Meeting 8 November - Dr Brian W. Lavery, 'The Headscarf Revolutionaries: Lillian Bilocca & the Hull Triple-Trawler Disaster

In the 'Dark Winter' of 1968, fifty-eight Hull trawlermen lost their lives when three ships - the St Romanus, Kingston Peridot and Ross Cleveland - sank in as many weeks. The sole survivor of the disaster, Harry Eddom, watched two shipmates die in a liferaft before being washed ashore and spending two days fighting for his life in Arctic wastes of northern Iceland. The Triple Trawler Disaster wiped Vietnam from the world's front pages and sparked an uprising that took on the Establishment and won. No longer would the fishwives stand by and watch the industry that provided their livelihood kill their men. Despite death threats, violence, blacklisting and media abuse, the women of Hessle Road, led by Mrs Lillian 'Big Lil' Bilocca, fought for their men and changed the most dangerous industry on earth – but all at great personal cost.

A Glaswegian by birth, journalist, academic and writer Brian W. Lavery has lived in Hull for over thirty years. His much-acclaimed book The Headscarf Revolutionaries is based on his Ph.D. research at the University of Hull. 

All welcome! Join at any meeting. £15 p.a. 

Venue: Church Room, Magdalen Gate, Hedon HU12 8JP, 7.30 p.m.

For more information: contact hedon.history@gmail.com 

COMING NEXT:

2016

8 November: Dr Brian Lavery, 'The Headscarf Revolutionaries: Lillian Bilocca & the Hull Triple-Trawler Tragedy
13 December: Annual Xmas dinner, Kingston Theatre Hotel, Hull

2017

10 January: Kath & Clive Richardson, 'Lest We Forget'

14 February: Tony Hay, 'The History of the Church of SS Mary and Joseph, Hedon and the Holderness Mission'
14 March: Dr Alec Gill MBE, 'Amy Johnson: Hessle Road Tomboy'
11 April: TBC
9 May: Valerie Wood, 'My Holderness'