Headscarf Revolutionaries - Kingston-upon-Hull, UK - Murals on Waymarking.com

"On the corner of Pease Street and Anlaby Road in Hull, there is a vivid mural painted on the gable end of the Goodwin Community Hub. The port city’s coat of arms—three crowns, somewhat ironically—sits above scenes of women and men walking, eyes downcast, and of a single trawler ploughing its way through a roiling sea. The mural’s focal point, though, is the figure of a woman; her steely glare passes above the heads of any observers, from beneath a headscarf. Painted in 2016 by Mike Ervine and Kev Largey, the mural commemorates the Triple Trawler Tragedy of 1968 and the remarkable social movement led by Lillian ‘Big Lil’ Bilocca that sprang up in its wake. The movement may have been short-lived, but it bears important testament to the power of direct action and community organising.

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." link"target="_blank">link

The above website indicates that although a petition was signed by 10,000 people calling for safety improvements the women were widely criticised because at the time it was felt that women should not interfere in this male industry. This was despite the fact that a list of recommended safety improvements were all implemented

Lilian Bilocca was in fact blacklisted from working in the ports of Hull and although here MP raised this in Parliament no action was taken.

In the years following this event the fishing industry declined in Hull and the main dock closed and was infilled in the 1980's. Some people in the city blamed Lilian Bilocca for this decline, which in reality happened in other fishing ports in the UK.

In 2017 Hull became the European City of Culture for the year and Lilian's story was rightly remembered and honored with a play, a book and this mural.

City: Kingston-upon-Hull Location Name: Goodwin Community College Artist: Mike Ervine and Kev Largey Date: 2016 Media: Paint on brickwork Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

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