Boating Through World War One

This year, much will be written and said to commemorate the events surrounding and including the First World War. But what was happening on the English canals during that period, and how did the war impact on the lives of ordinary boatmen, their families, and the traffic and trades they were involved in?

Life on the cut in the south Midlands during the years leading up to World War One had continued much as it had done for the previous decades, but things were starting to change just enough to worry some canal company staff. In some cases trade had only been kept alive through a number of toll reductions to stave off railway competition, but the slow trickle of boaters leaving the canal for better paid jobs ashore also caused a degree of anxiety. It was not just that the experienced boaters were leaving or retiring; not enough young boatmen were coming in to replace them.

On 4th August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. One of the first problems to affect trade was boatmen leaving – to serve in the armed forces or for better paid jobs in factories – despite the increased need for boaters to work on the canals. In January 1915 it was said boaters were becoming scarce; the Shropshire Union Railways & Canal Co had 17 horses in the stables with no boaters to use them, and Fellows, Morton & Clayton had similar complaints.

Canal company employees, including clerical staff, were being called-up, so much so that at various places toll stops had to be closed and their work transferred to other offices.

By November 1915 many carriers were feeling the effects of shortages; in the case of Thomas Clayton (Oldbury) Ltd, they were given permission to display posters in toll offices along several waterways advertising job vacancies for boatmen.

The crewing of canal boats and barges became a ‘reserved’ or ‘starred’ occupation as the transportation of fuel and materials was vital to the war effort; it was part of a national register of protected trades compiled on 15th August 1915. This did not necessarily mean all boatmen were ‘starred’, as the criterion was mainly for the transport of munitions, or carrying fuel to works where munitions were manufactured, and to power stations and gas works. Boats mainly engaged in the transport of coal for domestic use did not carry the same degree of importance.

The situation changed after the introduction of the Military Service Act of 1916, which replaced the old reserved occupations. This meant that boaters were not automatically protected from being called-up, but had to apply for an individual exemption certificate, even if they already had reserved status.

Boatmen had to apply for exemption by 2nd March 1916, and perhaps attend a local tribunal held near their place of work. Officially they were entitled to an exemption certificate without any formal hearing and so be protected from conscription, provided they could show that boating was their principal and usual job on their application forms. Otherwise, signed statements from those who employed them, giving details of their occupation, were necessary if they were required to attend a tribunal.

Along the Oxford Canal many boaters were self-employed, working as independent boatmen contractors, the so-called ‘Number Ones’, plying for hire and contracting to transport fuel and goods for a multitude of traders. This meant they had to apply for exempt status themselves and their illiteracy and lack of understanding of the documents and procedures meant they were at a great disadvantage. However, provision was made for the traders and carriers they worked for to apply for exemption on their behalf.

The Moira Colliery Company was unusual in the Midlands in that it owned a fleet of long-distance boats to serve its customers, large and small. Due to the priority to fulfil Government contracts it had great difficulty supplying those coal merchants which only required small quantities, causing some to give up business altogether. Here Stuart, paired with Integrity, waits at a stoppage at Stoke Bruerne in 1922. Stuart was one of a pair built at Edward Tailby’s dock at West Bromwich in 1919 for the Moira Colliery. Waterways Archive

Steamer Count and butty Buckby head north towards Lock 10 at Buckby. Fellows, Morton & Clayton’s steamers were fuelled by coke, and a higher demand due to the war meant they had difficulty in finding supplies. Some horse boats that FMC used to transport the coke had to travel much greater distances from various gas works to where their steamers bunkered their fuel. Coke also increased in price, and although fuel for motor boats did too, it was to a lesser extent, making motors far more economical in comparison with steamers. Waterways Archive

Boatmen contractors carrying to Oxford were often engaged by the Oxford Canal Traffic Agency, a subsidiary department within the Oxford Canal Company, to carry coal and other materials arranged on behalf of local merchants and traders. To prevent further loss of boatmen from their canal, the OCC clerk acted on their behalf to guide and help them get an exemption certificate, including practical assistance when filling in forms.

By this time boaters often kept in touch with their employers by post, either written by themselves or by others such as toll clerks, or sometimes by phone if such facilities were available. However if boaters neglected to keep in contact, the OCC Traffic Agency found it created problems when making arrangements to help get them exempt status.

The OCC clerk also gave written references to assist boatmen to get exemption, and to those who wished to join the forces, or those already in the military who wanted a character reference, perhaps for a transfer. He also encouraged and advised canal traders on both the Oxford and Grand Junction routes to assist and help their boatmen as it would in turn help protect their own businesses and traffics. This was important as some firms had already lost, or were likely to lose, boatmen through ignorance of the regulations or by not responding quickly enough to protect their men.

Two Shropshire Union Railways & Canal Co boats apparently working together at Market Drayton on the ‘Shroppie’. Like many other carriers, SURCC came under pressure from losing men to the military. As the dominant carrier along the Shropshire Union Canal, its loss was acute on traffics between the north-west and the Midlands. A number of canal carrying firms ceased working in the post-war era and one of the largest was the SURCC in 1921. The SURCC had also been a major carrier in the Black Country, where enough work remained in the 1920s for a new carrier – Midlands & Coast – to set up over the same routes. Waterways Archive

At each tribunal there was a military representative who could object to exemption being granted to an individual boatman, even if he could prove that he was in a certified and vital occupation.

One advantage owner-boatmen had on their side was that, with the severe shortage of craft during the war, they could argue that conscripting them meant their boats would have to be tied up, as their wives could not manage by themselves.

Under the old instructions of reserved occupations, in order for a boatman to be placed on the list, his employer put in a claim that he was individually indispensable to the business and therefore not to be called up for military service. But under the Military Service Act a man was granted exemption from military service on the grounds that his work was expedient to the national interest, rather than to the needs of his employer. The Government recognised that a man should be able to change his employer after he was protected as long as he remained in his certified occupation.

Despite this, certain employers put pressure on boatmen to stay with them; some would give in to these threats, wrongly fearing they might lose their exempt status. This happened to owner-boatman Abel Skinner, who worked for the Oxford Portland Cement Co. He wanted to leave and handed in his notice so he could go and work for the OCC Traffic Agency, but he gave up his attempt, claiming the cement company would not allow him to leave.

Carriers and traders found it increasingly difficult to satisfy the demands for transporting materials. With a dwindling population of boatmen and a shortage of boats, those ignorant of the finer details of the Military Service Act left themselves open to exploitation by those desperate to keep them.

Boatmen employing any young men had to be careful regarding the Military Service Act. If they were found to be employing men who were liable for military service and were not exempt, the boatmen as their employers could face a fine of up to £20. Even if their men were vital to the running of their boats, ignorance of the law was seen as no excuse unless the boatmen could prove otherwise.

A situation could arise where an owner-boatman was exempt but his mate was refused exemption and was called up. Because the boatman depended on his mate to help run his boats, it could result in him tying them up for want of a crew. Businesses in turn suffered because their deliveries would cease, forcing more trade onto the already congested railways.

Owner-boatman Matthew Townsend of Abingdon applied for exemption for his son Alfred who worked as his mate, but his application was rejected. Matthew was in his mid-sixties and he could not manage without his son as crew. Any person who felt aggrieved at a tribunal’s decision could lodge an appeal within 3 days of the hearing, but Matthew Townsend overran this deadline. After learning about this, the OCC clerk advised Matthew to make a personal call on the clerk of the tribunal and plead ignorance to try and get an extension to lodge his appeal. This was successful and it was extended another 10 days. Matthew then engaged a solicitor with experience of getting exemption for a boatman and Alfred was allowed to continue working with Matthew for the time being at least.

Tribunals could be out of touch with the demands of boating life; it was not unknown that where a boatman said he needed his mate, the tribunal might suggest he take on a discharged soldier instead. The owner-boatman would have to convince officials, who had no idea of the difficulties faced in operating commercial canal boats, that men with no experience – and possibly recovering from injuries sustained at the front – were likely to be of limited use as boatmen, especially on rivers.

Some firms did employ discharged servicemen as boatmen – Kaye & Co, cement manufacturer of Southam, was one – and FMC was said to have employed Belgian and Polish men. The OCC Traffic Agency employed one man from Huddersfield to work a hired boat, but he only lasted one trip before being dismissed, due to his ill treatment of the horse.

The Army did train personnel in the Transport Workers Battalions to become canal workers, assisting with maintenance, loading, unloading etc, but their contribution in the Midlands region appears to have been limited.

The Board of Trade eventually advised that boatmen should be kept on the canals due to chronic congestion on the railways. By then traders had suffered through the lack of boatmen and some businesses were failing; the dramatic reduction in tonnage carried meant a corresponding loss in toll revenues.

Because of the worsening situation, the Government took over responsibility for the canals from 1st March 1917, and set up a Canal Control Committee, divided into regions, under the Board of Trade. The south Midlands became part of the Southern Sub-Committee based at the London offices of the Grand Junction Canal Co, although the Coventry Canal was placed in the Midlands Sub-Committee.

The terms on which the Government assisted the canal companies financially were that it paid compensation to make good losses, and guaranteed to make up the income per annum during the period of control to an amount equal to their net revenue of 1913, the last full year before war broke out.

Despite all that, boatmen and canal staff continued to be called up; exemption was reviewed upon request of the military and could be withdrawn. The situation eventually changed and exemption passed to the CCC which introduced a protection card for boatmen, canal workers and traders. Anyone issued with a protection card had to show that their work was done to the satisfaction of the CCC. Men engaged in official war work wore special badges to show their status.

Braunston toll office was closed on 17th December 1916 as the clerk there, Thomas Edwin Cope, was retiring and no replacement staff were available to take up his position due to the war. The Oxford Canal Company came to an arrangement with the Grand Junction for his duties to be done by the GJ’s clerk at Norton Junction, working jointly for both companies. Thomas Cope continued to live at the stop house as an agent and caretaker for the Oxford company, just issuing occasional toll tickets for short haul local traffic. In this photograph, the old narrow stop lock giving access northwards is still in place. Widening of this route did not take place until the 1930s. Alan Faulkner Collection

Paradoxically, as boatmen and canal staff were being called up into the forces, the authorities made it possible for those already called up over the age of 25 to be returned home temporarily provided they continued their previous work in the national interest working in the Transport Workers Battalions. These men were still in the Army and had to wear Army uniforms. The OCC clerk applied for boatmen to be returned at the request of traders and family members by supplying references.

Problems at Home

Boatmen remaining on the waterways had their own problems to contend with: there were difficulties in finding suitable boats for hire; the cost of living increased and made repairs to their own boats difficult; and there were lengthy delays when loading at the collieries. All these had a detrimental effect on their finances and contributed to them demanding higher pay.

During the summer of 1916, some boatmen engaged in war work started to receive a War Bonus payment. Owner-boatmen working to the John Dickinson paper mills in Hertfordshire, which was a Government-controlled firm, were paid a bonus of £1 5s (£1.25) extra per trip. This went some way to relieve the financial strain.

Not all boatmen could claim this however, and some contractors in the domestic coal trade started charging demurrage payments instead for the time they were delayed waiting at collieries – the biggest single source of delays. A typical charge was 10s (50p) per pair per day after the first two days’ waiting.

Late in 1917, reports were reaching the OCC clerk that some local shopkeepers were refusing to serve boaters as they were not regular customers. After the CCC heard this they ordered local food committees to make temporary arrangements to ensure boaters received supplies without difficulty. In order to settle the matter, the OCC clerk arranged with the Food Control Committee to distribute food cards to boatmen and helped them to complete any forms, and also helped traders do the same for boatmen employed by them.

Similar facilities were arranged for supplying horse feed. Boatmen were expected to register with a licensed hay merchant to receive a supply fixed by the Board of Trade.

Another problem was unloading. Up until the war many wharves employed professional unloaders, with the boatman helping in some cases.

With unloaders called up, boatmen had to do it on their own. Traders would attempt to find men at the local labour exchanges, which still had casual labourers available even towards the end of the war, but often these men were unfit and unsuitable for this type of work. The OCC applied for men from the Transport Workers Battalions to assist but were refused, as unloading domestic coal was not considered war work.

Boatmen and canal companies were both dependent on traders to provide them with carrying work, from which their incomes and toll revenues came. But, for many small domestic coal businesses along the canal, the war meant ruin. It was difficult to get supplies from the collieries; munitions works, factories and gas and electricity works had priority. Even when domestic fuel was available at the pit there were often no boatmen available to go and collect it, and with no boats working, back-loads were left in warehouses. When a boat was able to make a delivery, the coal was gone from the wharf almost immediately, as it had often been sold weeks before. Some traders gave up business altogether after generations of working on the canal.

A rare photograph of Matthew Townsend’s boats Water Lily and Dorothy on the River Thames with house coal for Weedon Brothers, coal merchants at Benson Wharf. Matthew had to fight to protect his son Alfred from conscription during the First World War, as working horse boats on the Thames was a very skilled and potentially dangerous job, and not for the inexperienced. Note water barrels, rather than cans, on the roofs. Waterways Archive

Coggins & Arthur’s Birmingham Canal Navigations joey boat No 43, fitted with a Hooke’s Patent Detachable Motor, is possibly on a demonstration run. This is a similar type of motor to that mounted on Mascot in the photograph on the previous pages. Note the rather vulnerable-looking hose trailing down into the water, presumably part of the engine’s cooling system. Waterways Archive

Some firms engaged in essential war work and facing financial difficulties could apply to be controlled by the Government under the Munitions of War Act. This included manufacturers that used the waterways, and carriers such as John Griffiths of Bedworth, the Anderton Company, Severn & Canal Carrying Co, and FMC.

FMC was involved in transporting materials for urgent Government contracts. It had boats leaving Braunston from 4am for Birmingham and arriving from there up to 11pm at night, whilst its steamers passed day and night.

To overcome transport difficulties, a number of carrying firms was set up during and after the war such as the Warwickshire Canal Carrying Co, R.A. Bloxham Ltd, and the Bromley Motor Garage Ltd.

War Ends

The war ended on 11th November 1918, but it was a depressing time for trade. All canals except the Erewash and Warwick canals had suffered from loss of traffics since 1913, some more than others. Government control of canals continued, but this prevented canal companies from raising tolls to increase their income. Other factors later increased costs, such as the imposition of an 8-hour working day for toll clerks, so extra staff had to be employed to man toll offices. Wages, including boatmen’s, had gone up due to the cost of living. A growth in trade union membership and power by working men with a more militant attitude brought the threat of strikes.

William Bernard Kinsella was toll clerk at Winson Green toll stop near Birmingham, and was in his early thirties at the outbreak of war. After the war an 8-hour working day was imposed which meant more toll clerks had to be appointed, with increased costs for the canal company. In reality there was some flexibility over hours with some clerks working 48 hours and some working 60 hours, both for a 6-day week. With reduced hours, higher pay, and post-war reduction of traffic with its consequent decrease in toll income, the BCN considered itself much worse off than before the war. Colin Such Collection

Apart from the WCCC, the other new carriers soon faded away in the years after the war, as railway transport became more economical than water. Some owner-boatmen gave up and sold out to carriers, which themselves were facing lean times. FMC went to court to confirm a special resolution to reduce its capital to stay in business, but for others it was the end. Perhaps the most visible of these were the SURCC and the Leeds & Liverpool Canal Co, which both ceased carrying in 1921.

One reason why canals fared badly is that when the Government took control and subsidised them it failed to see that the canal companies were merely toll takers, and that the transport of goods was undertaken by private carriers. The canals were at a disadvantage to the railways as they could not control the costs of carrying and therefore could not compete.

On 31st August 1920, Government control of canals ceased, including the subsidy they were receiving, forcing canal companies to put up their tolls to increase their income and deal with the lack of maintenance. But this made water transport even less competitive. The canal companies eventually collaborated with carriers and traders and collectively gradually forced boatmen’s pay down to a more competitive level over many months until the latter part of 1922. Then started the long process of trying to claw back traffics that had been lost to the railways.

Watersheds

There were two great watershed events during the history of the Britain’s canals. The first was the beginning of the railway age. The second was the First World War. Both changed the fortunes of our waterways and influenced their subsequent history. In the case of the First World War it heralded a slow and inevitable decline of both canal and railway systems by contributing to the rise of road haulage.

Above: The boats Elizabeth and Elaine owned by coal merchants and cartage contractors R.A. Bloxham Ltd, of Water Eaton, Bletchley, passing Winkwell on the Grand Junction. The company put together a small fleet of boats starting in 1919, most likely due to the overburdened railways, with two named after men awarded VCs in the war, but in 1922 they gave up canal carrying. King Family Collection

Those boatmen that did stay to work boats were sometimes recognised for their service. Owner-boatman Harry King, who owned coal boats Forget Me Not and Nautilus and was one of a select group of contractors transporting coal to the paper mills of John Dickinson & Co Ltd, was awarded this medal by them in July 1919 for his work throughout the war. Dickinson’s was an important firm in the war effort and became a Government Controlled Establishment under the Munitions of War Act of 1915. The medal is slightly larger than a modern £2 coin. King Family Collection