The Barnbow 1st National Shell Filling Factory covered 200 acres at Bross Gates in Leeds. It produced 10,000 shells a week.
Created in 1915 the first of many and the biggest in Europe. By 1918 it produced 566,000 tonnes of ammunition and 80 per cent of all British weaponry made by women by 1917. But the men who run it made a fortune out of killing people, one way or another.
The PM's step-great-grandfather Joe Watson, chairman of a committee of businessmen, put the proposal for the factory before Minister of Munition, and future PM David Loyd George.
They had to pay very high wages, around £3 a week, but it was blood money, to attract people to do the dangerous work. The injured women and families of those who died received little or no money of compensation.
Alice Nutter, who written a play about the 'Barnbow Lasses' believes the men who run the plant do not deserve their peer title but a title "They were b*****ds"
"These middle-class men knew the dangers involved for the women. But it wouldn't had occurred to them that the women's lives were just as important as theirs, maybe even more because they were poor and big families. They probably just thought: "But they're getting paid a good wages.
"Yet, when people were killed or injured very few were paid compensation and they didn't get pensions either.
"Then when the war ended in 1918 they were thrown out of work. These women had a taste of freedom and independence then were totally betrayed."
Alice reckon that by 1916 the Government knew that TNT could be lethal. TNT poisoning included blistering eyes, rotten teeth and painful sores. it changed their skin colour and some saw hair go green or orange.
Alice added further: "The women knew the TNT was poisoning them but they felt it was necessary for the war effort, because their men were sacrificing their lives on the front. These women were soldiers too because they were risking their lives too."
The biggest danger was an explosion. Women worn special clothing without any metal to avoid a spark being created. The plant was set-up with individual sheds to prevent a chain reaction.
But on 5 December, 1916 a blast in Hut 42 was caused. It had never been established what caused it. Most of the women working there were blown apart but the few who survived suffered a lingering death. All these women came from big families and the impact was devastating but of no concern to the men who run it.
After the remains of people were removed and only identified by name tags it was rebuilt and ready to run within 24 hours. The accident was cover-up for security reason for Germans not to discover the location of the whole plant.
David Cameron's rich relative Joseph Watson being made a Baron and died in 1922 aged 49. His second son Robert married Enid Levita in 1961. Her only child, from her first marriage to Donald Cameron, was Ian Cameron, father of the PM.
Despite the Watson family' incredible wealth, compensation paid to Barnbow workers for death or injury was minimal.
MY Opinion: 100 years on and it is obvious the characteristics of the upper class have not changed. They still riding on the backs of the people regardless.
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