A TURBULENT 40-year period in Scotland's labour history, highlighted
by three executions, should be studied in greater detail by
schoolchildren, campaigners urged at the weekend.
The appeal for the period 1780 to 1820 to be included in school
history lessons came after a headstone was erected over the grave of
Strathaven weaver James Wilson on Saturday, 170 years since his death.
Wilson, 62, along with John Baird and Andrew Hardie, was hanged and
beheaded for his role in the 1820 Radical Rising, which called for a
general strike in support of political reform, a Scottish Parliament,
and the dissolution of the 1707 Act of Union.
Unknown to the Radicals, the Rising had been instigated by Government
agents. It ended in defeat after a skirmish between badly armed Radicals
and well-trained Government cavalry at Bonnymuir, near Falkirk.
After his execution in what was Jail Square, overlooking Glasgow
Green, Wilson's body was thrown into a pauper's grave near the site of
the present Royal Infirmary. It was later recovered by friends and
relatives and re-interred in an unmarked grave in Strathaven Cemetery.
Mr Jim Mitchell, honorary vice-president of the 1820 Society, speaking
after the unveiling of the headstone -- funded by #400 from East
Kilbride District Council -- said it was essential that Scots
schoolchildren should learn about the period.
The society, he said, had campaigned succesfully during the past few
years to have memorials for the three men. ''It is time for our campaign
to move further forward -- to press for the period to become an
essential part of the school history curriculum. It is sad that we are
taught all about the Tolpuddle Martyrs, but are told nothing about our
own martyrs,'' he added.
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