The Leaders of the Leicester Unemployed Pilgrimage to London

The Leaders of the Leicester Unemployed Pilgrimage to London (Mr George White, Rev F Lewis Donaldson and Mr Amos Sheriff). On 4th June 1905, 497 unemployed men from the city of Leicester marched to London to protest against the lack of employment opportunities one of the most momentous events in the history of the city's working class. Two of the three men pictured on this card went on to be hugely successful. Amos Sherriff would become Mayor of Leicester in 1922 and the Rev Donaldson, vicar of St Mark's Church, became a Canon of Westminster Abbey. The other march-leader was George Sticky White, secretary of the Unemployed Committee, called Sticky because he walked everywhere with a stick. Despite his disability, he walked all the way to London with the others but for reason unknown he only received little fanfare when he returned to Leicester. He sadly committed suicide in the 1920s. In relation to the march, The Times newspaper rather savagely reported: "A walk to London, especially if food and shelter on the way are provided free, will always be attractive to the restless, the shiftless, or the simpletons among the unemployed and unemployable. This form of menace must be resisted. They must be assured their walk proves nothing." !! (see: 13925185)

Amos Donaldson Jun16 Marchers Pilgrimage Reverend Rosettes Sheriff Sticky Unemployed

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