Women of the British coalfields on strike in 1926 and 1984: Documenting lives using oral history and photography

Frontiers, 1998 by Gier-Viskovatoff, Jaclyn J, Porter, Abigail

For Mrs. L. P., as for many women of her generation, the turning point in their political awareness was the 1926 Lockout. Kenneth Morgan writes, "This almost spontaneous expression of class and community solidarity made an immense impact on the young men and women who took part in it."27 Indeed, Mrs. L. P had indicated that before her marriage in 1926 she had virtually no interest in political matters at all.zs Like the 1984-85 Miners' Strike, the 1926 Lockout drew larger numbers of working-class women into the political arena than ever before. Union records from the Rhondda Valley include a "list of persons in receipt of summonses arising from civil disturbances at Ferndale" during November 1926. The list of women include a description of those convicted who had especially difficult family circumstances:

Mrs. Blodwen Pearce, 6 Gwernllwyn-Sentenced to three months. Husband unemployed. Six children, youngest a few months old. Oldest 8 years. A young girl has been engaged to look after the home. Paid by voluntary contributions from the neighbors.

Mrs. Millard, 35 Gwernllwyn-Sentenced to 4 months. Her husband just started to work. There are 5 or 6 children, dependants. Youngest 2 years old. The eldest girl at home (15) takes charge, she looks a total wreck through sheer starvation during the Lockout.

Mrs. Rose Owen, 45 Gwernllwyn-Sentenced to 4 months. Husband unemployed. Three children dependant. Her son, D.J. Owen, sentenced on the same day to 3 years Borstal. Rees Owen, son-in-law, of the same house sentenced to 2 months.

Mrs. Marion Jones, 46 Gwernllwyn-Sentenced to 3 months. Husband unemployed. One child, very young.

Mrs. Esther Laurence, 12 Dolycoed-Sentenced to 3 months. One child (adopted). Husband very ill in Cardiff Hospital.29

The disturbances referred to by the records took place between the first and fourth of November 1926. The complete list of defendants arrested numbered 201; of those charged, 115 were sent to prison, 30 were bound over, 35 were acquitted, and one was sent to Borstal. Although some of the charges against women were dropped, or they were found not guilty, those who were not acquitted went to prison regardless of their family circumstances.30

The mining communities expressed a moral ethos of their own in a full range of extralegal and extraparliamentary activities. Women's protests borrowed heavily from accepted and traditional forms of collective action, yet they were confronted with external forces, such as the police and courts, that challenged the expression of the community's moral authority. As a consequence of protests during the 1926 Lockout there were 395 intimidation charges that were heard in Swansea Court alone, not to mention the numerous prosecutions that took place in other parts of the coalfields.31

The 1926 Lockout was catastrophic for coalfield society in Britain in general and in South Wales in particular. Miners who had participated in the strike were victimized for years to come, and families were burdened with excessive debts they could not repay. The union was all but destroyed, and, with little or nothing left of its negotiating power, the men were forced to return to work for lower wages and longer hours. Miners' wives who had starved themselves to feed their families and support the strike found themselves facing long-term and continuing deprivation, which deepened as coalfield society slid into the Depression. At the annual Labour Party Conference in 1926, Arthur Horner, head of the miners' union, called upon the participants to express their gratitude to the women for "having saved the British Labour Movement from disgrace."32