Stevenson, KA

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School of Society and Culture Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business 2017-11-06 Decrying Drunkenness in Devonport KA Stevenson School of Society and Culture Let us know how access to this document benefits you General rights All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact the library providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Follow this and additional works at: https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/sc-research Recommended Citation Stevenson, K. (2017) 'Decrying Drunkenness in Devonport', Retrieved from https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/sc-research/177 This Conference Proceeding is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business at PEARL. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Society and Culture by an authorized administrator of PEARL. For more information, please contact openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk. Prof Kim StevensonKim.Stevenson@plymouth.ac.ukDecrying Drunkenness in DevonportDame Aggie Weston, ‘The Sailors Friend’, founded the Devonport Seamans’ Mission and the first Royal Sailors Rest in 1876 next to the Dockyard gates replicating similar Christian rest homes she had set up in Portsmouth. 127,000 servicemen visited the rest in its first year of operation and 10,488 spent a night there. She was an active member of the National Temperance League and campaigned tirelessly to improve the conditions and situations of sailors and their families advocating teetotalism as the only saviour from degeneration. Plymouth and Stonehouse had led the way establishing the first seamans’ rest in the Three Towns in November 1820. In 1887 she became the President of the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Ladies Temperance Association. While many of Plymouth’s prominent citizens tended towards absolute teetotalism banning all alcohol, Devonport adopted a more relaxed approach because of its naval presence and the need for frustrated sailors to ‘let their hair down’ and have a few beers. Temperancers like Aggie sought to limit the consumption of beer because of the effects of drunkenness in causing domestic and street violence. She conveyed strong moral messages in her temperance magazine, Ashore and Afloat* which is still published today though it is significantly less judgemental than its 1885 equivalent. Sub-titled A Copiously Illustrated and Interesting Paper for the Household, District and Class it would have sparked cynical interest amongst many of its intended readership with its judgemental stance about the real life dangers and consequences of drink, and explicit and implicit reprimands that there was no other alternative but Christian indoctrinated teetotalism. *Newspaper extracts (c) British Library Board Images from Ashore and Afloat*Isaac Foot (father of the Isaac Foot Liberal MP and grandfather of Michael Foot MP) was a passionate Methodist and Teetotaller who helped create the Band of Hope at Devonport encouraging 250 young naval apprentices and 116 locals to sign the pledge of total abstinence in 1885Western Weekly News 22 Aug 1885*.The ‘Grand Monster Temperance Demonstration’: in September 1887 The Blue Ribband Army, Church of England Temperance Society, Total Abstinence Society, Ladies Temperance Association and ‘other kindred organisations’ across the Three Towns united in a procession starting at Devonport Park and along Union Street calling upon ‘all good citizens … to combine their electoral  influences, so as to secure to the people in their separate localities the power to banish the liquor traffic from their midst.’ Western Morning News 22 September 1887.*Headlines like these were not unusual. Inquests on death by alcohol poisoning were not uncommon as in this example of Charles Flood, a 32 year old labourer. Mr Wilson who conducted the post-mortem examination said his liver was ‘hobnailed’ from drink. The Coroner pronounced the verdict of death by heart disease ‘accelerated by heavy drinking.’ These were exactly the kind of individuals that Aggie hoped to save. Western Weekly News, 4 July 1893*At Exeter Hall, the Bishop of London publicly praised ‘Miss Weston and her friends’ for taking, in one year, 3,952 pledges and distributing 700 cards of medals and awards to sailors and soldiers in Devonport (and Portsmouth) who had kept the pledge for between 1 and 20 years. He also noted that all ships berthed in port at Devonport at that time had a representative of the Temperance League on board Western Daily Mercury, 2 May 1889*By a recent regulation issued by the Admiralty, no person belonging to the Dock-yard is to keep or have an interest in a public house or beershop; and those who may be so circumstanced, are either to give up the same or leave the yard forthwith. Royal Cornwall Gazette, 6 September 1834*

Decrying Drunkenness in Devonport

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Decrying Drunkenness in Devonport

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