| Description | DOB: November 1891/1892
DOD: Unknown
She was born in Bolton and had three brothers and two sisters.
Her mother worked, doing the washing for other families, whereas her Irish father struggled with unemployment and keeping a job.
Before turning five, she joined St Peter and Paul’s Catholic Infant School.
She also attended a crowded Catholic school with predominantly pupil teachers- over fully qualified ones- and left it at 13.
After leaving school, she attended night schools and eventually at the Municipal School to complete millinery classes.
Her first employment was working at a stationer’s shop for a month, after which she faced limited options and had to join a mill, knotting fringes on bed covers.
Her next job after this was another mill, working as a ‘tenter’, a ‘cloth fettler’ and in the preparation department.
She had finally left the mill following the appointment to a post in the Weaver’s Association, a position that opened up as a result of the National Insurance Act of 1911.
As a part of the association, she worked in the insurance section and the actual trade union office itself, before being transferred to a clerkship in the Bolton Weavers’ Office.
From 1949 to 1961 she was the Secretary of the Bolton District Weavers’ and Winders’ Association, later becoming the President of the Bolton United Trades Council in 1956-57.
Her television interview with John Berger supplements the first 11 pages of this entry.
She mentioned the cotton industry in depth, discussing how it was often a family industry and that they accepted harsh standards with little protest, even during the First World War.
She wrote that her grandparents had emigrated from Ireland at the time of the potato famine.
When Indian tariffs were introduced on manufactured goods, Gandhi had personally visited Darwen and Bolton as a result of several appeals in 1931.
Alice was awarded an M.B.E. in 1951 for her trades union work, and was awarded an honorary MA in 1962 for her work in the W.E.A and on the Manchester University Joint Committee for Adult Education.
She joined a trades union at the age of 13, and was more vocal about taking complaints to them.
Although born in a mixed faith family, Alice grew up with a strong connection to Catholicism up until her father’s death, after which she joined the Labour Church.
Some of her favourite hobbies included attending the theatre and cycling.
This text, combining a book and television interview, consists of 58 typed pages, with the occasional written note.
Family, Cotton mills, Employment, Poverty, Religion, [Celebrations], [Alcoholism], Trades Union, Socialism.
Warning: Contains concerning language in reference to a “blackman” (p. 16/58) |