Why did I break the General Strike
“Why did I break the strike and go into work?” you ask me. Because I’m a Company man, a GWR man, A man who thinks that Sir Felix Pole sometimes knows best, A man who has grandchildren to feed and clothe, A man who needs the wage and can’t risk losing his job...
Personal Memories of Decades of Industrial Struggle
I come from a small town in North West Wales, called Blaenau Ffestiniog. It’s a very Welsh place. In the last census about 5% only spoke Welsh and around 80% speak, read and write in Welsh. Over a century ago most of my family are recorded in every census as only...
The King and the General Strike and the Constitution
Having read one of King George V’s diary entries from May 1926, I thought it a good idea to seek out a biography of the King. I found Kenneth Rose’s biography second hand for a fiver and read it all with fascination. It’s a sympathetic rather than hagiographic...
Elsie
ELSIE a remembering Elsie, large and imposing, seated at her sewing machine. Her thick brown lisle stockings rolled down above the plaid slippered feet that waited on the treadle. Her grey hair pulled back into a bun. A few escaped wisps fall over her eyes. The...
For the Benefit of Stroud Food Bank
For the benefit of Stroud Food Bank A match to honour and give thanks to those who struck a chord and blow This day a hundred years ago From North and South and West and East Again The Strikers face Police With helmets and flat caps they’ll play In mem’ry...
Plymouth Strikers v Police 1926
Plymouth Strikers v Police 1926 Imagine the scene if you are able: A procession of some 4,000 people, With union banners and a brass band (The day after the same number of people Battled with police when ‘volunteers’ Attempted to break the General Strike, By taking...