Official account of riots hotly disputed

IT is sometimes all too easy to accept the official version of historical events such as the shooting of coal miners during the Tonypandy riots in South Wales.

I mentioned this important event of the early 1900s when Winston Churchill was Home Secretary in the course of my correspondence in the Derby Telegraph dated June 22 2020, in which I praised him for the supreme part he played in the defeat of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Your correspondent, who wrote about the Tonypandy riots, has followed the government account, which is still hotly contested for its blatant inaccuracies.

Peter Newton should be aware of the eyewitness accounts of the Tonypandy shootings of Welsh coal miners which were relayed by word and mouth. The trade union leader Lewis Jones gave a detailed account of the Tonypandy riots and their agonising social consequences.

It is maintained that 11 strikers were killed by rifle fire by soldiers from the Lancashire Fusiliers and the 18th Hussars. Right up to the general election campaign of 1951, Winston Churchill was reminded about this event.

Saros Kavina, Derby