“All help possible will be given”: The complete Minutes of the Manchester and Salford Women’s Trades Union Council, 1895 – 1919. Transcribed by Bernadette Hyland, edited by Michael Herbert.

Manchester and Salford Women’s Trades Union Council was set up in 1895 and continuing in existence until 1919 when it merged with the men’s trades council to form a single body.

During its quarter of a century of activity, the Council employed a number of organisers, including Sarah Dickenson, Eva Gore Booth, and Mary Quaile, who was organising secretary from 1911 to 1919.

When the Council ceased to exist as an independent body, Mary Quaile took the minute book with her. It was only rediscovered during research into her life for the pamphlet Dare to be Free, published in 2015.

The minutes, which promise to shed new light on women workers and trade unionism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, have now been transcribed in full and are available to buy in a 595-page paperback.

Further information.