Clarence Austin - The Photographer and the Bridport Wildcat Women, by Carlos Guarita
Book published by Just Press in 2015, 50 pages. Slim paperback (N7348)
Brand New Book
Over a century ago women workers in Gundry's net and rope factory in the small town of Bridport, Dorset staged a wildcat strike. They picketed the factory. They marched round the streets singing suffragette songs. They refused arbitration by the local Tory MP, and the dispute had to be settled by a trade union official from London.Like much popular history, this would all be forgotten except that a young photographer Clarence Henry Austin was there to record the scenes. Original research has unearthed new material about this unknown but gifted early documentary photographer, his historic pictures and his untimely end...