The smart, adventurous, tough little sister is back in EnolaHolmes 2 with a new case to solve. There is a real moment of women's and labour rights history at its core.
Enola picked up a case of a missing working class woman whose disappearance might not have made it through the door of 221B Baker Street.
Enola's search for clues leads her through Victorian London's upper level of society. In London's brutal factories, working class women were powerless against greedy male managers more interested in the bottom line than worker safety. It's here that Thorne and Bradbeer introduce a historical figure into their mystery; knowing the history behind this character does make for a bit of aSPOILER.
The film describes the Matchgirls Strike at the Bryant and May match factory in Bow, London, as an action that was organised by Sarah Chapman, a real person.
According to a piece written for the People's History Museum by Sam Johnson, Chapman's great granddaughter, Chapman was born in East London's Mile End in the year 1862 and worked as a matchmaker by the age of 19. Neither Hidden Nor Condescended To: Overlooking Sarah Chapman was written by Dr Anna Robinson.
Chapman was one of the founding members of the Matchgirls Strike Committee, along with several other women. Chapman was elected to the Union Committee and was one of only 10 women to attend the International Trade Union Congress.
The Bryant and May match factory in Bow, East London, had poor working conditions for women and girls. These included extremely long working hours and measly pay, which was further reduced due to fines for small offenses like lateness, and having to pay for their own equipment.
An illustration of women making matches in a factory in London, England. Ca. 1871. Credit: Corbis via Getty Images
The workers were exposed to the health risks of working with white phosphorus when they dipped wooden matches in it. The most significant development was a painful type of necrosis. After the foreman declares that the character is typhus, the character is denied work. According to newspaper articles from the National Archive, factory owners William Bryant and Francis May concealed and suppressed cases of poisoning from the public.
Bryant and May were making a lot of money. According to The Matchgirls Memorial, a nonprofit organization raising awareness about the strike, a British socialist organisation held a meeting on June 15 where member Henry Hyde Champion revealed the staggering profits Bryant and May were making while their workers were on a pittance.
Members of the Matchmakers Union who went on strike at the Bryant and May's factory in London. Credit: Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Annie Besant, a women's rights activist, met with workers outside their workplace to hear their experiences of unrest in the factory, and published an article about it in The Link newspaper. Bryant and May tried to get the workers to deny the report.
The movement was sparked by the fact that one of the workers was fired. 1,400 women and girls walked out of the workplace on July 5, 1888, in protest of their dismissal.
A photomechanical reproduction of the Matchgirls Strike. Credit: SSPL / Getty Images
The Matchgirls Strike was a catalyst for the growth of the workers' rights movement. The strikeimproved their working conditions forever, according to the text at the end of the film.
The Matchgirls Strike Committee was formed after 200 women and girls walked to Annie Besant's office. The event saw a lot of press attention and Besant took 56 girls and women to the House of Commons.
All fines for workers to be abolished, all women who walked out to be rehired, the company supply of key tools like paint and brushes were some of the things that the Strike Committee and London Trades Council agreed to. Bryant and May took 10 years after the strike to ban the use of white phosphorous.
The trade union movement in Britain was affected by the action. Twelve women were elected to the Union of Women Matchmakers, including Sarah Chapman, Alice Francis, Mary Cummings, Kate Sclater, Mary Driscoll, and Jane Wakeling. Men would later be included in the union. After a rise in pay for workers, the London dock strike took place. The rise of trade union movements in Britain led to the creation of the Labour Party in 1900.
The Bryant and May match factory was the location of a blue plaque to commemorate the strike.
The blue plaque was installed in July. Credit: Carl Court / Getty Images
Descendants of the matchgirls took a photograph together on the day. Credit: Carl Court / Getty Images
You go. Sarah Chapman walked out of her job to start a workers' rights movement that would benefit people in the workplace for the rest of their lives.
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