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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
Rural areas have generally been ignored in recent studies of the General Strike of 3–12 May 1926 on the implicit assumption that its impact in such areas would be negligible. To see if this assumption is correct this article examines the course of the strike in Devon and reaction to it. The likelihood of militant action in Devon in part depended upon the structure of the occupied population. In 1921 16 per cent of the occupied population of Devon County and the County Boroughs was in agriculture, and this rises to 25 per cent if we take the administrative county alone. In Exeter 49 per cent of the occupied population was in commerce, the professions, public administration, defence and personal service; in Plymouth the percentage for this group was 52 per cent. Consequently even the industrial areas were likely to be relatively weakly organised. Once out of the County Boroughs the industrial population, apart from a concentration of railwaymen at Newton Abbot, was so scattered as to make organisation and co-ordination difficult. There was no tradition of militancy in the county.
2 Census of England and Wales, 1921, County of Devon, pp. 54–59, Table 16.Google Scholar
3 Daly, M. and Atkinson, E., “A regional analysis of Strikes 1921–36”, in: Sociological Review, XXXII (1940), p. 223.Google Scholar
4 Chamber of Commerce. Council Meeting, 12 January; Torquay Directory, 5 May.
5 Dawlish Gazette, 20 and 27 February, 13 March and 29 May.
6 Paignton Observer, 6 May.
7 Times, 3 May; Western Independent, 2 and 9 May; Western Morning News, 4 and 6 May.
8 British Gazette, 5 May.
9 Plymouth County Borough Minutes, Gas Committee, 9 April; Watch Committee, 21 April; Special Purposes Committee, 4 May.
10 Quoted in Burns, Emile, The General Strike May 1926: Trades Councils in Action (London, 1926), p. 44.Google Scholar
11 Times, 3 May; Western Morning News, 3, 4 and 8 May.
12 Exeter City Council, Emergency Council, 4 May; Express and Echo, 4 May.
13 Mid Devon Times and Advertiser, 8 May; Torquay Times, 7 May; North Devon Journal, 13 May; Ilfracombe Chronicle, 15 May.
14 Torquay Directory, 12 May; North Devon Journal, 20 May; Western Morning News, and Express and Echo, 11 May; Mid Devon Advertiser, 15 May.
15 Express and Echo, 27 May.
16 Ilfracombe Chronicle, Mid Devon Advertiser, and Mid Devon Times, 15 May; North Devon Journal, 13 May.
17 Pole, Felix J. C., His Book (Reading, 1954), pp. 112–13Google Scholar; Times, 3 May.
18 Express and Echo, 3–5 May; Western Independent, 2–3 May.
19 TUC file HD 5366 (hereafter cited as TUC); British Worker, 6 May; Western Morning News, 7 May.
20 TUC; British Gazette, 8 and 10 May; North Devon Journal, 13 May; Express and Echo, 5 and 7 May; Western Morning News, 5 May.
21 Dawlish Gazette, 15 May; Times, 8 May.
22 Pole, letter to press, 7 May, quoted in His Book, op. cit., p. 114.
23 The General Strike May 1926, Great Western Railway (London, 1926), pp. 14–15.Google Scholar
24 See Pole, , His Book, pp. 117–20Google Scholar; Bagwell, Philip S., The Railwaymen, (London, 1963), pp. 488–91Google Scholar; The General Strike May 1926, op. cit., p. 116.
25 Express and Echo, 13 May; Western Morning News, and Times, 14 May. Alderman W. H. Wilkey, in a letter to the author, 6 April 1974, recalled the bitterness felt among the strikers at Barnstaple.
26 Mid Devon Advertiser, 15 May; Western Morning News, 14 May; Western Independent, 16 May.
27 Express and Echo, 15 May; Mid Devon Advertiser, 22 May.
28 Western Morning News, 17 May.
29 Bagwell, The Railwaymen, op. cit., pp. 491–92; Mid Devon Times, 5 June; Ilfracombe Chronicle, 22 May and 19 June.
30 Western Independent, 30 May.
31 Ibid., 2 May; TUC.
32 Western Morning News, 8, 11, 13 and 15 May; Western Independent, 9 and 23 May; British Gazette, 13 May; Express and Echo, 10 May.
33 Western Morning News, 11 May.
34 Minutes, 7 June.
35 Western Independent, 9 and 23 May; Western Morning News, 8 May; British Worker, 9 May; James, Robert R., Memoirs of a Conservative (London, 1969), p. 243.Google Scholar
36 Tramways Committee Minutes, 11 and 13 May; Express and Echo, 14 May.
37 Express and Echo, 5 May; Torquay Times, 14 May; Western Independent, 6 June; Mid Devon Advertiser, 15 June; Ilfracombe Chronicle, 8 and 15 May; Dawlish Gazette, 22 May; North Devon Journal, 27 May.
38 Western Morning News, 6, 7 and 13 May; TUC.
39 Express and Echo, 13 May.
40 Torquay Times, 7 and 14 May.
41 Western Morning News, 8 May; North Devon Journal, 13 May.
42 TUC; Mid Devon Advertiser, and Mid Devon Times, 15 May; North Devon Journal, 13 May; Torquay Directory, 12 and 19 May; Paignton Observer, 6 and 13 May; Ilfracombe Chronicle, 15 May.
43 Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers, Dawlish Branch, Correspondence and Minutes, May 1926, Devon Record Office, Exeter.
44 Burns, The General Strike, op. cit., pp. 159–61; Williams, Harry B., History of the Plymouth and District Trades Council (Plymouth, 1952), pp. 22–24.Google Scholar
45 Briscoe, Robert, Centenary History. A Hundred Years of Co-operation in Plymouth (Manchester, 1960), p. 101Google Scholar; Burns, , The General Strike, p. 61.Google Scholar
46 Letter from P. H. Wadge to the TUC, TUC; The Western Independent, 2 May, said Communist pamphlets had been given to ratings at Plymouth.
47 Exeter Trades Council Minutes, 13 July and 7 December 1925, held by the Council.
48 Ibid., 1 March and 10 May 1926; Executive Committee Meeting, 4 May.
49 TUC.
50 Western Morning News, 13 May.
51 Minutes, 21 June and 5 July. Newton Abbot also had a “Council of Action ” on the same lines as Exeter and had dispatch riders to London. Burns, , The General Strike, p. 151.Google Scholar
52 Fifty-Ninth Annual Co-operative Congress, 1927; Paignton Co-operative Society, Special Committee Meeting, 8 May; Torquay Co-operative Society, Special Committee Meeting, 4 May; Plymouth Co-operative Society, Committee Minutes, 6 May 1926. The minutes of these co-operative societies are held by Plymouth Co-operative Society.
53 Western Morning News, 6 May; TUC.
54 Express and Echo, 3 and 4 May; Exeter Trades Council Minutes, 21 June 1926 and 12 August 1927.
55 Express and Echo, 13 May; Western Morning News, 15 May.
56 North Devon Journal, 13 and 20 May; Torquay Times, 21 May; Paignton Observer, 13 May; Dawlish Gazette, and Mid Devon and Newton Times, 22 May; North Devon Journal, 29 April.
57 Sykes, Christopher, Nancy, the Life of Lady Astor (London, 1972), pp. 282–83.Google Scholar
58 Western Morning News, 15 and 16 May.
59 Western Independent, 16 May.
60 Mid Devon Advertiser, 8, 15, 22 and 29 May.
61 House of Commons Debates, 17 May; North Devon Journal, 13 May.
62 Western Morning News, 27 May; House of Commons Debates, 1 June.
63 Mid Devon Times, 15 May and 10 July.
64 Mid Devon Advertiser, 8, 15 and 19 May.
65 Torquay Times, 7 May; Mid Devon Times, 15 May.
66 Western Morning News, 3, 4, 6 and 10–12 May.
67 Express and Echo, 4, 6–8 and 12–14 May.
68 Torquay Times, 7, 14 and 21 May.
69 Paignton Observer, 6 and 13 May.
70 Torquay Directory, 5, 12 and 19 May.
71 Western Independent, 2, 9 and 16 May.
72 Dawlish Gazette, 8, 15 and 22 May.
73 North Devon Journal, 13, 20 and 27 May.
74 Exeter Trades Council Minutes, 1 and 22 June, 19 July, 16 August, 13 September, 1 October; Mid Devon and Newton Times, 19 June; Torquay Times, 25 June; Western Independent, 23 May.
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