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London Clerical Workers 1880-1914: the Search for Stability

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London Clerical Workers 1880-1914: the Search for Stability London Clerical Workers 1880-1914: The Search For Stability By Michael Heller (University College London, University of London) Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in July 2003 UMI Number: U602595 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U602595 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Contents Abstract............................................................................................................ 2 Acknowledgements........................................................................................... 4 Introduction................................................................................................ 5 Chapters: 1. A Definition of the Late Victorian and Edwardian London........ Clerk35 2. Work, Income, Promotion and Stability.................................................68 3. The Clerk, the Office and Work............................................................108 4. Attitudes of the Clerk towards Work.....................................................142 5. The Mechanisation and Feminisation of the Office..............................177 6. Education, Merit and Patronage - The London Clerical Market.......... 215 7. Commercial Education and the Clerk................................................... 255 8. Clerical Trade Unions, Associations and Collective Organisations.... 296 Conclusion.................................................................................................336 Bibliography...............................................................................................352 Appendix I - Interview with Jim Hancock.............................................. 367 Appendix II - Statistical Analysis of Average Clerical Salaries................382 1 Abstract of Research The thesis is a study of male clerical workers in London between 1880 and 1914. It aims to examine the working conditions and experiences of clerks and to analyse organisational structures in the context of the changes that were taking place in the wider London office economy. Chief amongst these alterations was a growth in clerical numbers, an increase in the size of many offices, a more rational approach to office work with increased division of labour, and application of office machinery to clerical work, the rise of formal commercial education, and the introduction of women in large numbers into the office. Its chief aim is to measure the impact of these changes on clerical workers. Existing historiography has in the main argued that the effects of these changes were on the whole negative. This thesis argues that in the context of London these claims are unfounded. Incomes are shown to have increased rather than deteriorated. There is little sign of unemployment, lack of promotional opportunities, deskilling or a fundamental sense of disquiet amongst clerks. Female clerks and technology did not have a negative effect on male clerical workers. Indeed, the opposite appears to be the case. Rationalisation and an increased application of division of labour often led to specialisation. Technology often relieved clerks of performing repetitive and unskilled work and allowed them to concentrate on other, more demanding and rewarding areas. Women were chiefly employed in the lower tier of clerical work, and the near universal application of the marriage bar, which obliged female clerks to resign on marriage, meant that they posed no real competition to the future prospects of clerical worker. Although growth in companies did lead to more impersonal working 2 relations, the introduction of company welfare such as pensions and paid holidays, and the establishment of sport and social clubs and staff magazines in many organisations did much to compensate for this. Overall, clerical work in London remained popular throughout the period and attracted recruits due to the economic stability it offered and the opportunities it gave for advancement. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my research supervisors Professor David French and Professor Catherine Hall for the invaluable help, advice and support that they have given me whilst carrying out this research. In relation to the actual research, I would like to thank all the archivists, librarians and organisations that have assisted me and allowed me to look at their material. In relation to the latter, I would particularly like to thank the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and the Prudential, and their archivists Philip Winterbottom, Clare Bunkham and David Carter. I would also like to thank the staff at the British Library, the National Archives, the London Metropolitan Archives, the Essex Records Office and the staff of the local history libraries in the London Boroughs of Hackney, Southwark and Redbridge. I would also particularly thank Jim Hancock whose sharing of his and his father’s memories of office work at the Westminster and later National Westminster Bank have been of invaluable help to this study. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their help and support which was has been essential. In particular I would like to thank Kaoruko Kondo, Adrian Casillias, Martin Percy, Rico Dent, and Stephie Courlet. Their often long conversations with me on the subject of my thesis and help they furnished were of great assistance. 4 Introduction This thesis is a study of male clerical workers in London between 1880 and 1914. It is an examination of the working lives of these men and the environments in which they worked. It aims to question the dominant argument in current historiography that these workers, throughout this period, were in crisis in terms of income, job stability and promotion. It also aims to historically examine the lives of a key group of London workers who have so far escaped the notice of historians. In relation to clerks, it seeks to examine a number of areas including the work these men were doing, the expectations they had towards this, and the impact of changes in their professional lives such as the rapid growth in the use of female clerks and the growing application of technology. It also aims to analyse the late Victorian and Edwardian office. Relations between employers and employees, amongst the staff as a whole and between the institution and individual will be important areas of discussion. In addition, the impact of the growth of some modem bureaucracies will be examined. These were new to this era, and the strategies, ideologies and routines which were established set important precedents for the future. Key to this study is the argument that office work in London and throughout the nation witnessed important structural changes in the period of this study. Chief amongst these was the growth in clerical workers. R. Guerriero Wilson, for example, has estimated that the number of ‘commercial clerks’ (of both sexes) increased in England and Wales between 1881 and 1911 from 181,457 to 477,535 and in Scotland from 26,659 to 69,404.1 The number of male commercial clerks residing in London rose from 58,278 in 1881 to 82,027 in 1911. If one adds civil servants, bank, 1R. Guerriero Wilson, Disillusionment or New Opportunities? The Changing Nature of Work in Offices. Glasgow 1880-1914. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999), p. 37. insurance and railway clerks this figure increased from 80,109 to 126,395. The rise is even more impressive for women, from 2,327 female commercial clerks living in London in 1881 to 32,893 in 1911. If one adds the other groups the figure rose from 3,101 to 39,943.2 Alongside this increase in number were other changes; a growth in the scale of operations and the employment of women and technology have been mentioned, a greater division of labour, an increased emphasis on formal qualifications and training, and the gradual replacement of patronage by merit can be highlighted as other developments. The central topic of this study is the impact of these changes on London’s male clerical workers. Literature Review of British Clerical Workers c. 1870 -1914 Central to any discussion of the historical literature on the working lives of clerical workers in the late-Victorian and Edwardian period is the fact that it is pre-dated by a large corpus of social research. Before historians became interested in clerical workers there was an established academic vocabulary and field of reference which was broadly accepted by these writers. Research and debate by historians on the topic has consequently been to a large degree an extension of a prior sociological debate. Any review of the historical literature would therefore be incomplete without an examination of this social commentary. The first individual to produce a comprehensive survey of clerical workers in Britain was B.G. Orchard, a clerk from Liverpool and former head of the Liverpool Clerks’ 2 Census of England and Wales 1881-1911. (London, Her/His Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1881- 1911). 6 Provident and Annuity Association. Orchard’s work, The Clerks of Liverpool. published
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