MINERS STRIKE PHOTOGRAPH 1921

     Early on in 2015, I identified several officers, with the help of other photographs and their career path in the case of the senior officers.             These were:

Supt    Alfred BARRETT,           5th sitting 2nd row

Insp    William WHITE,              6th sitting 2nd row

Sgt    William RICHARDSON      1st Sgt,    3rd sitting 2nd row
Sgt    Reginald KENT                  2nd Sgt,   4th sitting 2nd row
Sgt    Frank SYMES                      3rd Sgt,   7th sitting 2nd row

The other Sgt sitting 8th on the 2nd row was a mystery.

The Constables I could ID were:

PC  150   Harry LILL,                2nd standing in the 3rd row.

PC   35    Henry FORSEY,         11th on the front row 

PC  143   Wilfred LOCKYER,     5th on the front row

PC    81   Herbert PAULLEY,     4th standing in the 3rd row.

  The Other 41 officers I could take a good guess at, but I could not prove.

The only other information I had was, that my great Uncle Cecil was not involved and an article in the Western Gazzette published on Friday 15th July 1921.  The short article reported that the 4 Sherborne Division officer had returned to the town on monday 11th July after being away for 9 weeks.  Those officers were Supt BARRETT and PC’s RAWLINGS, HEGGS AND CRABBE.

  That meant they must have left Dorset on Monday 9th May 1921 or close to it.

  Now with access to the 1921 Census and the help of David ANDREWS, we have established a list of the other officers who must be in the photograph.

Sgt Cornelius BROWN.

PC   101   William Reginald LONG

PC   115   Fred FRANKLIN

PC    91    Reuben Wiliam BOWRING

PC    45    Walter Edward TOLLEY

PC  170    Alfred George DURANT

PC   32    James Thomas WOODMAN

PC  158    George Raymond CHARLTON

PC   86    William Frank HOPKINS 

PC  179    Hubert Charles SCREEN 

PC   11    Sidney William MAYO

PC  159    Ernest Sidney GRANT 

PC  206    Joseph CRITCHELL 

PC  211    Albert BAILEY 

PC   51    Robert NOTLEY 

PC   61    Basil JAY 

PC  205   Edward BRIDLE 

PC     1    Oscar SIMS 

PC   40    William GUPPY 

PC  111    Albert FRIPP 

PC   28    Sidney BARTLETT 

PC  169    Thomas ELLERY   

PC  180    Alfred CHASE   

PC   85    Robert CARTER   

PC  137    William TOLLEY 

PC  176    Edwin BEST  

PC  162    Arthur YOUNG  

PC  127    Percy COPP  

PC  155    Alfred WICKENS

PC   68    William BRICKELL  

PC     3    Barry DIXON 

PC  124    Horace COOPER

PC  202    Tom DAVIS   

PC  188    James HEGGS

PC    8     Walter BLEATHMAN 

PC  139    Frederick BURROUGH 

PC  164    Robert BOOL 

PC  113    Frank BARNES

PC    79    Edmund CRABBE

PC    16    Albert JAMES   

PC  129    George RAWLINGS 

March 1921.

    In the aftermath of the First World War, the Triple Alliance and united action in general were regarded by many trade unionists as a possible defence against the threat of wage reductions occasioned by the onset of economic depression. A complicating factor was that both the mines and railways had been controlled by the state during the war and were not immediately returned to private hands. The Coalition-Liberal Government of David Lloyd George was unwilling to impose wage reductions, as this would provoke strike action against the government, with political implications. Reductions for miners were therefore postponed until the mines were de-controlled on 31 March 1921. Miners who refused to accept the reductions were locked out of employment.

    The decision announced, following the imposition of the reductions, it was widely expected that the transport and rail unions would strike in support of the miners. However, on 15 April, the executives of the NTWF and NUR announced that they would not recommend strike action. One reason cited by the union leaders was that the miners’ representatives had made comments suggesting that they, themselves, were not prepared to strike against the reductions. More broadly, transport and rail union leaders accused the MFGB of expecting support from other unions but refusing to involve those unions in negotiations over the dispute. The principal seamen’s union, the National Sailors’ and Firemen’s Union held a ballot which resulted in the proposal for strike action being defeated by 59 votes.

    The aftermath,despite the decision against fully-fledged strike action, transport and railworkers were ordered not to handle imported coal. Some workers were unhappy with this limited action. In Glasgow, for example, the Scottish Union of Dock Labourers broke with the policy of the Transport Workers’ Federation and called its members out on strike on 7 May. On the same day, wage reductions were imposed on merchant seamen, leading to a well-supported general strike at the docks which lasted for over a month. Transport and rail leaders were widely criticised for their actions, with J. H. Thomas of the NUR and Robert Williams of the NTWF being singled out for particular criticism. For their part, union leaders pointed to the difficulties of resisting wage reductions in a period of unemployment, alleged that there was little support for sympathy action amongst rank-and-file dockers and railwaymen and argued that the involvement of other workers would only lead to needless sacrifices on their part.[citation needed] In 1925, when the government agreed to grant a temporary subsidy to the mining industry so as to avoid wage reductions, the day on which the decision was announced became known as Red Friday, in imitation of Black Friday

Black Friday
    A further cause of tension was the threat of the mine owners to impose pay cuts and increase working hours when the coalmines were returned to private ownership and out of government control on 31 March 1921. The miners were told they had to accept the new conditions or lose their jobs. They called on the railwaymen and transport workers to join them in a strike starting on 15 April 1921. Together these three unions formed the Triple Alliance.
    The railwaymen and transport workers felt that the miners had not tried hard enough to negotiate. On the day the strike was supposed to begin they withdrew their support. This became known as ‘Black Friday’, and although the miners continued with a bitter strike they were eventually forced back to work after accepting a wage cut. 

     The Dorset Contingent had very little to do and saw no action , compared to the officers that were dispatched to Wales in 1926. See my seperate posts for 1926 and 1912.

     Below is my latest attempt at identifying the 50 Dorset officers.