Sunday, June 09, 2013

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography now has an entry on Lily Bilocca of Hull, written by Brian W. Lavery.
A couple of things I've been told about Mrs. Bilocca by people who knew her, and disliked the media's portrayal of her.

The name "Big Lil" was foisted on her by the national press. Those who knew her called her Lily or Mrs. Bilocca.
The role of spokesperson for the trawlermen's wives was not of her choosing. Mrs B. was known on Hessle road because she spent her spare time going from door to door collecting signatures to a petition. This was for radios and radio operators to be made compulsory on trawlers, which was not the case at the time. When three trawlers were lost in one month with only one crewman surviving from all three, the women of the fishing community took action. As Mrs. Bilocca's work for trawler safety was known she was approached to take the role of the women's spokesperson.
After the campaign petered out, politicians having sidetracked the women into a parliamentary dead end, Mrs. Bilocca found that she was blacklisted. Brian Lavery touches on this in his article without using the word 'blacklist'.

The DNB can be accessed with a library card number. The entry is entitled "Lillian Bilocca".


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