When the working classes rose against their capitalist masters
During the Great Unrest, workers in Llanelli rose up against poor pay and conditions in 1911. Oliver Roderick examines the tragic events that followed
AUGUST 19, 1911, was without doubt one of Llanelli’s darkest days.
It came during a time known as The Great Unrest, when the working class and unions rose up against their capitalist masters.
The series of strikes and works-to-rule between 1910 and 1914 is largely overshadowed by the events of the First World War which followed.
But it was a turbulent time in Britain’s industrial past, and the strife was widespread, including in Wales.
The National Railway Strike of 1911 was the first of its kind in Britain and lasted for two days.
It was organised to express dissatisfaction at the negotiation boards formed to help dialogue between the workers and the rail companies, and eventually led to Prime Minister H. H. Asquith’s Government establishing a Royal Commission to review the 1907 Conciliation Board.
At that time, wages had remained steady, but living costs were soaring.
Hours were long - around 12 hours a day - and the pay for many was less than 25 shillings a week. Strikes were launched over pay, and also against union leaderships, who were disliked for failing to best represent the workers.
The railways were a big profit-making operation at this time, but this didn’t make things any easier for the workers. They would often work a 60-hour week, across six days, while others would go comfortably above that to 72 hours.
In Llanelli, the strikers planned to hold up trains at the town station, causing public transport chaos. They began doing so on August 17, physically blocking the tracks.
The picketers would board the halted trains and immobilise them by putting out the engine boiler fires.
It was a move that prompted magistrates to request the presence of more troops to get the situation under control from the then Home Secretary Winston Churchill. Around 700 were in the town on the evening of August 18.
The Riot Act was read out to the crowds on the instruction of the soldiers’ commanding officer - said to have been the final time it had ever been read out in this way in mainland Britain. But the strike and picket action continued, with strikers chasing after one train which had made it through the blockade point.
It was at that point that the strike descended into chaos.
The order was given for troops to use bayonets to disperse the crowd. Shots were fired, but they failed to ruffle the picketers, who had believed them to be blanks. It was a tragic error of judgement.
Two young men, 19-year-old Leonard Worsell and 21-year-old Morewood tinplate worker John ‘Jack’ John, were killed.
While John was in the picket line, Worsell had simply made the mistake of venturing into his garden to get a view of the picket. He was struck by stray gunfire.
Both men were taken to a nearby property where, after losing a huge amount of blood and despite the aid of numerous others who had been involved in the picketing, they succumbed to their injuries.
Other people involved in the strike were injured. Women were fainting, and anger and dismay was rife among the picketing crowd.
Accounts differ on how injuries were sustained, with Major Brownlow Stuart, commanding officer of the troops on the day, reporting that warning shots had been fired. Others present at the event contested that the victims had been intentionally shot. Whatever the truth was, what followed was rioting across the town, with local businesses feeling the full force. Fighting continued between workers and the soldiers and police
At least four more people lost their lives in an explosion as one rioter unwittingly attempted to gain access to a munitions carriage.
The ultimate outcome of the riots was better pay and conditions for the railway workers. But it was scant consolation for the high cost in lives lost - in fact, the national strike had concluded before Worsell and John were shot dead.
The 1911 Llanelli Strike Committee was formed around a decade ago to make sure people remembered, with the significance of the event being the last time soldiers fired on workers during an industrial dispute.
But generations that followed grew up with no knowledge of the event.
A blue plaque commemorates the event on a bridge passing over the railway line in Queen Victoria Road, but very little else serves as a physical reminder of one of the town’s saddest memories.
Now there is an annual event of remembrance, and prominent figures gathered in the town centre at the weekend to take part.
Llanelli’s serving MP Nia Griffith was one of around 200 people to attend. She said: “In August, 1911, railway workers barricaded Llanelli station in a strike for better pay and working conditions.
“This was part of the National Railway Strike, organised in protest at the inability of workers’ representatives to negotiate directly with rail companies to improve conditions.
“Last weekend, we commemorated the anniversary of the Railway Strike, and remembered the two innocent people who were shot and killed during the strike here in Llanelli.
“This was a significant historical moment, and it is important to remember the cause of the unrest. In the years leading up to 1911, many railwaymen and other industrial workers were working 70-hour weeks on very low wages. They were often subject to compulsory overtime at the whim of employers, many of whom were making large profits at their expense.
“Thanks to collective bargaining, we have gained important employment protections since the Railway Strike. However, today’s workforce is far more fragmented and workers now face new challenges.”
Tim Evans, secretary for the Llanelli 1911 Railway Strike Committee said: “The 1911 Committee was over the moon at the turn-out this year. We had a bigger march and rally than we did even at the centenary in 2011.
“We never intended to make this ‘dead history’, but a living celebration of when workers fought back, as they still need to today, against cuts, austerity and the forces that seek to divide us. We are already planning for 2019, and for an even larger and more vibrant celebration.”