London’s Royal Docks in the 1950s: A Memory of the Docks at Work

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The early years after WWII saw older men who had sustained the Docks through the War years and had learnt their skills in the early decades of the Twentieth Century, still working with a discipline little changed since Victorian times. AE Smith worked in the Royal Docks from 1947 until their demise three decades later and was an eye-witness to the events and conditions described here. Wide ranging yet detailed, this account describes the people, cargoes, equipment and craft involved in the manhandling of hundreds of tons of disparate items out of ships' holds and into barges or onto the backs of lorries. Focusing on Royal Mail Lines and their general cargo stevedores, Furness Withy, this record is a last look at a working environment long since extinct as recalled first hand by someone who knew the formidable commitment involved in achieving their work rates.