Tonypandy riots

Miners Strike of 1910-11
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	Rhondda, South Wales
Caused by	Lock-out in Penygraig
Goals	Higher wages, better living conditions
Methods	Strike action; Rioting
Resulted in	Negotiated end to the strike
Parties
South Wales Miners' Federation	Employers Naval Colliery Company; Police Glamorgan Constabulary; Bristol Constabulary; Metropolitan Police Service; Armed forces British Army Lancashire Fusiliers; 18th Royal Hussars; ;
Lead figures
	William Abraham F. L. Davis; Lionel Lindsay; Winston Churchill
Number
12,000 miners
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 an attempt by miners and their families to improve wages and living conditions in severely deprived parts of South Wales, where wages had been kept deliberately low for many years 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 allow the British Army to be sent to the area to reinforce the police shortly after 8 November riot caused much ill feeling towards him in South Wales.^[3] His responsibility remains a strongly disputed topic.^[4]

^ 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.
^ Langworth, Richard (26 May 2015). "Churchill, Troops & Strikers". Retrieved 14 February 2019.

[1] Evans, Gwyn; Maddox, David (2010). The Tonypandy Riots 1910–11. Plymouth: University of Plymouth Press. ISBN 978-1-84102-270-3.

[rctlib1-2] Tonypandy heritage Archived 20 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine Rhondda Cynon Taf Council

[3] Williamson, David (13 January 2018). "The towns in Wales where Churchill was loathed". WalesOnline. Retrieved 14 February 2019.

[4] Langworth, Richard (26 May 2015). "Churchill, Troops & Strikers". Retrieved 14 February 2019.

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