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ABSTRACT
Prior to Southampton’s municipal organisation of fire-fighting from its St. Mary’s Road, members of the waning British Volunteer Force operated a fire service there 1894–1909. This article examines their hand-written incident logbook. The study complements existing knowledge of fire-fighting in the provincial Victorian and Edwardian town, casting the Artillery Volunteers into a previously undocumented role as urban peacetime responders. Key findings include the limited fire-fighting technology and general lack of safety awareness or co-ordination to protect inhabitants from loss of life and property.
Acknowledgements
Sincere thanks for their valuable assistance: Hampshire Record Office; National Army Museum; National Library of Scotland; Ordnance Survey Limited; Portsmouth History Centre; Rich Keyzor of https://shrewton.com (accessed 11/06/2020); Royal Artillery Museum & Archives; Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum; Southampton Archives; Sylvia Hansford; The 1900 Map Collection; William Spencer.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Much existing research on the fire service of this period has concentrated on Ireland or the USA. See K.D. Brown, ‘The Belfast Fire Brigade, 1880–1914’, Irish Economic and Social History 16 (1989): 65–72. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24337416 (accessed May 5, 2020); Tom Geraghty, ‘The Dublin Fire Brigade – 150 Years of Service’, Dublin Historical Record 65, no. 1/2 (2012): 34–46. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23598045 (accessed May 5, 2020); Stephen F. Ginsberg, ‘Above the Law: Volunteer Firemen in New York City, 1836–1837’, New York History 50, no. 2 (1969): 164–86. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23162669 (accessed May 5, 2020); Joel Schwartz, ‘Morrisania’s Volunteer Firemen, 1848–1874: The Limits of Local Institutions in a Metropolitan Age’, New York History 55, no. 2 (1974): 158–78. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24470956 (accessed May 5, 2020).
2 William Spencer, Records of the Militia & Volunteer Forces, 1757–1945, Public Record Office Readers’ Guide no. 3 (Kew: Public Record Office/PRO Publications, 1997), 25.
3 Spencer, Records of the Militia & Volunteer Forces, 25, 27.
4 Ian F.W. Beckett, Riflemen Form: A Study of the Rifle Volunteer Movement, 1859–1908, rpr. (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2007), 1–2. See also Barry Gregory, A History of the Artists Rifles, 1859–1947 (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2006).
5 Paul Bros.’ Illustrated Family Almanack and Tradesmen’s Business Advertiser (Southampton: Paul Bros. & Co., 1905), 101. The entry names Sergeant-Major Stiles as Superintendent, A.J. Durkin as Deputy-Superintendent, and then adds, ‘The Fire Brigade numbers 24 men, and practices are held every Thursday evening at Head quarters’.
6 G.V. Blackstone, A History of the British Fire Service (Borehamwood: The Fire Protection Association, 1996 [London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957]), 98. See pp. 109–111 regarding the non-military volunteers of Southampton Honorary Fire Brigade, 1837–c.1853.
7 Shane Ewen, ‘The Internationalization of Fire Protection: In Pursuit of Municipal Networks in Edwardian Birmingham’, Urban History 32, no. 2 (2005): 290. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44613552 (accessed December 23, 2020).
8 Ewen, ‘The Internationalization of Fire Protection’, 294, 297. See also Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities (Harmondsworth: Pelican Books, 1968), 59–60, 86.
9 Shane Ewen, Fighting Fires: Creating the British Fire Service, 1800–1978 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 51.
10 Ewen, Fighting Fires, 48–50, 52, 66–7.
11 Ibid., 36–48.
12 Ewen, ‘The Internationalization of Fire Protection’, 294, 297.
13 Blackstone, A History of the British Fire Service, 94, 98–9, 114–5, 180. See also Brian Wright, Insurance Fire Brigades 1680–1929: The Birth of the British Fire Service (Stroud: Tempus Publishing, 2008), 80–83.
14 Ewen, ‘The Internationalization of Fire Protection’, 292.
15 Ewen, Fighting Fires, 70, 86, 100, 103, 108–9; and, Ewen, ‘The Internationalization of Fire Protection’, 290, 295.
16 Ewen, Fighting Fires, 71–2.
17 Brad Beaven, Visions of Empire: Patriotism, Popular Culture and the City: 1870–1939 (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2012), 70.
18 Alan House, Gateway Firefighters: A History of the Southampton Fire Brigade (Southampton: Alan House/Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service, 1996), 73. House rose to become Deputy Chief Officer of Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service.
19 Ewen, Fighting Fires, 43–4, 50, 52, 70, 87.
20 ‘1 Hants Volunteer Artillery Fire Brigade Occurence [sic.] Book’. 1894–1909. Southampton Archives (Southampton Civic Centre), SC/F 6/1.
21 Alan House, Gateway Fire Engines: The Firefighting Appliances of the Southampton Fire Brigade (Southampton: Alan House/Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service, 1998), 3. See Ernest Trimmer’s trade invoice of 7th April 1906, Southampton Archives (Southampton Civic Centre), D/Z 1159/31.
22 William Spencer, Army Records: A Guide for Family Historians (Kew: The National Archives, 2008), 69; Spencer, Records of the Militia & Volunteer Forces, ix, 1, 25.
23 Beckett, Riflemen Form, 19.
24 Spencer, Army Records: A Guide for Family Historians, 69; Spencer, Records of the Militia & Volunteer Forces, 23.
25 Ray Westlake, Tracing the Rifle Volunteers: A Guide for Military and Family Historians (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2010), 1–2.
26 Westlake, Tracing the Rifle Volunteers, 2. See Beckett, Riflemen Form, 127 for further information on the roles played by different ranks.
27 Westlake, Tracing the Rifle Volunteers, xi, 2.
28 Ibid., 2–4, Spencer, Army Records: A Guide for Family Historians, 69; Spencer, Records of the Militia & Volunteer Forces, 25.
29 Westlake, Tracing the Rifle Volunteers, 3–4.
30 Norman E.H. Litchfield and Ray Westlake, The Volunteer Artillery, 1859–1908: Their Lineage, Uniforms and Badges (Nottingham: Sherwood, 1982), 5–6, 90. The 1st Volunteer (Hampshire) Brigade was known as 3rd between April 1888 and December 1889, but its incorporation of the original 1st Corps – formed at Bitterne on 25th April 1860 – ultimately led to it reclaiming the designation ‘1st’ Brigade.
31 House, Gateway Firefighters, 73. See also Alan House, Serving the Community: St Mary’s Fire Station, 1909–2000 (Southampton: Alan House/Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service, 2000). Historic England, ‘Former St Mary’s Drill Hall’, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1431467 (accessed May 27, 2020).
32 House, Gateway Firefighters, 73.
33 Ibid., 73. For information on his extensive contribution to military and civic life, including three terms as Mayor of Southampton, see the Obituary for Colonel Edward Bance, Hampshire Advertiser, 10th July 1925, https://sotonopedia.wdfiles.com/local--files/page-browse%3Abance-edward/Bio%2BBance2.pdf (accessed June 13, 2020).
34 Oblique strokes indicate line breaks in the occurrence book. All unreferenced quotations in this article are from that log and they reproduce its handwritten call record as accurately as possible. Bracketed page numbers in the main text refer to pages of the occurrence book that are significant for the discussion.
35 Litchfield and Westlake, The Volunteer Artillery, 1859–1908, 5–6. The missing pages from the log obscure the date, but the entry ‘March 25 19 14’ in relation to A. Trimmer’s enrolment may indicate the year 1914.
36 House, Serving the Community: St Mary’s Fire Station; Alan House, The Tradition Lives On: Recommissioning of St Mary’s Fire Station, 27 March 2002 (Southampton: Alan House/Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service, 2002).
37 Simon Gunn, The Public Culture of the Victorian Middle Class: Ritual and Authority in the English Industrial City, 1840–1914 (Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, 2007), 60–61, 66, 178–9.
38 Beaven, Visions of Empire, 12–13, 27.
39 Gunn, The Public Culture of the Victorian Middle Class, 60, 76–8, 163, 175, 181.
40 Ibid., 61, 173.
41 Ewen, Fighting Fires, 91.
42 Ibid., 105. This technology was first used by the Sapeurs-Pompiers Fire Brigades in Paris. The ladder had an iron hook at the top end to sink into a building’s window-sill, steadying it for climbing.
43 Gunn, The Public Culture of the Victorian Middle Class, 168.
44 Ibid., 171, 175, 182.
45 Briggs, Victorian Cities, 59–87, 380.
46 Lt-Colonel Godfrey Twiss, R.A., ‘Standing Orders for 1st Hampshire Artillery Volunteer Corps’ (Southsea: Thos. Lewis, 1882), 12. Hampshire Record Office, COPY/81/1.
47 Ewen, Fighting Fires, 73–5, 77–8, 82–3.
48 Ibid., 67, 69, 82–4, 90, 173.
49 Twiss, ‘Standing Orders for 1st Hampshire’, 3, 7, 8, 13, 15, 16.
50 Ibid., 13.
51 Ibid., 3.
52 House, Gateway Firefighters, 76. House quotes the two log entries in full.
53 Westlake, Tracing the Rifle Volunteers, 5.
54 House, Gateway Firefighters, 73, 79. An S.F.B. escape ladder from Bedford Place was moved in July 1883 to the Second Hampshire Rifle Volunteer Corps’ base in Southampton Street.
55 House, Gateway Firefighters, 73.
56 House, Gateway Fire Engines, 3.
57 House, Gateway Firefighters, 84, 98; House, Gateway Fire Engines, 4, 8.
58 House, Gateway Firefighters, 116; House, Gateway Fire Engines, 27; ‘Ambulance Association’, Hampshire Advertiser, 25 March 1916.
59 House, Gateway Firefighters, 79–80. See p. 84–91 on the history of Southampton’s fire stations.
60 The wider log is considered in this summary, to place the data from into context.
61 Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, The Heat of the Moment: Life and Death Decision-Making from a Firefighter (London: Doubleday, 2019), 81, 84–5, 233, 238–9, 242–3.
62 Two cases have already been noted whereby lack of co-operation hindered access to the water supply and to reinforcing teams of men or equipment due to inadequate planning, training, or communication.
63 House, Gateway Firefighters, 136. House records that Deputy Superintendent Stiles was sent a disciplinary letter after this incident for failing to follow instructions from Superintendent Johnson.
64 House, Gateway Firefighters, 135–7. See also ‘Southampton Fire Brigade Fire Report Book’. February 1884 to May 1922. Southampton Archives (Southampton Civic Centre), SC/F 1/1. The Artillery Brigade occurrence book does not mention the Borough Brigade for all the incidents that overlap with House’s highlights from the S.F.B. call log (Artillery Brigade incidents also attended by S.F.B. according to House’s summary are in bold in ). There are discrepancies of addresses and call times between the two original logs, while S.F.B. recorded a fire at Peacock & Buchan Paint Manufacturers on 23rd, not 16th November 1907.
65 House, Gateway Firefighters, 73–6. Members of the Volunteer Artillery Brigade were eventually paid for offering fire-fighting services.
66 It is believed that the true location for this incident, notwithstanding the logbook entry, was Aberdeen Road.
67 Along with one sheet for handwriting practice or notes, two other loose inserts in the logbook are receipts of The United Legal Indemnity Insurance Society (of 222–225 Strand, London) made out to Ernest Trimmer Esq. of Marine Street, Chapel, Southampton, dated 4th January 1908, recording credits to his account of £ 2 : 6 : 3 and £ 2 : 8 : 9 respectively.
68 See House, Gateway Firefighters, 75, 135.
69 Letters from the Secretary of State to the Lord Lieutenant (Marquess of Winchester), 1858–59. Hampshire Record Office, Q30/3/8/19–20, Q30/3/8/22, Q30/3/8/25 and Q30/3/8/63; Beckett, Riflemen Form, 147–9, 194. Beckett refers to a Volunteer Medical Staff Corps but limits his discussion of the Volunteers’ municipal impact to their occasional controversial role as aids to the civil power.
70 Fireman Wallis and A. Durkin are also named in the log, in 1894 and 1905 respectively, but not in a medical context.
71 Ewen, Fighting Fires, 86–7.
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Roger Hansford
Roger Hansford's research interests revolve around Victorian and Edwardian history in Britain, and include studies of artistic romanticism, particularly keyboard and vocal music and their literary contexts during the long-nineteenth century. At University of Southampton, Roger was among the early supporters of the Southampton Centre for Nineteenth-Century Research, and a teaching assistant for the undergraduate course “Materials of Music History, 1500-1900”. He has presented papers at the Biennial Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music, the Biennial Conference on Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain, and at University of Southampton's “Other Voices Study Day” and “Reform” Conferences. Roger holds a Post-Graduate Certificate in music education, and gained distinction for his MMus in Musicology. His doctoral research attracted funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council and resulted in the 2017 monograph, “Figures of the Imagination: Fiction and Song in Britain, 1790-1850” (Taylor & Francis). In 2020, he was awarded the Stephen Copley Research Award from the British Association for Romantic Studies, and he is Academic Editor for the interdisciplinary journal, “Romance, Revolution and Reform”. His book, “Fawley's Front Line: A Century of Firefighting and Rescue”, was published in 2014 (The History Press).