Firemen as Workers and Heroes: Working for Victorian Municipal Fire Brigades, c.1861–1900

Abstract

James Braidwood’s funeral in June 1861 signalled the beginning of the Victorian public’s adulation for the fireman and his profession. The cortege, numbering many thousands, stretched over one-and-a-half miles and took 3 hours to make the journey from the central fire station on Watling Street to Abney Park Cemetery, where Braidwood was buried beside his stepson, a fellow fireman killed on duty 5 years earlier. Comprised of over 1000 policemen, 700 members of the London Rifle Brigade, the 100 conductors of the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire (RSPLF), various private and voluntary fire brigades and all of his firemen, the cortege’s composition reflected the professional authority and heroic disposition that Braidwood had engendered for his fire service. Mourners lined the streets, their ‘hushed demeanour’ paying homage to a man who was publicly revered as the first fireman hero. Braidwood’s heroism was indelibly inscribed in his personal sacrifice at the ‘post of duty…, the holiest place on earth on which to live or die’.1 KeywordsLate Nineteenth CenturyPolice ModelSelect CommitteeFire BrigadeProfessional AuthorityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.