Women workers in packaging during the war. Women were brought in to work at ICI whilst the men went to war. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Women workers in packaging during the war. Women were brought in to work at ICI whilst the men went to war.
In the recently released ICI film Alma Durkin is shown dancing ready to represent ICI at Wembly 1946
I learnt that Josephine Sarah Durkin,born circa 1904, died 1981 (I think) worked at ICI. Does anyone reading this remember her? or any other members of the Durkin or Devlin families?
Aged 17 I spent 6 weeks of my ICI apprenticeship amongst women doing a similar job at the Nitro-Chalk Packing Shed. I remember learning how to repair sewing machines and being at the beck-and-call of the ladies on the sewing lines. They kept all young apprentices on their toes and I remember it as a difficult 6 weeks for a young lad just coming to terms with the adult world.
This photo was taken in the early 1950s and pictures some of the women who worked in the Sulphate of Ammonia Packing Shed ( No 5 Packing Shed). They weighed off two hundred weight jute bags of ferilizer for export all over the world. The lady in the top right hand corner of the photo is my Mother, Emma Sowerby who sadly died about 8 years ago.