autumn I believe, the training ground of Everton FC. He was also belligerent and penny-pinching with his vessels. The murky story of his ships includes cases of scurvy â€“ which Bates blamed on the feeble constitution of black sailors â€“ and one case of cannibalism that was hushed up. Bates later defended himself in the House and forgave Plimsoll. Plimsoll was obliged to apologise a week later for his misconduct to the House, but he never apologised to Bates. Their hostility to each other rumbled on for a lifetime. I’m pleased to say that one member of an audience like this told me once his great-grandfather, a political rival in Plymouth, had been beaten up on the steps of the Guildhall by a gang of thugs employed byAnd a huge public demonstration was held in front of St George’s Hall in Liverpool. The villain of this piece may have been connected with Liverpool, but so too were many of the heroes and Plimsoll’s supporters.

Among those waving the banner for Plimsoll in a demonstration in the docklands was Annie Besant, here, [shows image on projection screen] a runaway vicar’s wife who later became President of the Indian National Congress. In her twenties she stood beside the sailors in the East India Docks and voted in support of Plimsoll. I include her partly because this was a fact about her life that was lost and I’m very pleased to have rediscovered it. She was later involved in the dock strike and the match girl strike but this