Peterloo Massacre 1819
The
Industrial Revolution and resulting social and political reform was my
absolute favourite topic at school. I loved all the Factory Acts and
Mines Acts, rotten and pocket boroughs, the Chartists, Robert Owen,
Henry 'Orator' Hunt, the Peterloo Massacre, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the
Andover Scandal.... I could go on.
So imagine my sheer delight, when I found that my 4x great uncles, David Kineear, was involved in one of the big social movements of the age - the Eight Hour Day Movement in 1850s Australia. Admittedly I knew nothing about Australian organised labour movements in this period and was anxious to find out more.
So imagine my sheer delight, when I found that my 4x great uncles, David Kineear, was involved in one of the big social movements of the age - the Eight Hour Day Movement in 1850s Australia. Admittedly I knew nothing about Australian organised labour movements in this period and was anxious to find out more.
Chartist Rally in Rochdale
Emigrating to Australia
David
Kinnear was born around 1835 in Forfar in Scotland to Joseph Kinnear
and Ann Sturrock. He was the eldest of five children (his younger sister
Margaret was my 3 x great grandmother). When David was six in the 1841
Census the family were living in Forfar itself in South Halkerton where
his father was a Linen Hand Loom Weaver. By 1851 the family had moved to
South Muir where his father owned a ‘ferm’ with 5 acres and David
himself (aged 16) was working as a stone mason and gravel digger (quite
possibly in the Fyfe Quarry nearby).
Map of Forfarshire from 1859
In
1854 he emigrated to Australia. He departed from Liverpool on the ship
‘The Queen of the East’ with his maternal uncle, George Sturrock (aged
45 and a shoe maker) and his cousin Alexander, three years his senior
and also a stone mason. Their destination: Melbourne, the epi-centre of
the Victorian Gold Rush of the 1850s.
David's name on the Passenger List to Melbourne 1854
The Queen of the East's sister ship 'Queen of the South'
The
discovery of Gold in Victoria in 1851 sparked mass emigration, with
Melbourne becoming a boom town in this decade. Its population sky
rocketed between 1851 and 1854 when David arrived from 29,000 to a
whopping 123,000. A spralling tent city known as ‘Canvas Town’ was set
up in the south of Melbourne, filled with thousands of migrants hoping
to seek their fortune in the Gold Rush, soon became a kind of slum. By
1861, Melbourne was home to half a million people. It is clear, that
David’s skills as a stone mason were a useful commodity at this time.
A drawing of Canvas Town from the 1850s
In
1856, David was one of the stone masons working on the new Quadrangle
Building at the newly founded University of Melbourne. And on the April
21st 1856, he downed his tools and marched to Parliament Square in
protest along with his fellow workers and other members of the building
trade in the city. Their aim: an eight hour working day.
The Old Quad, University of Melbourne
Plaque at the University of Melbourne
History of the Eight Hour Movement
The
Eight Hour Movement had its origins in Industrial Britain. As far back
as 1810 the Welsh socialist reformer, Robert Owen, called for a ten hour
working day. In 1819 he spoke out in favour of the eight-hour working
day, coining the famous 888 slogan of "Eight hours' labour, Eight hours' recreation, Eight hours' rest".
Robert Owen (1771-1858)
Despite
Owen’s high profile and work in this area, working conditions during
the Industrial Revolution remained poor. The various factory acts passed
over the following decades sought to reform working conditions, but
even the Factory Act of 1850 allowed children to work 10 hour days (as
long as it wasn’t between 6pm and 6am). Wages were poor for factory
workers – around 15 shillings a week. Child workers could be strapped,
accidents common (40% of accident cases in Manchester Infirmary in 1833
were factory accidents) and workers shifts were commonly 12-14 hours a
day. Even by the 1850s, David was expected to be working 10 hour days,
six days a week as a stonemason.
Factory in 1850
Poor
working conditions were also combined in this period with a complete
lack of political representation for the common man. The Chartist
Movement was thus born in the 1830s complete with its People’s Charter
seeking amongst other things a vote for all men over 21 and a secret
ballot. The year after the People’s Charter had been published, a group
of several thousand chartists marched on Newport in a bid to free fellow
chartists who had been incarcerated in the Westgate Hotel. Twenty two
people were killed when troops opened fire on the demonstrators. Among
those present that day was one James Stephens. Having successfully
escaped to London, he befriended fellow trade-unionists working on the
new Houses of Parliament building. In 1853 he emigrated to Melbourne
where he headed up the reinstated Operative Masons' Society in 1855.
David Kinnear was among its members.
Newport Rising 1839
Due
to the massive expansion of Melbourne following the Gold Rush of 1851,
lots of new buildings were needed to be built, but skilled stonemasons
such as David were in short supply. This emboldened the trade-unionists
who saw an opportunity to improve their working conditions. The
Operative Masons’ Society, met with employers in 1855, and sought to
instigate an eight hour working day using ‘physical force' if necessary.
8 Hour Day Badge from Melbourne
Despite
militant language, the resulting demonstration in which David took part
on the 21st April 1856 was rather more peaceful. On the 'glorious 21
April' Stephens led this major demonstration, and wrote: 'It was a
burning hot day and I thought the occasion a good one, so I called upon
the men to follow me, to which they immediately consented, when I
marched them … to Parliament House, the men … dropping their tools and
joining the procession'. The government agreed to Stephen’s terms. As a
result of the march the eight hour day was rolled out in Melbourne with
no loss of pay. On Monday 12 May 1856 a celebratory march was held in
Melbourne involving some 700 people.
Drawing of the 8 Hour March in Melbourne 1856
8 Hour Day Banner - Melbourne, 1856
Legacy
The
instigation of the eight hour day in Melbourne had major consequences
for the lives of working people in Australia. It wasn’t straightforward
but continuing pressure from trade-unionists across the country over the
following decades led to the passing of the Eight Hours Act in 1916
enshrining the eight hour day in law for all citizens of the state of
Victoria. By the 1920s the eight hour working day was implemented
nationally.
Eight Hour Pioneers - Melbourne
As
for commemorations of David and his fellow marchers, an annual
celebratory march took place in the city right up until 1951. In 1903,
the year before David’s death, the Eight Hour Day Monument was unfurled
near Parliament House (it now stands near Melbourne Trades Hall were it
was relocated in 1923). The monument was funded by public subscriptions
and it is tempting to imagine that David Kinnear was one of the thousand
crowd members present at its unveiling. David’s name can be found on
the commemorative plaque for the ‘Eight Hour Pioneers’ located on the
Melbourne Trades Hall today.
8 Hour Monument - Melbourne
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