Peter Kerrigan was born in Bootle near Liverpool on the 1st of January 1916 and was given a start on the docks in 1935, becoming the youngest coal heaver on the dock at the age of 19, but even getting a job on the docks at that time was something of a struggle. He once wrote, "it seemed that you either became a docker, a seafarer or a ship repairer." His father was a coal heaver, loading coal into the bunkers of ships going to sea and Pete recalls: "You had to have a pound and fourpence to get on the dock then. That was to pay for your tally which made you eligible for hiring. I didn't have a pound and fourpence and my father didn't have it. So I went on the fairground and boxed, taking men on, and getting a collection out of the crowd. I got about 30 shillings, gave my mother ten shillings and kept a pound and fourpence.They were terribly hard conditions which made hard men. There weren't enough coal heavers to man three shifts, so they would work round the clock, particularly during the war. They would work till they finished the ship and then do the same with the next one. You'd work four or five days without going home to sleep. You'd catch a sleep down in the bunker while your mates worked." He joined the Transport and General Workers Union then as a Communist Party member and founded the Birkenhead Port Workers Defence Committee. At some point in the '50s, he joined the National Association of Stevedores and Dockers and wrote the 1958 pamphlet, 'What Next For Britain's Port Workers?' on behalf of the Socialist Labour League - the party he had joined following his departure from the CP. Throughout his working life he fought for the rights of dock workers right up to when he retired.
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| In 'The Rank and File' (1971) |
Once in official retirement Peter became an actor after Jimmy Allen wrote the 'Big Flame' (1969) in which Peter appeared as Peter Conner. The play stimulated the formation of a political group of the same name, largely based in Liverpool. He was soon in demand, appearing in Ken Loach's 'The Rank and File' (1971) and 'Days of Hope' (1975), as well as the Play For Today's 'The Spongers and United Kingdom' (1978), and the drama 'The Gathering Seed' (1983) - all of which were again written by Jimmy Allen. He also appeared in 'ITV Saturday Night Theatre' (1971), 'Softly,Softly' (1971), 'The Liver Birds' (1972), 'Z-Cars' (1973), 'The Sweeney' (1978), 'Strumpet City' (1980), 'Crown Court' and 'Brookside' (1982) and 'Scully' (1984). His grand daughter Justine also appeared later in Brookside, playing teenager Tracey Corkhill,
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| In 'Boys from the Blackstuff' |
However he'll perhaps be best remembered as George Malone in The Blackstuff (1980) and its subsequent spin off series, 'Boys from The Blackstuff' (1982), in which he played a blacklisted former docker and trade unionist. He later became famous for his work on a series of TV plays, many of which were also directed by Ken Loach. Following 'Big Flame' he acted in 'A Bag of Yeast and Sponges' and then in the 'Boys from the Blackstuff' (1982). The role was that of a fighting dockers’ leader who had been victimised and therefore drifted into the tarmac laying game. The series is best known for the character of Yosser Hughes, but Kerrigan plays an older former union official who stands for the dignity of labour, wise and greatly respected, he refuses to give up hope even on the remarkable wheelchair ride through the then decaying Albert Dock which immediately precedes his death–a scene which includes an emotional speech based partly on Kerrigan's own experiences as a docker.
Peter sadly passed away in 1999.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/07/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians.html
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