TOLPUDDLE MARTYRS

Plaque at Siloam Cemetery, near a church at 144 Fanshawe Park Road East, London
(east of Highbury Avenue North).

In 1834, in Tolpuddle, Dorsetshire, England, six men -- George Loveless, his younger brother James, the father and son Thomas and John Standfield, and James Brine and James Hammett -- were all condemned to penal servitude for organizing a union called the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. George Loveless was sent to Van Dieman’s Land and the others to New South Wales. Public indignation and petitions brought about their pardon and return to England in 1837 and 1838. On his release George Loveless declared: “Arise men of Britain and take your stand! Rally round the standard of Liberty, or for ever lay prostrate under the iron hand of your land and money-mongering taskmasters!” In 1844 all except Hammett migrated to this district. George Loveless died near here 6 May 1874 and was buried within Siloam Cemetery. The case of the Tolpuddle Martyrs became recognized as a turning point in labour laws and practices in the United Kingdom. In 1912 a memorial arch was erected in their honour at Tolpuddle, and in 1934 there were numerous tributes to them. When the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada met in London, Ontario that year, delegates held a ceremony at Loveless’s gravesite in the Siloam Cemetery and, in a gesture of international solidarity, a packet of soil from the site was sent to Tolpuddle.