they had run up on the borough's poor relief account. Ward was a member of the delegation that met the then Minister of Health, Neville Chamberlain.


Ward, second right, at the delegation
to the Ministry of Health, 1925

An Evening News cartoon,
lampooning the Municipal Alliance
attitude to relieving poverty in West Ham

It is unclear what his role, or contribution at the meeting, was as he was opposed to the existence of the deficit - as shown in the quote from his 1922 speech, above.

One consequence of the meeting was, however, that the Board of Guardians was removed from office by Chamberlain, the following year, for having defied his edict to move towards the elimination of the deficit. We will return to this affair in a later post.


No money for poverty relief,
but some for a silver spade
presented to Ward in 1931,
when flood relief work started
on the River Lea

Charles Ward, despite his contrary opinion, remained on the Council at least until 1945, when he was granted Freedom of the Borough, "in recognition of his distinguished local public service". We have almost no further details of Ward and his work, unfortunately.

Certificate commemorating
Charles Ward's Freedom
of the borough of West Ham, 1945

We do know, however, that he published a book on West Ham around the year 1923, of which we have been unable to obtain a copy from any library, or on-line source. According to an oral history interview, long-time Newham councillor Arthur Edwards gave to Eastside Community Heritage a decade or so ago, this book was regarded for many a year as the definitive book on the area, being "historically and socially accurate".

And finally .. probably Charles Ward's longest lasting tribute to the area he did business in and represented on West Ham Council:

We would love to hear from anyone who may have access to Ward's book or any more details of the life of the fascinating local character and gifted graphic artist.