Peter Malpass (Letters, 3 April) is right to highlight the fact that WD & HO Wills recruited many Bristolian women and girls to work in their Bedminster factories. My mother was one: she left education at 14 to work on a Wills production line at Ashton Gate stripping leaves of tobacco. She told me about the regimented existence: no speaking while working on the line and having to ask permission to use the toilet. My mother became politicised, was a staunch supporter of trade unions and joined the co-operative movement. My grandmother and great-aunt were also employees at Wills from the 1890s. Bristol University ought to erect a commemorative plaque to all those working-class women at Wills whose toil made great profits for the company which then invested it in the education of privileged students from upper-middle-class backgrounds.
Jane Nation
London
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