The cotton thread

This link between a former centre for education that will become a museum for both the Lancashire Fusiliers and the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and the regiments themselves is not immediately apparent - but the thread that binds them together is itself a very important part of local history - it is cotton.

The new Fusiliers Museum will not only tell the story of the regiment and the town, but will also tell the story of this significant building and its role in the working life of the town and its people. The Arts and Crafts Centre was built after the Technical Instruction Act of 1890 was passed and under the control of a specially formed Technical Instruction Committee. The intention was to teach the skills required by local industry such as cotton spinning, dyeing and bleaching, weaving, screw-cutting and chasing and machine construction.

Both wars but particularly the First World War had a huge impact on Bury, which many people feel has strongly influenced the character of the town. The loss of men folk, a whole street of neighbours and whole families, in the pal's battalions not only impacted on family and civic life, but on the dominant industries, where many more women began to work. Even today the Gallipoli memorial service that takes place in Bury Parish Church every year is a sobering and startling reminder of the past.

These stories of the 20th century history of the regiment and the town will be an important feature of the displays in the new Fusiliers' Museum because of their strong local resonance and because of the ways in which they tie together the collections and the building. Recent research into the Army Roll of Honour for 1939 to 1945 has revealed that 73 per cent of the Fusiliers who died in the Second World War worked in the cotton industry in Bury. Among many other mills employees of the Peel Mills, Schofield's Mill, James Kenyon Brothers and Mellor's Mills are recorded on this roll.

The majority of the 30,000 or more men who were recruited as Fusiliers to serve in the First World War were cotton industries workers. These were men who worked in a well-regulated and disciplined industry, were hard-working and bound together by the ties of work, employer, neighbourhood and culture. They worked together, were recruited together, fought and sometimes died together. The glorious reputation of the Lancashire Fusiliers during this period was grounded in the characteristics of these cotton workers. Mule spinning was a predominant activity in Bury and the surrounding cotton towns. This was an exclusively male activity, giving the spinner a high level of independence, employing their own assistants to work with them, arguably preparing men to be soldiers capable of distinguishing themselves through independent action on the front line.

There is also a link between the wider political story of the Second World War, which will be interpreted in the museum and the cotton industry. The museum displays will include world context and explain how the increased production of cotton in the colonies during the war weakened the industry in Britain after it. Some men returning from the war found that there their jobs were now being done by women, while other found an industry in decline with reduced opportunities for employment. This in turn affected the lives of serving and de-mobilised soldiers and that of their families - it also influenced the industry itself which began to specialise and diversify.

Work is underway pulling these threads together to create a rich and colourful museum and at the same time fundraising campaign continues to battle on. Watch this column for news of how the project is progressing.

If you want to become actively involved or if you are interested in attending one of Colonel Gorski's monthly briefing sessions call either the Fusiliers' Museum on 0161 764 2208 or the Campaign Office on 0161 764 2810.

In remembrance of Captain Porritt:

Richard Porritt was born in 1910 and joined the family business Porritts and Spencer when he finished his education in 1931. He had studied the details of the economic depression of the 1930s and its impact on the textile industry and consequently knew a great deal about the conditions in the Lancashire mills.

He suffered from a speech impediment which he overcame and trained himself to be an effective public speaker who had a knack of saying the right word at the right time. Eager to improve local conditions for mill workers, he stood for Parliament and became an MP in 1935, a time when there was a lot of unemployment in the Lancashire industry. He became a director of Porritts and Spencers in 1936 and divided his time between the business and representing his constituents in Parliament.

He joined the Lancashire Fusiliers at the outbreak of The Second World War and was immediately sent to the front line in France. He was Company Commander of the 5th Battalion in the defence of Seclin - where he was killed fighting as part of a Franco-British alliance under heavy German air bombardment. He was buried where he fell and a wooden cross was erected to mark his grave by a 16-year-old French boy called Louis Carpentier. His body was later re-interred in the cemetery at Burgault, on the outskirts of Seclin. The town marked their gratitude to Captain Porritt by the naming of Le Square du Captain Porritt. He was also remembered in a memorial window at the Houses of Parliament.