The Gasworkers triumphant in Barking

This week in history.....

10 October 1889, the gasworkers were celebrating the election of two of their men to the local School Boards. Such was the excitement that it's thought that 10,000 people marched through the town in a torchlight procession.

The School Boards were created by the Education Act of 1870 and they provided the first real opportunity for women and working class men to stand for public office. It could be said to have created a path from trade unionist to power.