Who was Sarah Chapman, the 19th century labor activist from Enola Holmes 2?

Ever since the much-awaited movie Enola Holmes 2 arrived on Netflix, fans have been wondering about the real story behind one of the characters, Sarah Chapman.

Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter reprise their roles from the first movie, this time joined by a slew of new characters, including a female version of Moriarty. The movies are based on the The Enola Holmes Mysteries by Nancy Springer, a pastiche series that borrows from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s existing Sherlock Holmes canon.

The sequel opens with a title card that reads, “Some of what follows is true. The important parts at least.” While the Holmes siblings and their adversaries are quite fictional, the story of Sarah Chapman is indeed true.

Beware SPOILERS for Enola Holmes 2 ahead!

What happens in Enola Holmes 2?

In the movie, Sarah Chapman is a red-haired young girl played by Hannah Dodd. She works at the Lyon Match Factory by day and is a dancer at night. When she goes missing, her sister Bessie comes to Enola Holmes’ detective agency for help.

Enola finds out that Sarah went missing after ripping out pages from the books at the matchstick factory. A couple of murders, one prison break and a booby trap showdown later, the documents turn out to be red-hot proof of the management’s wrongdoings. They conspired to use a type of cheap white phosphorus in the matchstick that was poisoning the factory workers and their deaths were written off as typhus cases while the owners reaped the profits.

At the end of the movie, Sarah and Enola expose the factory owners and convince the girls to walk out and strike, which the movie calls “the first ever industrial action taken by women for women.”

Watch the scene below:

Was Sarah Chapman a real person?

Sarah Chapman (later Dearman), was one of the leaders of the 1888 Bryant & May Matchgirls’ strike and a pioneer of the trade union movement. She is hailed as a champion of the struggle for gender equality and against discriminatory wages in the workplace.

Born to Samuel Chapman and Sarah Ann Mackenzie on 31 October, 1862, Sarah Chapman was a machinist who worked at the Bryant and May Factory. The workers there were frustrated with the abusive behavior of the foremen, low wages, long hours, terrible working conditions, and the unfair fine system.

Annie Besant, renowned activist and politician, interviewed the matchgirls outside the factory about their experience and published a damning article in her magazine The Link. The factory sued Besant for libel and wanted the girls to sign a document stating that the accusations were false. They refused and instead thanked Besant in a letter. That led to a series of sackings, but the attempt to put fear into the hearts of the works didn’t work. Some 1,400 girls walked out on strike on July 5, 1888 in protest.

Sarah Chapman was one of them. She later became a Strike Committee member and one of the three representatives who met with Besant to seek help. Twelve days later, the factory gave in and met all the terms put forward by the committee.

The Matchmaker’s Union was also formed, of which Sarah Chapman became the first elected representative.

The Matchgirls’ Strike, along with the Great Dock Strike a year later, contributed to the eventual formation of the U.K.’s Labour Party.

Like many other heroes of the human rights movement, Sarah Chapman’s story was largely lost to history, at least until her great granddaughter Sam Johnson unearthed it a few years ago. All the details about Sarah Chapman in this article were taken from Johnson’s statements on the People’s History Museum and The Matchgirls Memorial websites.

Enola Holmes 2  certainly took liberties while telling Sarah Chapman’s story. She never went missing, fell in love with the factory owner’s son, created elaborate riddles to hide proof of corruption, or got tangled in a murder case. That was the franchise simply staying on brand, much like how the first movie dramatized the Suffragette Movement.

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