Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

2I8 BRITAIN AT WORK. members of the building trades make ex- cellent firemen, because of their familiarity with building construction and their agility in mounting scaffolding. A large number of provincial brigades are branches of the local police, and for this reason a good many firemen throughout the country are landsmen by origin, and in many instances are drawn from the agricultural classes. But of this later. The routine of the drill class is no child’s the scene of a conflagration. In the Glasgow Fire Brigade practical joking is punishable by fine, all members must subscribe to the library, and no games are permitted in the stations before seven o’clock in the evening or before four o’clock on Saturdays. Under the London County Council the pay of firemen under instruction is 24s. per week. It rises through the four grades to 37s. 6d. per week in the case of a first-class fireman ; and the pay of a superintendent may reach a maximum of ^295, A______ inclusive of the esti- mated value of rent, coals, and gas. After fifteen years’ service a f i r e m a n m a y obtain a life pension reckoned at 30 per cent, of his pay, and should he complete .........' play. By eight o’clock each morning the recruits have already clone an hour of clean- ing work. After forty-five minutes allotted to breakfast, the whole morning is occupied in instruction, drill, and cleaning, with the exception of a quarter of an hour of standing easy. After dinner, two hours and a quarter are spent in further drill; and in the evening the practical class engages in evolutions, the theoretical class being an eager and critical audience. At ten o’clock all lights are turned down. The routine of the men on duty at the stations covers the same hours, and every minute is occupied, even if it be only with the duty of standing by in readiness to spring up at the tinkling of a bell and to hasten off to twenty-eight years of service he receives a pension of two-thirds of his pay. The widow of a first-class fireman who is killed in the discharge of his duty receives a pension of £20 per annum, with is. 6d. per week for each child until it is fifteen years old. There is also a scale of gratuities based upon length of service. The amount paid in pensions during 1901-2 was £13,907, and it is significant that among the 179 persons upon the list only nine were widows and six children. London has always been fortunate in the men to whom the supreme control of its fire service has been entrusted. To mention no others, the names of James Braidwood and