Chimney sweep whose death changed law honoured with blue plaque
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George Brewster, youngest to get plaque, died aged 11 in 1875 after getting stuck in flue, leading to law banning ‘climbing boys’. An 11-year-old chimney sweep whose death after getting stuck in a flue led to a change in Victorian child labour laws is to become the youngest British person to be honoured with an official blue plaque.
![[The 7th earl of Shaftesbury]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/58f7b0108d3c371cbe5a3c2cc52af6ee94d72735/0_82_2513_3139/master/2513.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
George Brewster, a “climbing boy”, died in 1875 after getting jammed while cleaning the inside of a chimney at the County Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Fulbourn near Cambridge. According to a contemporary report in the Cambridge Independent News, George was told by the master sweeper, William Wyer, to remove his clothes and enter a flue measuring 12in by 7.5in. Fifteen minutes after beginning work, George became stuck. A wall was demolished in efforts to rescue him, but he died shortly after being pulled out. Wyer was later sentenced to six months hard labour for manslaughter.
![[A chimney sweep and his young helper.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d37e575ea5a95d3f675c73f4be4168b606e45027/0_13_220_132/master/220.jpg?width=120&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
George was the last climbing boy to die in England after the 7th earl of Shaftesbury read an account of an inquest into his death and vowed to renew attempts to change the law. The earl had campaigned for 35 years to outlaw the use of children to clean chimneys but the practice continued.
In September 1875, seven months after George’s death, an act of parliament banning the use of climbing boys was passed. The new law heralded the end of child labour practices in other industries such as farming, mining and factory production. Four years later, in 1880, another act of parliament made school attendance compulsory, transforming the lives of millions of children.
