Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume XX. Report by Mr. Cyril Jackson on boy labour together with a memorandum from the General Post Office on the conditions of employment of telegraph messengers.

  • Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905-09
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume XX. Report by Mr. Cyril Jackson on boy labour together with a memorandum from the General Post Office on the conditions of employment of telegraph messengers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    APPENDIX B. Statement showing, as regards 53 large offices (1) the number of Messengers whose services bave been discontinued on reaching 16 yeai's of age during three years prior to the general introduction of official employment bureaux (2) the degree of difficulty they experienced in obtaining other employment, and (3) the Official assistance given them in their efforts to secure outside employment. Vide p.p. 81 [24] to 85 [28]. APPENDIX C. Statement showing the class of employment obtained by 509 of the Messengers included in the foregoing return on leaving the Post Office at sixteen years of age. Nature of Employment. Shop Assistants and Errand Boys ■ Railway, Tramway, etc.. Employes ■ Warehouse Porters, etc. Apprentices to Trades - Clerks and Office Boys - Artisans (in Foundries, etc.) - Enlisted in Army or Navy Footmen and Page Boys Weavers . . . - . Labourers and Farm Hands - Sailors (Mercantile) Shoemakers - - - - • Joiners - - - - Plumbers - - - - . Printers - - - - - Number of Boys. 126 98 32 41 30 27 17 16 15 15 11 8 11 7 9 Nature of Employment. Bricklayers - - - Painters Carmen Stonemasons - - - - Emigrated . . - . Gardeners - - - - Barmen and Billiard Markers Waiters School Teachers Chaufifeurs - - . . Lamplighters - - - - Tailors Blacksmiths - - - - Total - Number of Boys. 509 Memorandum.—A number of the Messengers referred to above subsequently enlisted. APPENDIX D. Telegraph Messengers' Employment Registers. The following Returns cover a period of about nine months following the date of the general introduction of Employment Registers. (June, 1907—March, 1908) Office or Surveyor's District. a Birmingham and District Bristol Cardiff 101 32 16 35 32 10 c Number of Messengers ber for whom de employmeni i by Departme excluded or removed it from Registers. ber of na: d on Emp ters. ca '-2 c3 CO . PI b S ^ I-l ^ use they ound em- nent for selves. S -g pi Fori lacto condi Beca' hadf ployi them (-1 P be > 7-/) ^ O |>> O g Q> 5 op 55 71 32 12 50 0 (O § S a) y Remarks. Since the introduction of the Employment Regis- ters the boys have had more opportunities than previously of securing situations; but they have not in all cases accepted them, as the wages offered have, in some instances, been less than those which the boys had as Messengers. Applications for the ser- vices of Ex-Messengers far exceed supply. Majority start with very fair prospect, and now obtain situations as Junior Clerks, at 10s. a week, instead of drifting into places as errand boys, etc. The two Messengers who left before obtaining situations declined out- side situations which had been found for them, and subsequently obtained employment of a satis- factory and permanent nature. NOTE.—References made in this volume and in the Reports of the Commission to the pages in thisjolume