An 11-year-old chimney sweep whose demise after getting caught in a flue led to a change in Victorian youngster labour legal guidelines is to grow to be the youngest British individual to be honoured with an official blue plaque.
George Brewster, a “climbing boy”, died in 1875 after getting jammed whereas cleansing the within of a chimney on the County Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Fulbourn close to Cambridge.
In accordance with a up to date report within the Cambridge Impartial Information, George was instructed by the grasp sweeper, William Wyer, to take away his garments and enter a flue measuring 12in by 7.5in. Fifteen minutes after starting work, George turned caught. A wall was demolished in efforts to rescue him, however he died shortly after being pulled out. Wyer was later sentenced to 6 months arduous labour for manslaughter.
George was the final climbing boy to die in England after the seventh earl of Shaftesbury learn an account of an inquest into his demise and vowed to resume makes an attempt to alter the legislation. The earl had campaigned for 35 years to outlaw the usage of kids to wash chimneys however the observe continued.
In September 1875, seven months after George’s demise, an act of parliament banning the usage of climbing boys was handed. The brand new legislation heralded the top of kid labour practices in different industries equivalent to farming, mining and manufacturing unit manufacturing. 4 years later, in 1880, one other act of parliament made college attendance obligatory, reworking the lives of hundreds of thousands of youngsters.
The blue plaque commemorating George’s life shall be unveiled on 11 February, the a hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his demise. The positioning of the Victorian psychiatric hospital is now house to CamLIFE, a campus of scientific labs and workplaces.
The contribution George made to youngster employment legal guidelines was uncovered by Joanna Hudson, who stumbled throughout a point out of him in 2019 and campaigned to honour his legacy.
She stated George was a “seemingly insignificant 11-year-old boy, who died not knowing that he changed the lives of thousands of children across the land – a story of huge historical significance, for not only Cambridgeshire, but the whole country”.
She added: “Every child should know this boy’s name, as he represents the countless children who were victims of greed and cruelty in the Victorian era, exploited by those who valued profit over their welfare … Today offers a powerful reminder of how far we have come since those dark days.”
Hudson is elevating funds for a stone for George’s unmarked grave in an area cemetery and a commemorative statue in Cambridge.
Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, the twelfth earl of Shaftesbury, stated: “During his life, the 7th earl campaigned tirelessly to help the downtrodden and neglected in society. Perhaps no other cause captured his attention more than the plight of the chimney sweeps’ boys. It was a cause that took him 35 years of campaigning to finally bring to an end.
“It is a tragedy that George and so many others were not saved by the change in the law, but this plaque will ensure he is never forgotten.”
Lawson Wight, the chair of the Guild of Grasp Chimney Sweeps, stated: “George’s story was not well known among today’s chimney sweeps – it will be now … Every modern sweep will have found it a sobering thought that many of the chimneys they sweep were once worked by climbing boys.”
George joins different blue plaque recipients in Cambridge, together with Charles Darwin, Oliver Cromwell and Alan Turing.
James Littlewood, the CEO of Cambridge Previous Current Future, stated: “This is the first blue plaque application we have received for a child. Usually, we receive applications for people who have done amazing things in their lives. George’s story is different and special, he didn’t get the opportunity to do amazing things in his life, but his death was the spark for a change in British law that improved the working conditions for all children.”
