Worker Jens Dalum (July 4, 1852 – March 22, 1906) and telegraph operator Christian Dalum (August 17, 1888 – December 9, 1918), father and son, were both active in the labor movement and Social Democracy. The former in the trade union. The son, Christian, participated in the founding of the party’s youth section, SUF, where he served two terms as chairman. However, both died of illness before their work was completed. They both have a memorial stone at Skive Cemetery.
Jens: Social Democrat and trade unionist
Jens Dalum was a pioneer of the labor movement. He belonged to the first generation of social democrats and trade unionists in Skive. He was one of the founders of the Workers’ Trade Union in Skive in 1896. He was elected to the board when it was founded, and from 1901 to 1905 he was chairman of the union. He was often elected as a delegate to meetings and congresses of the union, and he acted as a spokesman for the workers in Skive on several occasions. He also participated in the founding of the Social Democratic Association for Skive and the surrounding area in 1898. At the founding meeting of the party association on March 6, 1898, he was also elected to the board, where he was elected vice chairman.
Death and legacy
Jens Dalum died of cancer after a long and difficult illness, aged just 54. He worked as a laborer in Skive for 22 years.
Upon his death in 1906, he received the following eulogy from editor Gerhard Nielsen in Viborg Amts Social-Demokrat: “Always ready to speak up for his comrades, always without fear of expressing his opinion on the matters at hand, Jens Dalum commanded the respect of both peers and opponents.”
After his funeral, the Social Democratic Association placed a memorial stone on his grave.
Christian: Bookbinder
Christian Marinus Jensen Dalum (August 17, 1888 – December9 , 1918) was the son of laborer Jens Dalum. In the spring of 1906 he was trained as a bookbinder at the School for the Disabled. The education was paid for by the poor committee in Skive. On June 8, 1906, Skive Folkeblad reported that at the Skive City Council meeting the day before, the Poor Committee had wanted to inform the City Council that the municipality had been very pleased with its care for Jens Dalum’s son, who had learned the craft of bookbinding at the School for the Disabled. “He had now completed his apprenticeship very satisfactorily and, among other things, sent the city council several books, which Ingv. Christensen [master bookbinder and city councilor] found well bound. The young man had been given a place, and hopefully he would be able to fend for himself in the future.”
Telegrafbud, co-founder and chairman of SUF
Christian Dalum later got a job as a telegraph messenger at the State Telegraph in Skive. Like his father, he was active in the Social Democratic labor movement. He participated in the founding of the Social Democratic Youth Association in Skive (SUF) in 1906, where he was elected the association’s first chairman. And he was again chairman of the youth association from 1916 until his death. He sat on the board of SUF’s West Jutland district, and in 1917 he was elected to the main board of SUF. He was also active in the Social Democratic Party Association in Skive.
At the time Christian Dalum became chairman of SUF in Skive for the second time, SUF was Skive’s largest political youth association with 220 members. The growth continued in the following years.
The October Revolution creates tensions
SUF was politically to the left of the more moderate Social Democrats – the young Social Democrats were republicans and anti-militarists, and the Russian revolutions and the Bolsheviks’ seizure of power in October 1917 occupied the youth. At the end of World War I in November 1918, when Germany became a republic, the possibility of a revolution moved closer to Denmark, creating internal tensions in the SUF.
The Spanish flu strikes
Christian Dalum didn’t really get to experience this. In the fall of 1918, war-torn Europe was hit by a dangerous epidemic – the Spanish flu, which killed 50 million people worldwide and almost 20,000 in Denmark. The first case of Spanish flu hit Skive in mid-July 1918, and in November-December 1918, around 200 new cases were reported every week. Several people died from the disease. One of them was Christian Dalum. He was infected on December 1, 1918, pneumonia set in and a week later he was admitted to Skive Hospital. Nothing could be done, and Christian Dalum died the next day.
Wreaths and memorial stones
Christian Dalum’s funeral was very well attended. There were wreaths from the social democratic youth associations in Skive’s neighboring towns. Members of SUF in Skive carried the coffin to the grave, where a member of the SUF Executive Committee gave a speech.
SUF in Skive placed a memorial stone on the grave.
Christian’s son becomes the third generation of activists
Christian Dalum had married Jensine Jensen in 1914, and six months before his death they became parents to a son, Jens. Jens Dalum was trained as a typographer, and like his father and grandfather, he was active in the labor movement, both professionally as a member of the board of the typographers’ union and politically. First as a member of the Danish Communist Party and later as one of the founders of the Socialist People’s Party’s branch in Skive, and as a long-standing member of the board of Arbejdernes Andelsboligforening.
- Sources:
Kaj Ove Miltersen and Niels Mortensen: Fælles vilje Fælles virke. Socialdemokratiet i Skive 100 år 1898-1998. 1998. - Jørgen D. Jensen: The time during and around World War I. In: Skive kommunes historie fra 1880 til 1940, 2002, pp. 335-348.