Hull historian and photographer gifts life’s work to city
DONATION: Dr Alec Gill with his extensive research
A celebrated historian, author and photographer has gifted his life’s work documenting the Hessle Road fishing community to Hull History Centre.
Dr Alec Gill MBE has donated his extensive research, representing 50 years of work, to the centre.
Almost 100 large box files, containing tens of thousands of pages of documentation, have been deposited at the archive.
The collection of work includes information on hundreds of trawlers that were based and set sail from Hull’s once thriving fishing community.
Dr Gill said: “Fifty years of dedicated research into the dynamic topic of Hull’s Hessle Road fishing community have been set against the backdrop of my personal life - both bad and good.
“Both my parents died during the four years of researching the 900 Lost Trawlers of Hull. Then, in 1986, I first met poet Audrey Dunne - and we are together after 35 years, still going strong and each writing in our different ways."
The research will be available to be viewed and referenced by the public and academics at the history centre.
Councillor Marjorie Brabazon, Chair of Hull Culture and Leisure, said: “Dr Gill has spent his life telling the stories of others - of people, and of a community whose stories may otherwise have gone untold.
“I’m delighted that Dr Gill’s incredible work will be stored and made available at the history centre, meaning that this important part of Hull’s history can never be forgotten.”
Much of the research was gathered by Dr Gill on various trips to libraries and archives throughout the UK.
‘VERY GENEROUS’: Dr Alec Gill has handed over his life’s work to Hull History Centre
These included London Guildhall Library, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Imperial War Museum, the Ministry of Defence Library and the Shipping Registers in Gabalfa, Cardiff - where Dr Gill found many of the names of lost Hull trawlermen.
The bulk of the Hull-sourced material came from months of visiting the former HM Customs & Excise Office at Portcullis House, now the site of the BBC building in Queens Gardens.
Councillor John Fareham, Deputy Chair of the Hull History Centre Board, said: “This is great news and a very generous gesture.
“It is impossible for many of us not to think of the fishing industry or Hessle Road without thinking of Alec Gill - it’s a match like fish and chips or Morcombe and Wise.
“That this body of work will soon be available to all via the brilliant archive service is a fantastic selfless gesture that can only broaden and enhance our knowledge of one of the industries that defined Hull and made it the great city it is today.
“Knowledge spread far and wide is what we are here for as an archive service and we thank Alec for helping that aim, and increase understanding.”
His large body of work was the basis upon which Dr Gill was awarded an MBE in 2009 for ‘services to Hull’s fishing community’, and an Honorary Doctorate by The University of Hull in 2010.
It is expected to be available at Hull History Centre later this year.
Dr Gill has also offered to assist future research academics, post-graduate students, authors and local historians wishing to benefit from his archived research.
He started photographing Hull's Hessle Road area in 1971. His first photographic exhibition, The Kids of Hessle Road, was held in 1979.
In celebration of Dr Gill’s Hessle Road photography project turning 50 this year, a campaign has been launched to raise funds to produce a new book of his long-standing documentary study of Hull's fishing community.