Nostalgia: Red Ellen and the Jarrow Crusaders march through Yorkshire

The world remembers it as a spontaneous cry for help from the darkest part of depression-era Britain. But the Jarrow Crusade of 1936 was arguably the first manifestation of the kind of sophisticated politicking we know today.
By David Behrens
Published 23rd Apr 2021, 06:00 BST
1st October 1936: Protest marchers starting out on the Jarrow Crusade, a demonstration march by unemployed men from the shipyard town of Jarrow, Tyneside, who walked to London to demand the right to work. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)1st October 1936: Protest marchers starting out on the Jarrow Crusade, a demonstration march by unemployed men from the shipyard town of Jarrow, Tyneside, who walked to London to demand the right to work. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)
1st October 1936: Protest marchers starting out on the Jarrow Crusade, a demonstration march by unemployed men from the shipyard town of Jarrow, Tyneside, who walked to London to demand the right to work. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

As these pictures from the archive illustrate, it was a media event along every one of the 300 miles between Tyneside and London. Some of these shots were taken during the seven days the 200 marchers were in Yorkshire: first Northallerton, then Thirsk, Boroughbridge, Harrogate, Leeds, Wakefield, Barnsley and finally Sheffield, before heading south into Derbyshire.

Jarrow’s Labour MP, Ellen Wilkinson – ‘Red Ellen’ – was among the organisers. The town’s unemployment rate stood at 70 per cent and it was, said one marcher, “a filthy, dirty, falling down, consumptive area”.

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The men – Ms Wilkinson was the only woman on the march – were demanding that a steelworks be built in Jarrow to replace the recently closed Palmer’s shipyard. It had been the main source of employment, and its closure compounded the poverty, overcrowding, poor housing and high mortality rates that were rife.

1936: A group of protesters carrying the petition on the Jarrow Crusade, a demonstration march by unemployed men from shipyard town of Jarrow, Tyneside, who walked to London to demand the right to work. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)1936: A group of protesters carrying the petition on the Jarrow Crusade, a demonstration march by unemployed men from shipyard town of Jarrow, Tyneside, who walked to London to demand the right to work. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)
1936: A group of protesters carrying the petition on the Jarrow Crusade, a demonstration march by unemployed men from shipyard town of Jarrow, Tyneside, who walked to London to demand the right to work. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

The marchers were hand-picked and each given a medical examination. A second-hand bus, purchased for the purpose, followed them with cooking equipment and ground sheets. An advance guard arranged overnight stops and public meetings.

At Leeds, the men were handed a donation towards their train fare back home. In Barnsley, they were welcomed into the heated municipal baths. Those showing fatigue were tended to by medical students from the Inter Hospital Socialist Society.

In London, the marchers had a sympathetic ear, though not from the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, who told Ms Wilkinson he was “too busy”.

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Jarrow got its steelworks in 1939, as well as a ship-breaking yard and an engineering works – but it took the wartime rearmament effort to bring anything approaching prosperity.

1936: Protest marchers on the Jarrow Crusade, a demonstration march by unemployed men from shipyard town of Jarrow, Tyneside, who walked to London to demand the right to work. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)1936: Protest marchers on the Jarrow Crusade, a demonstration march by unemployed men from shipyard town of Jarrow, Tyneside, who walked to London to demand the right to work. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
1936: Protest marchers on the Jarrow Crusade, a demonstration march by unemployed men from shipyard town of Jarrow, Tyneside, who walked to London to demand the right to work. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

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