Death by gunpowder at Dyer and Robson's East Greenwich Firework Factory

 I used to have a friend who lived in the strangely named Majendie Road in Plumstead and I had always assumed it was called after some long forgotten Victorian battlefield.   But, no, it was named for Col. Vivian Majendie, Chief Inspector of Explosives.

 In 1874 a barge loaded with explosives had blown up on the Regent’s Canal near the Zoo. As a result of this accident an Explosives Inspectorate was set up with Majendie in charge.   He had previously been Assistant Superintendent of the Royal Laboratory in Woolwich and he brought all the expertise of that Institution with him to his new job.  He used Woolwich personnel and Woolwich equipment to carry out experiments into the causes of the explosions which he investigated and listed it in meticulous detail in his Annual Reports.

 Majendie lived at 23 Victoria Road in Charlton.  This is now, obviously, Victoria Way but it could not have been the house which is now 23 – that had not been built when Majendie lived there. So I think the numbering was different and he lived in one of the big houses further up but I need someone to enlighten me about the way the numbering went in the 1870s and which number was likely to be 23. Some other rather important people lived in Victorian Way then – one was Sir John Anderson, inventor and manager at the Arsenal. There is no blue plaque to him anymore than there  is one to Majendie. I one promised a man that I would try and get that done – yet another promise which I’ve broken.

 In Greenwich in the 19^th century there were several factories making various items using gunpowder and of course there were accidents, some quite shocking and usually involving the death of young wome . I can’t write about all of them here today so I’m going to pick on just one and I might do some of the others later on. But the point I wanted to make is that all of them will have been within earshot of Majendie’s home in Victoria Way.

 The accident I’m going to look at today happened at Robson’s Ammunition Works, This fronted onto the Woolwich Road – roughly opposite the entrance to Annandale Road and the site of their office was about where the chip shop is today –In the 1880s a path stretched back from the Woolwich Road to a large area of land intersected by ditches and dykes – where Tunnel Avenue and the Blackwall Tunnel Approach now run.  In this area were a number of huts in which work on the explosives was undertaken.  Thomas Robson had founded the works in 1845.   He held patents for ‘firing signals and other lights’ and the factory seems have turned out a variety of signalling devices for ships and railways many of, which were closely akin to fireworks.  They also made ‘proper’ fireworks for displays and a range of other small scale explosive devices

 Thomas Robson seems to have left the works sometime before 1880, although it still carried his name. Most probably he had retired and the business’s name was changed to ‘Dyer and Robson’.  James Dyer lived with his wife and baby daughter in Wick Cottage, which was in Woolwich Road adjacent to the works.  He was thirty years old in 1882 and was, in effect, the manager. Although the works covered a large area it employed relatively few people – eleven men, four women, and four boys.  It was the women who were to be injured and die.

 I have written about this particular accident before and I hope I’m not duplicating anything and boring people. It’s an interesting and important accident and I think we ought to know about the dangers of some past local jobs which went to unskilled young women.

 One item Robson’s made was a railway fog signal, which consisted of two small iron saucers, which enclosed a small amount of gunpowder. A large outer cup went over these with its edge ‘crimped’ to hold it closely together and the cups were then cemented and varnished.  The ‘crimping’ was done by hand using screw fly presses – an operation which carried ‘some risk’.  In fact there was at least one accidental explosion a month but owing to a ‘misunderstanding’ Mr. Dyer had not reported these accidents to the Explosives Inspectorate, as he was required to do by law. 

 Such operations were very carefully monitored and there was an iron shield, which moved between the worker and the explosives at the moment at which the pressing movement took place. There was also an arrangement to divert the flash to outside the building should an explosion take place.  Employees had to wear special shoes and fireproof clothes with no pockets in them. 

 The 20th November 1882 was Mary Mahoney’s first day at work on the presses. Although she had worked ‘on and off’ at Robson’s for six years. Emily Gilder supervised her in one of the isolated huts, No.19 shed.  It was a very small space for the two girls together plus the machinery - just six feet by five.  They sat three feet apart together with about 800 explosive signals.  The machines at which they worked were new – still on trial from the makers.

 It appears that Mary did not understand the process and was, unknown to Emily, putting the cups into the press in the wrong way.  In addition a tray of finished signals was nearby – and contained a quantity of loose spilt gunpowder. This was against regulations and Majendie was later to say that ‘very insufficient attention had been paid to cleanliness’ – indeed he was to rule that this had been the factor which made the accident so severe and probably killed Mary.

The foreman, Mr. Law, had just visited the two girls and left to go onto the next shed.  He was standing about three yards outside when he was knocked over by the force of a series of explosions.   He struggled upright and went back to find that Emily had got out – she had either been blown out or jumped. He forced his way back through smoke to where Mary was lying on the floor in among the loose powder, which was now exploding while molten lead from the finished signals fell on her. Despite being badly burnt himself Law got her out. Outside she said ‘Oh, Mr.Law’ as he tried to pull off her burning serge dress, until he collapsed himself.

 

Mary was very badly burnt on her back, arms, legs and face. She was taken just across the road to the Workhouse Infirmary – where the Greenwich Centre is today. She told the Doctor about the accident ‘Oh, Doctor, I was pressing of those fog signals when it went off … I think I must have pressed it on the side’. It seems that at first it was hoped she would live, although, later, the Doctor said he had no hope from the first. A first she did well but then infections set in and she died four days later ‘of exhaustion’. Majendie felt she must have had a ‘delicate constitution’.

 

She was twenty-four years old, and lived with her parents in Marsh Lane – today’s Blackwall Lane.  She was the eldest of four children, all born in Greenwich, to parents, Michael and Mary, who had come from Kerry to work as labourers.  There were many Irish people lived in the area at the top of Marsh Lane around what, until recently, has been the Ship and Billet Pub.

 

As I said this is far from the first the only accident at Robson’s and the other works =all of which were investigated by Majendie.  And I would guess that hardly anybody in Charlton has ever heard of Majendie and his contribution