Peterloo Massacre

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Peterloo Massacre
Part of the history of Manchester
A painting of the Peterloo Massacre published by Richard Carlile.
Date 16 August 1819 Location St Peter's Field Manchester England Result 15 people were killed and 400–700 were injured.

The Peterloo Massacre occurred at St Peter's Field, Manchester, England, on 16 August 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60–80,000 that had gathered at a meeting to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. A total of 154 voters elected the majority of Members of Parliament, but almost one million people in Manchester and its surrounding towns were represented by two MPs for Lancashire.

Economic conditions after the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815 had resulted in periods of famine and chronic unemployment, exacerbated by the introduction of the first of the Corn Laws, the effect of which had been to increase the cost of food. By the beginning of 1819 the pressure generated by poor social conditions was at its peak, and coupled with the lack of suffrage in Northern England had enhanced the appeal of political Radicalism among the cotton loom weavers of south Lancashire. In response, the Manchester Patriotic Union, a group agitating for parliamentary reform, organised a demonstration to be addressed by the well-known radical orator Henry Hunt, planned to take place at St Peter's Field in Manchester on 2 August 1819. The meeting was initially declared to be illegal, but was allowed to take place two weeks later, on 16 August.

Shortly after the meeting began, local magistrates called in the military to arrest Hunt and several others on the hustings with him, and to disperse the crowd. Cavalry charged into the crowd with sabres drawn, and in the ensuing confusion, 15 people were killed and 400–700 were injured, among them many women and even children. The massacre was given the name Peterloo in ironic comparison with the Battle of Waterloo, which had taken place four years earlier.

Peterloo was a key event in Manchester's history, and led directly to the foundation of the The Manchester Guardian. It is commemorated by a plaque close to the site, which has been criticised as being inadequate. In a survey conducted by The Guardian in 2006, Peterloo came second as the event from British history that most deserved a proper monument or a memorial.

[edit] Background

In 1819, Lancashire was represented by two Members of Parliament. Voting was restricted to the adult male owners of freehold land valued at 40 shillings or more, and votes could only be cast at the county town of Lancaster, by a public spoken declaration at the hustings. Constituency boundaries were out of date, and the so-called "rotten boroughs" had a hugely disproportionate influence on the membership of the Parliament of the United Kingdom compared to the size of their populations: Old Sarum in Wiltshire, with one voter, elected 2 Members of Parliament (MPs),^[1] as did Dunwich in Suffolk, which by the early 19th century had almost completely disappeared into the sea.^[2] The major urban centres of Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Blackburn, Rochdale, Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, and Stockport with a combined population of almost one million were represented only by the two MPs for Lancashire, whereas more than half of all MPs were elected by a total of just 154 voters.^[1] These inequalities in political representation led to calls for reform.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, a brief boom in textile manufacture was followed by periods of chronic economic depression, particularly among textile weavers and spinners.^[3] Weavers who could have expected to earn 15 shillings for a 6-day week in 1803, saw their wages cut to 5 shillings or even 4s 6d by 1818.^[4] The industrialists who were cutting wages without offering relief blamed market forces generated by the aftershocks of the Napoleonic Wars.^[4] Exacerbating matters were the Corn Laws, the first of which was passed in 1815, imposing a tax on imports in an effort to protect the price of home-grown grain. The cost of food rose as people were forced to buy the more expensive and lower quality British grain, and periods of famine and chronic unemployment ensued, increasing the desire for political reform both in Lancashire and in the country at large.^[5]

By the beginning of 1819 the pressure generated by poor social conditions was at its peak and had enhanced the appeal of political Radicalism among the cotton loom weavers of south Lancashire.^[3] In response, coupled with the lack of suffrage in Northern England, a "great assembly" was organised by the Manchester Patriotic Union, a group agitating for parliamentary reform. The secretary of the union, Joseph Johnson, wrote to the well-known radical orator Henry Hunt asking him to chair a large meeting planned for Manchester on 2 August 1819. In his letter Johnson wrote:

Nothing but ruin and starvation stare one in the face [in the streets of Manchester and the surrounding towns], the state of this district is truly dreadful, and I believe nothing but the greatest exertions can prevent an insurrection. Oh, that you in London were prepared for it.^[6]

—Letter from Joseph Johnson to Henry Hunt

Unknown to either Johnson or Hunt, the letter was intercepted by government spies and copied before being sent on to its destination. The contents were interpreted to mean that an insurrection was being planned, and the government immediately responded by ordering the 15th Hussars to Manchester.^[7]

Samuel Bamford led a group from his native Middleton to St Peter's Field. Following his imprisonment for "inciting a riot", Bamford emerged as a prominent voice for radical reform.

The mass public meeting planned for 2 August was delayed until 9 August. Announcing the delay, the Manchester Observer reported that the intention of the meeting was "to take into consideration the most speedy and effectual mode of obtaining Radical reform in the Common House of Parliament" and "to consider the propriety of of the 'Unrepresented Inhabitants of Manchester' electing a person to represent them in Parliament".^[8] The local magistrates, under the leadership of William Hulton, had already been advised by the acting Home Secretary, Henry Hobhouse, that "the election of a Member of Parliament without the King's writ" was a serious misdemeanour,^[9] encouraging them to declare the assembly illegal.^[5][10]

The rehearsals held in the surrounding townships, each of which planned to send a contingent into central Manchester, had further added to the concerns of the authorities.^[10] One spy reported that "seven hundred men drilled at Tandle Hill as well as any army regiment would".^[10] A royal proclamation forbidding the practice of drilling was posted in Manchester on 3 August.^[11] However, Samuel Bamford, a local radical who led the Middleton contingent to the assembly, wrote that "It was deemed expedient that this meeting should be as morally effective as possible, and, that it should exhibit a spectacle such as had never before been witnessed in England".^[3] Bamford, aware that "We had frequently been taunted by the press, with our ragged, dirty appearance, at these assemblages" was determined that "these reflections should not be deserved" on 16 August.^[3] Likewise, instructions were given to the various committees forming the contingents that "Cleanliness, Sobriety, Order and Peace" and a "prohibition of all weapons of offence or defence" were to be observed throughout the demonstration.^[12]

Although the prohibition of the meeting on 9 August had been intended to discourage the radicals entirely, Hunt and his followers were determined to assemble and a new meeting was organised for 16 August,^[10] after the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth, had written to the magistrates instructing them that it was not the intention to elect an MP that was illegal, but the execution of that intention.^[13]

[edit] Assembly

Monday, 16 August 1819, was a hot summer's day, with a cloudless blue sky. The fine weather almost certainly increased the size of the crowd significantly; marching from the outer townships in the cold and rain would have been a much less attractive prospect.^[14]

The Manchester magistrates met at 9:00 am, to breakfast at the Star Inn on Deansgate and to consider what action they should take on Henry Hunt's arrival at the meeting. By 10:30 am they had come to no conclusions, and moved to a house on the southeastern corner of St Peter's Field, from where they planned to observe the meeting.^[15] They were concerned that it would end in a riot, or even a rebellion, and had arranged for a substantial number of regular troops and militia yeomanry to be deployed. The military presence comprised 600 men of the 15th Hussars; several hundred infantrymen; a Royal Horse Artillery unit with two six-pounder (2.7 kg) guns; 400 men of the Cheshire Yeomanry; 400 special constables; and 120 cavalry of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry, relatively inexperienced militia recruited from among local shopkeepers and tradesmen, the most numerous of which were publicans.^[16] The Manchester Yeomanry were variously described as "younger members of the Tory party in arms",^[17] and as "hot-headed young men who had volunteered into that service from their intense hatred of Radicalism".^[5]

The British Army in the north was under the overall command of General Sir John Byng. When he had initially learned that the meeting was scheduled for 2 August he had written to the Home Office stating that he hoped the Manchester magistrates would show firmness on the day:

I will be prepared to go there, and will have in that neighbourhood, that is within an easy day's march, 8 squadron of cavalry, 18 companies of infantry and the guns. I am sure I can add to the Yeomanry if requisite. I hope therefore the civil authorities will not be deterred from doing their duty.^[18]

—Letter from General Sir John Byng to the Home Office, dated 16 July 1819

The revised meeting date of 16 August, however, coincided with with the horse races at York, a fashionable event at which Byng had entries in two races. He once again wrote to the Home Office, saying that although he would still be prepared to be in command in Manchester on the day of the meeting if it was thought really necessary, he had absolute confidence in his deputy commander, Lieutenant Colonel Guy L'Estrange.^[19]

A majority of those attending the meeting at Peterloo were not from Manchester, but from the surrounding townships.

The crowd that gathered in St Peter's Field arrived in disciplined and organised contingents. Each village or chapelry was given a time and a place to meet, from where its members were to proceed to assembly points in the larger towns or townships, and from there on to Manchester.^[20] Contingents were sent from all around the region, the largest and "best dressed" of which was a group of 10,000 who had travelled from Oldham Green, comprised of people from Oldham, Royton (which included a sizable female section), Crompton, Lees, Saddleworth and Mossley.^[21] Other sizable contingents marched from Middleton and Rochdale (6,000 strong) and Stockport (1,500–5,000 strong).^[22] Reports of the size of the crowd at the meeting vary substantially. Contemporaries estimated it from 30,000 to as many as 150,000; modern estimates are 60,000–80,000.^[23] Marlow describes the event as "The most numerous meeting that ever took place in Great Britain" and elaborates that the generally accepted figure of 60,000 would have been 6% of the population of Lancashire, or half the population of the immediate area around Manchester.^[21]

The assembly was intended by its organisers and participants to be a peaceful meeting,^[24] and many were wearing their "Sunday best" clothes.^[25] Most were not from Manchester itself, but from the surrounding townships. The Rev. W. R. Hay, chairman of the Salford Quarter Sessions, said "The active part of the meeting may be said to have come in wholly from the country".^[26] Some carried banners with texts like "No Corn Laws", "Annual Parliaments", "Universal suffrage" and "Vote By Ballot." The only banner known to have survived is in Middleton Public Library. It was carried by Thomas Redford who was injured by a yeomanry sabre. Made of green silk embossed with gold lettering, one side of the banner is inscribed "Liberty and Fraternity" and the other "Unity and Strength".^[27]

At about 12:00 pm, several hundred special constables were led onto the field. They formed two lines in the crowd a few yards apart, from the house where the magistrates were watching to the hustings, two waggons lashed together. Believing that this might be intended as the route by which the magistrates would later send their representatives to arrest the speakers, some members of the crowd pushed the waggons away from the constables, and pressed around the hustings to form a human barrier.^[28]

Hunt's carriage arrived at the meeting shortly after 1:00 pm, and he made his way to the hustings. Alongside Hunt on the speakers' stand were John Knight, Joseph Johnson, John Thacker Saxton, Richard Carlile and George Swift. There were also a number of reporters, including John Tyas of The Times, John Smith of the Liverpool Echo and Edward Baines Jr, the son of the editor of the Leeds Mercury.^[29] By this time St Peter's Field, an area of 14,000 square yards (11,706 m²), was packed with tens of thousands of men, women and children. The crowd around the speakers was so dense that "their hats seemed to touch"; large groups of curious spectators gathered on the outskirts of the crowd. The rest of Manchester was like a ghost town, the streets and shops were empty.^[30]

[edit] Charge

William Hulton, the chairman of the magistrates watching from the house on the edge of St Peter's Field, saw the enthusiastic reception that Hunt received on his arrival at the assembly, and it encouraged him to action. He issued an arrest warrant for Henry Hunt, Joseph Johnson, John Knight, and James Moorhouse. On being handed the warrant the Chief Constable, Jonathan Andrews, offered his opinion that the press of the crowd surrounding the hustings would make military assistance necessary for its execution. Hulton then wrote two letters, one to Major Thomas Trafford, the commanding officer of the Manchester Yeomanry, and the other to the overall military commander in Manchester, Lieutenant Colonel Guy L'Estrange. The contents of both notes were similar:^[31]

Sir, as chairman of the select committee of magistrates, I request you to proceed immediately to no. 6 Mount Street, where the magistrates are assembled. They consider the Civil Power wholly inadequate to preserve the peace. I have the honour, & c. Wm. Hulton.^[33]

—Letter sent by William Hulton to Major Trafford of the Manchester Yeomanry

The notes were handed to two horsemen who were standing by. The Manchester Yeomanry were stationed just a short distance away in Portland Street, and so received their note first. The yeomanry immediately drew their swords and galloped towards St Peter's Field. One trooper, in a frantic attempt to catch up, knocked down a woman in Cooper Street, causing the death of her child when he was thrown from her arms;^[34] two-year-old William Fildes was the first casualty of Peterloo.^[35]

A caricature by George Cruikshank depicting the charge upon the rally

Sixty cavalrymen of the Manchester Yeomanry, alleged by some reports to have been drunk,^[36] arrived at the house from where the magistrates were watching, with Captain Hugh Hornby Birley at their head. Andrews, the Chief Constable, instructed Birley that he had an arrest warrant which he needed assistance to execute. Birley was asked to take his yeomanry to the hustings and to surround them, allowing the speakers to be removed; it was by then about 1:40 pm.^[37] The route towards the hustings between the special constables was narrow, and as the inexperienced horses were thrust further and further into the crowd they reared and plunged as terrified people tried to get out of their way.^[38] The cavalry pushed towards the speakers' stand, where Hunt was still addressing the crowd,^[5].^[5] When some demonstrators tried to stop them by linking arms, the militia began to strike at them with their sabres.^[5] On their arrival at the speaker's stand, Hunt, Johnson and a number of others, including John Tyas, the reporter from The Times were arrested.^[39] The progress of the yeomanry through the crowd had provoked a hail of bricks and stones, and caused them to lose "all command of temper", according to the reporter from The Times.^[40] Their mission to execute the arrest warrant having been achieved, they then set about trying to destroy the banners and flags carried by the crowd.^[40]

From his vantage point William Hulton perceived the unfolding events as an assault on the yeomanry, and on L'Estrange's arrival at 1:50 pm, at the head of his hussars, ordered them into the field to disperse the crowd. The 15th Hussars formed themselves into a line stretching across the entire eastern end of St Peter's Field, and charged into the crowd. At about the same time the Cheshire Yeomanry charged from the southern edge of the field.^[41] At first the crowd had some difficulty in dispersing, as the main route into Peter Street was blocked by the 88th Infantry Regiment, standing with bayonets fixed. One officer of the 15th Hussars was heard trying to restrain the by now out of control Manchester Yeomanry, who were "cutting at every one they could reach": "For shame! For shame! Gentlemen: forbear, forbear! The people cannot get away!"^[42]

However, within 10 minutes the crowd had been dispersed, at the cost of 11 dead and over 600 injured. Only the wounded, their helpers, and the dead were left behind. A woman living nearby said she saw "a very great deal of blood".^[10]

[edit] Victims

The exact number of those killed and injured at Peterloo has never been established with certainty.^[43] Sources claim 11-15 killed and 400-700 injured. The official Metropolitan Relief Committee gave the number of injured as 420, whilst Radical sources listed 500.^[43] The true number is difficult to estimate, as many of the wounded hid their injuries for fear of retribution by the authorities.^[44]

[edit] Witness accounts

Archibald Prentice, editor of The Manchester Times for over twenty years, saw the assembly and the aftermath of the charge. In his reminiscences, which he wrote after his retirement in 1851, he said:

The morning of the 16th August came, and soon after nine o’clock the people began to assemble. From the windows of Mr. Baxter’s house in Moseley Street I saw the main body proceeding towards St Peter’s Field and never saw a gayer spectacle. There were haggard looking men certainly, but the majority were young persons in their Sunday best suits, and the light coloured dresses of the cheerful, tidy-looking women relieved the effect of the drab fustians worn by the men…. Slowly and orderly the multitudes took their place around the hustings which stood on a spot now included under the free Trade Hall.

I saw Hunt arrive and heard the shouts of the sixty thousand persons by whom he was enthusiastically welcomed as the carriage in which he stood made his way through the dense crowd to the hustings. I proceeded to my dwelling house in Salford, intending to return in about an hour or so to witness in what manner a meeting so large would separate. I had not been home more than a quarter of an hour when when a wailing sound was heard from the main street and, rushing out, I saw people running in the direction of Pendleton, their faces pale as death, and with some blood trickling down their cheeks. It was with difficulty I could get anyone to tell me what had happened. The unarmed multitude, men, women and children, had been attacked with murderous results by the military.^[47]

Another eye-witness described the scene after the charge:

Some still groaning, others with staring eyes, gasping for breath, others will never breathe more; all silent save for the low sounds and occasional snorting and pawing of steeds.^[48]

[edit] Reaction and aftermath

For some time following the dispersal of the crowd from St Peter's Field there was rioting in the streets, most seriously at New Cross, where troops fired on a crowd attacking a shop belonging to someone rumoured to have taken one of the women reformer's flags as a souvenir. Peace was not restored in Manchester until the next morning, although in Stockport and Macclesfield rioting continued on the 17th.^[49] There was also a major riot in Oldham that day, during which one person was shot and wounded.^[10]

Many of those present at the massacre, including local masters, employers and owners, were horrified by the carnage. One of the casualties, Oldham cloth-worker and ex-soldier John Lees, who died from his wounds on 7 September, had been present at the Battle of Waterloo.^[10] Shortly before his death he said to a friend that he had never been in such danger as at Peterloo: "At Waterloo there was man to man but there it was downright murder."^[51] When news of the massacre began to spread, the population of Manchester and surrounding districts were horrified and outraged.^[5] This was the first public meeting at which journalists from a number of important, distant newspapers were present and, within a day or so of the event, accounts were published as far away as London, Leeds and Liverpool.^[52] The London and national papers shared the horror felt in the Manchester region, and the feeling of indignation throughout the country became intense. The name "Peterloo" was coined immediately by the radical Manchester Observer, combining the name of the meeting place, St Peter's Field, with the Battle of Waterloo fought 4 years earlier.

The immediate effect of Peterloo was a crackdown on reform. Hunt and eight others were tried at York Assizes on 16 March 1820, charged with sedition. After a two-week trial, five of the ten defendants were found guilty. Hunt was sentenced to 30 months in Ilchester Jail; Bamford, Johnson, and Healey were given one year each, and Knight was jailed for two years on a subsequent charge. A test case was brought against four members of the Manchester Yeomanry at Lancaster Assizes, on 4 April 1822: Captain Birley, Captain Withington, Trumpeter Meagher, and Private Oliver. All were acquitted, as the court ruled that their actions had been justified to disperse an illegal gathering.^[53]

The government declared its support for the actions taken by the magistrates and the army. The Manchester magistrates held a supposedly public meeting on 19 August, so that resolutions supporting the action they had taken three days before could be published. Archibald Prentice organised a petition of protest against the violence at St Peter's Field and the validity of the magistrate's meeting. Within a few days it had collected 4,800 signatures.^[54] Nevertheless the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth, on 27 August conveyed to the magistrates the thanks of The Prince Regent for their action in the "preservation of the public peace".^[5] This public exoneration by the Prince was met with fierce anger and criticism. During a debate, Robert Wedderburn declared "The Prince is a fool with his Wonderful letters of thanks... What is the Prince Regent or King to us, we want no King - he is no use to us."^[55] In an open letter, Richard Carlile said:

Unless the Prince calls his ministers to account and relieved his people, he would surely be deposed and make them all REPUBLICANS, despite all adherence to ancient and established institutions.^[55]

—Letter to the Prince Regent from Richard Carlile

For a few months following Peterloo it seemed to the authorities that the country was heading towards an armed rebellion. Encouraging them in that belief were two abortive uprisings, in Huddersfield and Burnley, during the autumn of 1819, and the discovery and foiling of the Cato Street Conspiracy to blow up the cabinet that winter.^[56] By the end of the year, the government had introduced legislation, later known as the Six Acts, to suppress radical meetings and publications, and by the end of 1820 every significant working-class radical reformer was in jail; civil liberties had declined to an even lower level than they were before Peterloo. Historian Robert Reid has written that "it is not fanciful to compare the restricted freedoms of the British worker in the post-Peterloo period in the early nineteenth century with those of the black South African in the post-Sharpeville period of the late twentieth century".^[57]

Bury born Prime Minister Robert Peel, under whom the Corn Laws were repealed in 1846.

Peterloo proved to be influential.^[17] The incident led to the formation of The Manchester Guardian newspaper in 1821 by a group of non-conformist Manchester businessmen headed by John Edward Taylor, a witness to the massacre.^[17] The prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that it would "zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty ... warmly advocate the cause of Reform ... endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of Political Economy and ... support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, all serviceable measures."^[58]

Following the Great Reform Act of 1832, the newly created Manchester parliamentary borough elected its first MPs since the election of 1656.^{[citation needed]} Five candidates including William Cobbett stood, and Liberals Charles Poulett Thomson and Mark Philips were elected.^[59] Manchester became a Municipal Borough in 1837, and what remained of the manorial rights were subsequently purchased by the borough council. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 reformed the country's poverty relief system.

As a result of the Peterloo Massacre, the Anti-Corn Law League was established in Manchester in 1838, and used pamphlets, mass demonstrations, and torchlight parades to protest against the Corn Laws. In 1846, the Corn Laws were repealed under Bury born Prime Minister, Robert Peel. The government was still led by Tories, but The Great Hunger of Ireland led to the repeal, demonstrating the new power of the industrialists in England. The Chartist movement of 1848 had adherents in Manchester, and many arrests were made by the police.^[5]

[edit] Commemoration

Original blue plaque commemorating the Peterloo Massacre.

Until 2007 the site of the massacre was commemorated by a blue plaque on the wall of what was the Free Trade Hall, now the Radisson Hotel. It was inscribed:

The site of St Peter's Fields where on 16th August 1819 Henry Hunt, Radical Orator addressed an assembly of about 60,000 people. Their subsequent dispersal by the military is remembered as Peterloo.^[60]

A growing body of opinion regarded that as a less-than-appropriate memorial, with the incident being under-reported as a dispersal and the deaths being omitted completely.^[17] In a 2006 survey conducted by The Guardian, Peterloo came second to St. Mary's Church, Putney, the venue for the Putney Debates, as the event from British history that most deserved a proper monument.^[61] In 2007, Manchester City Council replaced the original blue plaque with a red one, giving a more complete account of the events of 1819. It was unveiled on 10 December 2007 by the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Glynn Evans.^[62] Under the heading "St. Peter's Fields: The Peterloo Massacre", the new plaque reads:

On August 16 1819 a peaceful rally of 60,000 pro-democracy reformers, men, women and children, was attacked by armed cavalry resulting in 15 deaths and over 600 injuries.^[63]

A Peterloo Massacre Memorial Campaign has been set up to lobby for a more prominent monument to an event that has been described as Manchester's Tiananmen Square.^[64]

[edit] Cultural references

The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was living in Italy at the time and did not hear of the massacre until 5 September. He immediately wrote a poem entitled The mask of Anarchy, subtitled Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester, and sent it for publication in the radical periodical The Examiner. However, due to restrictions on the radical press the poem was not published until 1832.^[65]

British composer Sir Malcolm Arnold was commissioned by the Trades Union Congress to write the Peterloo Overture, in celebration of the congress' centenary in 1968.^[66] Other musical commemorations include Ned Ludd Part 5 on electric folk group Steeleye Span's album Bloody Men, and Rochdale rock band Tractor's suite of five songs written and recorded in 1973, later included on their 1992 release Worst Enemies.

The Peterloo Massacre forms the opening of Emma Darwin's novel The Mathematics of Love.^[67] It also forms a backdrop for the 1947 film Fame is the Spur (based on Howard Spring's 1940 novel of the same name). Though never mentioned by name, the massacre is described in a flashback; the film's hero receives a sabre supposedly taken from one of the hussars.

[edit] See also

• Bolton Massacre – an episode in the English Civil War, at Bolton.
• Free Trade Hall – built near the site of the massacre, on what is today Peter Street.

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Further reading

• Bush, Michael (2005). The Casualties of Peterloo. Carnegie Publishing. ISBN 1859361250. 
• Read, Donald (1973). Peterloo: the "massacre" and its background. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0678067910. 

[edit] External links

• BBC Radio 4 In Our Time broadcast about the Peterloo massacre
• UK Schoolnet information about the Peterloo massacre
• Eyewitness account of the massacre given by Samuel Bamford
• Peterloo Memorial Campaign - Campaign for a prominent appropriate and respectful monument to this historic Manchester event