The Leicestershire Miners and the Mining Dispute of 1926

Colin P. Griffin

doi:10.1017/S0020859000005575

The Leicestershire Miners and the Mining Dispute of 1926

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008

Colin P. Griffin

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Leicestershire is one of the East Midland's smaller coalfields, though it was growing faster than any other coalfield in the two decades before the First World War, and its output, and number of persons employed, unlike those of many far larger coalfields, were greater in 1925 than they had been in 1913. Annual average earnings per shift were also among the highest in the country and the level of unemployment among the miners was relatively low by coal-mining standards. The Leicestershire Miners' Association had 7,428 members at the end of 1925, which represented about three-quarters of the coal-miners employed in the coalfield, and relations with the coal-owners were by tradition peaceful with the owners agreeing to assist the LMA's “closed shop” policy and allowing union business to be conducted on colliery premises. The Leicestershire coalfield was one of that select band of inland coalfields that enjoyed relative prosperity in the early 1920's, and this state of affairs was reflected in the fact that the owners did not lock their men out to enforce either reduced wages or increased hours in May 1926, but rather the miners struck in support of the policies of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, to which they had been affiliated since its inception in 1889.

Type: Research Article
Information: International Review of Social History , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , December 1977 , pp. 299 - 312

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000005575 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1977

References

^{page 299 note 1} Rowe, J. W. F., Wages in the Coal Industry (London, 1923), pp. 26–28Google Scholar; Griffin, C. P., “Economic and Social Development of the Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield 1550–1914” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Nottingham, 1970), p. 919.Google Scholar

^{page 299 note 2} His Majesty's Inspector of Mines, Annual Report, 1930.

^{page 299 note 3} Leicestershire Miners' Association Minute Book (hereafter LMA), 4 May 1928; His Majesty's Inspector of Mines, Annual Report, 1935.

^{page 299 note 4} Annual Report of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies, 1925.

^{page 299 note 5} Griffin, op. cit., p. 667; Miners' Federation of Great Britain Minute Book (hereafter MFGB), 2 June 1927.

^{page 299 note 6} LMA, 12 July 1926; Coalville Times, 30 April.

^{page 299 note 7} Griffin, op. cit., p. 670.

^{page 300 note 1} Annual Report of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies, 1925.

^{page 300 note 2} LMA, 14 and 28 May, 11 and 18 June 1926.

^{page 300 note 3} Ibid., 21 June, 9 August and 10 September.

^{page 300 note 4} Ibid., 9 and 16 August, 22 November; Colliery Guardian, 17 September.

^{page 300 note 5} Ibid., 6 September.

^{page 300 note 6} MFGB, 4 November 1926.

^{page 300 note 7} Ibid., 4 and 19 November.

^{page 300 note 8} LMA, 24 September 1925, 10 and 19 March 1926; Colliery Guardian, 24 April 1925.

^{page 301 note 1} MFGB, 1 May 1926.

^{page 301 note 2} Coalville Times, 30 July 1926.

^{page 301 note 3} Ibid., 6 August.

^{page 301 note 4} LMA, 4 August and 1 October 1926; Coalville Times, 4 March 1927.

^{page 301 note 5} LMA, 30 June 1926; Coalville Times, 2 July.

^{page 301 note 6} LMA, 18 June.

^{page 302 note 1} Coalville Times, 28 May.

^{page 302 note 2} LMA, 12 and 26 July.

^{page 302 note 3} LMA, 9 and 10 August; MFGB, 16 August.

^{page 302 note 4} MFGB, ibid.

^{page 302 note 5} A. R. Griffin, The Miners of Nottinghamshire 1914–44 (London, 1962), p. 175.

^{page 302 note 6} MFGB, ibid.

^{page 303 note 1} Ibid.

^{page 303 note 2} Ibid., 2 September; LMA, 10 August. The Leicestershire owners were offering to take the men back at pre-lockout wages and hours according to J. W. Smith, MFGB, 30 July.

^{page 303 note 3} MFGB, 30 July. For details of the “Bishops' Proposals”, see R. Page Arnot, The Miners: Years of Struggle (London, 1953), pp. 470–71.

^{page 303 note 4} LMA, 13 September.

^{page 303 note 5} Ibid.

^{page 303 note 6} Ibid., 18 September. Cook reiterated this view during a meeting with the LMA Council on 19 September, when they resolved “to stand firm by Federation policy”.

^{page 304 note 1} Coalville Times, 29 October.

^{page 304 note 2} MFGB, 29 September; LMA, 9 October.

^{page 304 note 3} LMA, ibid.

^{page 304 note 4} Coalville Times, 15 October; Colliery Guardian, 8 October.

^{page 304 note 5} Colliery Guardian, 15 October; Coalville Times, ibid. The Coalville Times reported that the men were returning to work at pre-stoppage rates and conditions, which were to remain in force until 30 June 1927, and that “news that the struggle had ended in Leicesterhire spread rapidly and was greeted with feelings of relief”.

^{page 304 note 6} Colliery Guardian, 1 and 15 October.

^{page 304 note 7} LMA, 18 October.

^{page 305 note 1} Ibid.

^{page 305 note 2} Ibid., 21 October; Coalville Times, 22 October.

^{page 305 note 3} Coalville Times, 29 October; LMA, 25 October; MFGB, 4–5 November.

^{page 305 note 4} Coalville Times, ibid, and 5 November.

^{page 306 note 1} MFGB, 10–13 November. At the previous MFGB Conference George Spencer, an official of the Nottinghamshire Miners' Association and a member of the MFGB Executive, had been dismissed from the meeting for admitting negotiating a return to work at a Nottinghamshire colliery on the request of his members working there. For details of the incident, see MFGB, 2 October, and A. R. Griffin, op. cit., pp. 183–89. Spencer went on to lead a breakaway trade union, the Nottinghamshire Miners' Industrial Union, and used this as a base for launching an abortive federation of non-political industrial trade unions in opposition to the MFGB. A. R. Griffin, pp. 221–36.

^{page 306 note 2} MFGB, 10–13 November.

^{page 306 note 3} Ibid.

^{page 307 note 1} MFGB, 19 November.

^{page 307 note 2} LMA, 29 November.

^{page 308 note 1} MFGB, 26 November.

^{page 308 note 2} Coalville Times, 3 December.

^{page 308 note 3} LMA, 29 November 1926 and 18 January 1927.

^{page 308 note 4} Ibid., 18 and 31 January 1927.

^{page 308 note 5} Ibid., 3 February.

^{page 308 note 6} Ibid.

^{page 308 note 7} Ibid., 14 February.

^{page 308 note 8} Ibid.; Coalville Times, 25 February.

^{page 309 note 1} Coalville Times, 18 and 25 February.

^{page 309 note 2} LMA, 21 February.

^{page 309 note 3} Coalville Times, 4 and 11 February, 4 March; Colliery Guardian, 4 and 25 February, 4 and 11 March.

^{page 309 note 4} LMA, 9 March; Coalville Times, 25 February.

^{page 309 note 5} LMA, 26 February, 9 March, 11 April, 2 May, 10 June and 21 July; MFGB, 3 March, 13 April and 12 May.

^{page 310 note 1} Colliery Guardian, 11 March.

^{page 310 note 2} Coalville Times, 11 November.

^{page 310 note 3} MFGB, 2 June. Several members of the LMA Council had been advocating that their organisation should sever links with the MFGB and form itself into a non-polrlical trade union on the lines of Spencer's Nottinghamshire Miners' Industrial Union. A. R. and C. P. Griffin, “The Non-Political Trade Union Movement”, in: Essays in Labour History 1918–1939, ed. by A. Briggs and J. Saville (London, 1977), pp. 137–38. As we have seen, J. W. Smith's attitude towards the LMA was that it was already a non-political trade union in all but name.

^{page 310 note 4} Coalville Times, 11 November.

^{page 310 note 5} Ibid., 18 November and 9 December.

^{page 311 note 1} LMA, 31 July 1931.

^{page 311 note 2} Personal interview with Mr Frank Smith, the present agent of the LMA and a member of his namesake's abortive New Miners' Union.

^{page 311 note 3} Annual Report of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies, 1927; LMA, 21 July 1927.

^{page 311 note 4} MFGB, 2 June; Coalville Times, 9 December. LMA, 6 February 1928, records that only “very small numbers of members” were attending lodge meetings.

^{page 311 note 5} LMA, 14 October 1927; A. R. and C. P. Griffin, loc. cit., p. 138.

^{page 311 note 6} It is fairly clear, even from Herbert Smith's own evidence to the MFGB Conference on 5 November 1926, in which he justified his inaction on the matter, that some “back room” negotiations had been taking place between representatives of the owners and members of the LMA Council. It was common knowledge according to the Coalville Times (15 October) that the miners were returning on the basis of a definite offer made by the owners.

^{page 312 note 1} Conditions which, as we have seen, completely bewildered J. W. Smith. For a general description ol the last days of the dispute see Arnot, op. cit., pp. 499–506.

^{page 312 note 2} Renshaw, P., The General Strike (London, 1975), p. 230.Google Scholar

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