Peterloo

2019 is the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre which occurred in Manchester on St Peter's Field on 16 August 1819. Four years earlier the British army had defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. The returning soldiers, however,  found an England where jobs were scare and wages were low. There was a shortage of grain not helped by the implementation of Corn Laws prohibiting the import of grain from other countries. Price of food was high. People were starving.

This was an environment ripe for ordinary people banding together demanding parliamentary representation for all men. Sixty thousand of men, women and children gathered at St Peter's Field to show their support for reforms improving the lifestyle of ordinary people and to listen to the guest speaker, Henry Hunt. It was a peaceful meeting but unfortunately many of the magistrates and business men in the city were unnerved by the event and the militia was called in. Eighteen people were killed and hundreds were injured.

Earlier this year Royal Holloway, University of London, ran a four week course on Future Learn - Perterloo to the Pankhursts: Radicalism and reform in the 19th century which explored how suffrage for all was obtained in Britain and examined the various political movements, plus their leaders, which enabled this to happen.