| Miners Strike of 1910-11 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Great Unrest | |||
 Police blockade a street during the events of 1910–1911 | |||
| Date | September 1910 - August 1911 | ||
| Location | |||
| Caused by | Lock-out in Penygraig | ||
| Goals | Higher wages, better living conditions | ||
| Methods | Strike action Rioting | ||
| Resulted in | Negotiated end to the strike | ||
| Parties | |||
| |||
| Lead figures | |||
F. L. Davis | |||
| Number | |||
| |||
| Casualties | |||
| Death(s) | 1 miner | ||
| Injuries | 80 police and over 500 citizens | ||
| Arrested | 13 miners | ||
| Damage | Private property in Tonypandy | ||
The Miners Strike of 1910-11 was a violent attempt by coal miners to maintain wages and working conditions in parts of South Wales, where wages had been kept low by a cartel of mine owners.
What became known as the Tonypandy riots[1] of 1910 and 1911 (sometimes collectively known as the Rhondda riots) were a series of violent confrontations between the striking coal miners and police that took place at various locations in and around the Rhondda mines of the Cambrian Combine, a cartel of mining companies formed to regulate prices and wages in South Wales.
The disturbances and the confrontations were the culmination of the industrial dispute between workers and the mine owners The term "Tonypandy riot" initially applied to specific events on the evening of Tuesday, 8 November 1910, when strikers smashed windows of businesses in Tonypandy. There was hand-to-hand fighting between the strikers and the Glamorgan Constabulary, which was reinforced by the Bristol Constabulary.[2]
Home Secretary Winston Churchill's decision to agree to the government's decision to send the British Army to reinforce the police shortly after 8 November riot caused rumours that generated much ill feeling towards him in South Wales.[3] Historians such as Paul Addison however, argue that Churchill did his best to prevent violence; he promised miners that peaceful conduct would be rewarded with sympathetic arbitration. When major riots erupted he sent troops in but "made strenuous efforts to avoid direct confrontation."[4][5][6][7]
- ^ Evans, Gwyn; Maddox, David (2010). The Tonypandy Riots 1910–11. Plymouth: University of Plymouth Press. ISBN 978-1-84102-270-3.
- ^ Tonypandy heritage Archived 20 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine Rhondda Cynon Taf Council
- ^ Williamson, David (13 January 2018). "The towns in Wales where Churchill was loathed". WalesOnline. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
- ^ Paul Addison, Churchill on the Home Front 1900-1955 (Pimlico, 1992) p. 143.
- ^ Anthony Mòr O. Brien, "Churchill and the Tonypandy riots." Welsh History Review= Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru 17.1 (1994): 67+ online
- ^ John M. McEwen, "Tonypandy: Churchill's Albatross," Queen's Quarterly (1971) 78#1 pp.83-94.
- ^ For the recent views of a leading scholar see Andrew Roberts, "We have been warned!" in The Mail On Sunday (16 February 2019) online