Chimney sweep whose death changed child labour laws honoured with blue plaque
An 11-year-old chimney sweep whose death after getting stuck in a flue led to a change in Victorian child labour laws is to become the youngest British person to be honoured with an official blue plaque.
George Brewster, a “climbing boy”, died in 1875 after getting jammed while cleaning the inside of a chimney at the County Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Fulbourn near Cambridge.
According to a contemporary report in the Cambridge Independent News, George was told by the master sweeper, William Wyer, to remove his clothes and enter a flue measuring 12in by 7.5in. Fifteen minutes after beginning work, George became stuck. A wall was demolished in efforts to rescue him, but he died shortly after being pulled out. Wyer was later sentenced to six months hard labour for manslaughter.
George was the last climbing boy to die in England after the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury read an account of an inquest into his death and vowed to renew attempts to change the law. The earl had campaigned for 35 years to outlaw the use of children to clean chimneys but the practice continued.
In September 1875, seven months after George’s death, an act of parliament banning the use of climbing boys was passed. The new law heralded the end of child labour practices in other industries such as farming, mining and factory production. Four years later, in 1880, another act of parliament made school attendance compulsory, transforming the lives of millions of children.
The blue plaque commemorating George’s life will be unveiled on 11 February, the 150th anniversary of his death. The site of the Victorian psychiatric hospital is now home to CamLIFE, a campus of scientific labs and offices.
The contribution George made to child employment laws was uncovered by Joanna Hudson, who stumbled across a mention of him in 2019 and campaigned to honour his legacy.
She said George was a “seemingly insignificant 11-year-old boy, who died not knowing that he changed the lives of thousands of children across the land – a story of huge historical significance, for not only Cambridgeshire, but the whole country”.
She added: “Every child should know this boy’s name, as he represents the countless children who were victims of greed and cruelty in the Victorian era, exploited by those who valued profit over their welfare … Today offers a powerful reminder of how far we have come since those dark days.”
Hudson is raising funds for a stone for George’s unmarked grave in a local cemetery and a commemorative statue in Cambridge.
Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, said: “During his life, the 7th earl campaigned tirelessly to help the downtrodden and neglected in society. Perhaps no other cause captured his attention more than the plight of the chimney sweeps’ boys. It was a cause that took him 35 years of campaigning to finally bring to an end.
“It is a tragedy that George and so many others were not saved by the change in the law, but this plaque will ensure he is never forgotten.”
Lawson Wight, the chair of the Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps, said: “George’s story was not well known among today’s chimney sweeps – it will be now … Every modern sweep will have found it a sobering thought that many of the chimneys they sweep were once worked by climbing boys.”
George joins other blue plaque recipients in Cambridge, including Charles Darwin, Oliver Cromwell and Alan Turing.
James Littlewood, the CEO of Cambridge Past Present Future, said: “This is the first blue plaque application we have received for a child. Usually, we receive applications for people who have done amazing things in their lives. George’s story is different and special, he didn’t get the opportunity to do amazing things in his life, but his death was the spark for a change in British law that improved the working conditions for all children.”
