James+Greenwood's+'A+Night+in+a+Workhouse'

James Greenwood, was born in Lambeth, Surrey, and is the second son of James Caer Greenwood and Mary Ann. He had a successful career as a children’s writer and a journalist, however it was the publication of his undercover report “A Night in a Workhouse” that he became best known for. Although Greenwood had a successful career, there is little information to be found about him today.

One biographer writing for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Alannah Tomkins, provides a detailed biography of Greenwood. Tomkins notes that there is uncertainty about Greenwood’s year of birth, but it is somewhere from 1830 to 1835 (Tomkins para. 3). Throughout his life there are various recordings of Greenwoods age, including when he married his wife Eliza Hayson (1824 – 1917) and he “gave his age as twenty-one” (Tomkins para. 2). The couple married on December 21st, 1851 at Southwark and “they had at least three sons and five daughters”(Tomkins para. 2).

Greenwood began his career as a novelist and a children’s writer before starting to work as an investigative journalist. One of his stories, “The True History of a Little Ragamuffin”, which Tomkins notes was first published in //Englishwoman’s Magazine// and then issued as a book in 1866, discusses the struggles of living on the street in London (Tomkins para. 3). The book can be viewed online through the Hathi Trust Digital Library. Some of Greenwood’s other publications include “Curiosities of Savage Life” (1863) and “Wild Sports of the World: a boy’s book of natural history and adventure” (1862). Greenwood’s children’s stories were often illustrated by Ernest Griset, a French artist “known as the ‘English Dore’ who specialized in depictions of animals” (Tomkins para. 2).

Greenwood also wrote with his older brother, Frederick Greenwood, who founded the //Pall Mall Gazette// in 1865. The two brothers collaborated on the novel //Under a Cloud//. Tomkins notes that the novel was “first published serially in the //Welcome Guest// and in 1860 as a separate volume” (Tomkins para. 2). Since Frederick’s //Gazette// was not a huge success, he “commissioned [James] to spend a night in the casual ward of a London workhouse” (Tomkins para. 3). Disguised as a tramp, Greenwood was told to go and report about the conditions of the workhouse as an undercover reporter. The editors of //Secret Commissions: An Anthology of Victorian Investigative Journalism//, which reprints the article, note that Greenwood was originally reluctant to do the job, but agreed once he was given £30 in advance, as well as further payment if the reports publication made a significant impact on the circulation of the //Gazette// (Donovan & Rubery 103). Greenwood also published under “The Amateur Casual”, a name which he gave himself while writing “A Night in a Workhouse”. He visited the workhouse in January of 1866, and then published his experience in “three consecutive issues of the //Pall Mall Gazette// on the 12, 13, and 15 of January” (Donovan & Rubery 103). Some of his other publications under the title of “The Amateur Casual” include //Unsentimental Journey’s, or Byways of Modern Babylon// (1867), //The Seven Curses of London// (1869), and //Wrens of the Curragh// (1867). Greenwood would “write and lecture as “The Amateur Casual” for the next thirty years” (Donovan & Rubery 103).

Greenwood’s report “A Night in a Workhouse” drew attention to the “overcrowding and mismanagement” in the workhouse – and his particular descriptions of such unlivable conditions shocked many readers (Donovan & Rubery 103). In particular, as the editors in //Secret Commissions// note in their footnotes for the report, the allusion to homosexual events in the closing paragraph caused significant shock and captivated many of its readers (Donovan & Rubery 120). The report describes Greenwood’s night spent in a Lambeth workhouse, where he stayed for a duration of fourteen hours to report about life in the workhouse. Greenwood describes, with great detail, the unlivable conditions of the workhouse. Upon entering the building, he notes the gross conditions of the three baths provided for the workers to clean themselves, “each one containing a liquid so disgustingly like weak mutton broth” (Greenwood 107). Only after Greenwood has just gotten in the bath is he told by one of the Managers known as “Daddy”, that the baths were only for the filthiest of the people who enter the workhouse (Greenwood 108).

From the overcrowded, unclean rooms for sleeping to the lack of food and basic hygiene supplies provided for the workers, Greenwood emphasizes the horrible conditions of the workhouses. As well, he describes the requirements the workers must meet by completing a certain number of hours doing a specific labour task, in order to earn the place in the workhouse. If a worker does not complete their amount of hours, they are not permitted to leave until they do. Greenwood also explains lazy attitudes of the workers, and how when the millers do not actively look at the workers, the workers slack off and not complete their tasks at hand, or do them poorly. He also explains how because of the cold conditions, the workers are most excited about a breakfast called “Skilley”, which consisted of hot water and oatmeal and was bitter, as it was hot food and warmed the workers (Greenwood 117).

When “A Night in The Workhouse” was published, it brought a lot of publicity to the //Gazette// and greatly raised its circulation. As well as being published in the //Gazette//, the report was also later reprinted in //The Times//, as well as being issued as a pamphlet later that year. Later on, Greenwood then left the //Pall Mall Gazette// to write for the //Daily Telegraph// where he then “authored another highly sensational story about a fight between a man and a dog” (Donovan & Rubery 104). Tomkins notes that Thomas Bass, a Liberal MP during that time, commissioned him to investigate the working conditions on Britain’s railways, and it was Greenwood’s description of long working hours and conditions of the sites led to one of the first railway workers' trade union (Tomkins para. 4). As a result, Greenwood became the editor of a new journal called the //Railway Service Gazette//, which began in February 1872, and he was later editor of the short-lived //King's Cross Journal// of 1880 (Tomkins para. 4).

As Greenwood’s undercover investigations into workhouses and other sites of labour were indeed done in disguise, one may wonder how credible and reliable the material written in the articles he then published is, and how much of the material is elaborated or fictionized for audience entertainment and shock. JC/Engl387/Fall2014/UVic

Works Cited Donovan, Stephen, and Matthew Rubery, eds. //Secret Commissions: An Anthology of Victorian Investigative Journalism//. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2012. 104-120. Print.

Greenwood, James. "A Night in a Workhouse." //Secret Commissions: An Anthology of Victorian Investigative Journalism//. Ed. Stephen Donovan and Matthew Rubery. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2012. 104-120. Print.

Tomkins, Alannah. ‘Greenwood, James William (//bap.// 1835, //d.// 1927)’. //Oxford Dictionary of National Biography//. Oxford University Press, May 2010. Web. 1 October 2014.