0:00:04 > 0:00:07This is the start of a journey.
0:00:07 > 0:00:13A journey which takes us back to the long, hot summer of 1911.
0:00:13 > 0:00:18A summer of violence and loss of life in the town of Llanelli.
0:00:18 > 0:00:25It's my home town and this is a journey to discover what happened when the workers of this town
0:00:25 > 0:00:29came face-to-face with the might of the British state.
0:00:29 > 0:00:34I want the story to be heard and I want to set the record straight.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53I grew up in Llanelli. I never heard of the Llanelli riots.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56I heard about Owen Glendower, I heard about David Lloyd Jones,
0:00:56 > 0:00:58I heard of all sorts of people.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03I never heard about the great event, the big event of 1911 in Llanelli.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07I hadn't an aunt who was quite an avid cricket fan
0:01:07 > 0:01:12and I remember her asking my uncle, "Who is playing against Glamorgan today?"
0:01:12 > 0:01:16"Worcester," he said. "Oh," she said, "the murderers!"
0:01:16 > 0:01:19I first heard about the events from my grandmother
0:01:19 > 0:01:25who remembers the police coming round to her back garden -
0:01:25 > 0:01:29she was a child - and digging up the back gardens,
0:01:29 > 0:01:31looking for looted produce.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41Llanelli, at the turn of the 20th century, was a town in flux,
0:01:41 > 0:01:46a town where rural Welsh-speaking Wales met industrial English-speaking Wales,
0:01:46 > 0:01:51a town where the old chapel traditions met the trends of the modern world.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53Above all, this was a boom town.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58Llanelli wasn't called Tinopolis for nothing.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02In the late 19th century, it was the great industrial centre
0:02:02 > 0:02:06in its particular sector and that's actually reflected itself
0:02:06 > 0:02:08in a town which had wonderful buildings,
0:02:08 > 0:02:13trams, all sorts of facilities, which many people envied.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17I think the Royal Lieutenant called Llanelli the Garden Of Eden of Carmarthenshire.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19But, like the Garden Of Eden,
0:02:19 > 0:02:24the serpent was lurking there and the serpent was slum housing.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27We had problems with sanitation and child mortality.
0:02:27 > 0:02:33This was common to all towns who were industrialised at that particular time.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36In a town of tin, steel, copper and coal,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39only 5% of the workforce were railwaymen
0:02:39 > 0:02:43but they really were the poorest of the poor.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47The typical porter or shunter at Llanelli railway station
0:02:47 > 0:02:51would have got around 20 shillings a week or less.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54Most miners in South Wales, for example, at that time
0:02:54 > 0:02:58would have been on something like 30-34 shillings a week.
0:03:02 > 0:03:08By August 1911, the struggle for a living wage had become a national strike.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10The rail unions pleaded for fairness
0:03:10 > 0:03:15but the Liberal government supported the owners and showed very little sympathy.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19The railway lines were where you carried troops,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23where you carried goods, where you actually conducted much of your business.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27The idea of a railway strike, therefore, filled them with horror.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29On Thursday August 17th,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33the leaders of the main railway unions met the Prime Minister
0:03:33 > 0:03:38and Lloyd George as Chancellor Of The Exchequer in London.
0:03:38 > 0:03:44They informed them that they were rejecting the offer of yet another commission of inquiry
0:03:44 > 0:03:48into their grievances and when they told the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52that they were going to go ahead with their plans for a national strike,
0:03:52 > 0:03:56his response was, "Then your blood be on your own heads."
0:03:56 > 0:03:59In Llanelli, they didn't think it would affect them at all.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04So much so, the chief constable decided to send the main body of police constables in Llanelli
0:04:04 > 0:04:09off to where there would be real trouble further down the line - Swansea, Cardiff, wherever.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14While they were a way, of course, Llanelli experienced far more trouble than anyone anticipated.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21There were just a few hundred members of the rail union in Llanelli
0:04:21 > 0:04:26but, the crucial thing is, they were joined by hundreds of other workers
0:04:26 > 0:04:30and one of the main strike leaders was a signal man called John Bevan.
0:04:30 > 0:04:35He told a local reporter, "We're out for victory and our forces are ready."
0:04:35 > 0:04:39Well, they might have been ready but the authorities clearly weren't.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45I'm Ron Bevan and John Bevan was my grandfather,
0:04:45 > 0:04:48better known to his colleagues as signalman Jack Bevan.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51And on the night of the 17th,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54he had the gates closed at the eastern end.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58All the men congregated around there. The mood at that time was quite good.
0:04:58 > 0:05:04Around the railway station, you have a crowd estimated at between 3,000 and 5,000.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08There were only 500 railway workers. Where did the others come from?
0:05:08 > 0:05:12They were actually the people in heavy industry - lighting workers, steelworkers,
0:05:12 > 0:05:16brewery workers - who had come in solidarity.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21They had mock elections. There was an impromptu vote.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25John Bevan did actually offer to put up any stranded passengers as well.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28But what was important was that the gates did stay shut
0:05:28 > 0:05:31and they were manned so that no trains could pass through.
0:05:31 > 0:05:37The fact is, Llanelli was a strategically important railway station.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40On the main line from London to Fishguard,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43a prime link between Britain and Ireland.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46And yet, it was vulnerable. Why?
0:05:46 > 0:05:48Because there was just one way in,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51through those gates there on Station Road,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55and just one way out, along the line, a quarter of a mile to the west.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58When the gates were shut, nothing could move.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06So, on the evening of the 17th, all approaching trains came to a standstill
0:06:06 > 0:06:11as the few remaining policemen in the town just stood and watched.
0:06:11 > 0:06:17But as Friday the 18th dawned, the situation and the mood were about to change.
0:06:18 > 0:06:24One of Llanelli's magnates, Thomas Jones, Justice of the Peace
0:06:24 > 0:06:30and also a very big shareholder in the Great Western Railway, sent for troops.
0:06:30 > 0:06:35There was a pool of troops in Cardiff and the troops arrived
0:06:35 > 0:06:39and he was there to meet them outside the gates at 7:30 on Friday morning.
0:06:41 > 0:06:47So, the first troops to arrive were 127 men from the North Lancashire Regiment.
0:06:47 > 0:06:54As it turns out, they were vastly outnumbered and they failed in their attempts to get the gates reopened.
0:06:54 > 0:07:00So, what did they do? They set up camp on the outskirts of the town and sent out for reinforcements.
0:07:00 > 0:07:08These arrived at about 4:30pm and they were mainly Worcestershire's - a very highly disciplined regiment.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12And the moment the troops arrived - the Worcester Regiment - the atmosphere changed.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15I think that, to me, is the triggering point.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19So, what can we say about the Worcestershire Regiment?
0:07:19 > 0:07:24They had a long, illustrious and, it has to be said, rather bloody history.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29Back in 1770, they had fired on a crowd in Boston, Massachusetts.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31it was one of the seeds of the American Revolution
0:07:31 > 0:07:36and that episode earned them a nickname, the Vein Openers.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41They were guarding the Custom House in Boston.
0:07:41 > 0:07:48There was a riot and they opened fire and killed three protesters.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51It is still known in America as the Boston Massacre.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57Their commanding officer on that August weekend in 1911
0:07:57 > 0:08:01was Major Burleigh Francis Brownlow Stuart.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06He was commissioned before the Boer War, he served in the Boer War
0:08:06 > 0:08:10and got accelerated promotion during the Boer War to the rank of major.
0:08:10 > 0:08:16Well, Major Stuart certainly knew how to take action, because those Eastern gates were retaken,
0:08:16 > 0:08:23lost and then retaken again at bayonet-point on the evening of 18th August.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25The trains started to move again.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28Surely that was it, problem solved?
0:08:28 > 0:08:32Well, it wasn't, because on Saturday 19th August 1911,
0:08:32 > 0:08:36the crowd's attention shifted to the western end
0:08:36 > 0:08:40and this would turn out to be the darkest of days.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49A train appeared at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon going west.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53There was something wrong about this train, something suspicious about it.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56The strikers weren't really willing to let it pass.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00It is said that the driver had been encouraged to drive
0:09:00 > 0:09:03through the use of, as you might say, intoxicating liquor.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07But certainly, he was incapacitated.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11My grandfather went in front of the train, lay across the track
0:09:11 > 0:09:16and said, "If this train goes through Llanelli, it passes over my dead body."
0:09:16 > 0:09:19Of course, all the family are very proud of that brave act.
0:09:19 > 0:09:24The train stopped with a large embankment on one side with a lot of houses
0:09:24 > 0:09:30and from that embankment, some of the young lads began to throw stones, began to shout abuse.
0:09:30 > 0:09:35They got hold of the driver and manhandled him
0:09:35 > 0:09:39and railwaymen rake out a fire in the engine
0:09:39 > 0:09:41so the engine is now immobilised.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44This train is not going anywhere anymore.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47The next thing that happened
0:09:47 > 0:09:51is that Major Stuart of the Worcester's brings 80 of his men up.
0:09:52 > 0:09:57They line up on each side of the train. Bayonets drawn.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Let's think about what was really going on here,
0:10:01 > 0:10:05because the soldiers found themselves in the worst possible position.
0:10:05 > 0:10:12Why? Well, they were stuck in a culvert and they were surrounded by crowds on both sides in these banks,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Bryn Road on this side and High Street up there.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21Major Stuart climbed up from the bottom of the cutting
0:10:21 > 0:10:24to talk to the rioters and to try to reason with them
0:10:24 > 0:10:26but that didn't prove successful.
0:10:26 > 0:10:32Eventually, with a lot of rocks and bricks being thrown at them,
0:10:32 > 0:10:34they had to do something.
0:10:34 > 0:10:41He then makes Henry Wilkins, the magistrate he'd brought up with him, read the Riot Act.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46He hands him, actually, a sheet with the Riot Act written on it.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49Major Stuart gave the crowds
0:10:49 > 0:10:53a minute to disperse. He went through this theatrical performance
0:10:53 > 0:10:56of taking out his watch, timing etc.
0:10:56 > 0:11:02He mumbles through the Riot Act, reluctantly, as it comes out in the inquest,
0:11:02 > 0:11:06and Major Stuart draws up a firing squad of five men.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12We still don't know whether the order to shoot was given or somebody just fired
0:11:12 > 0:11:16but certainly, a volley followed and it was in that moment,
0:11:16 > 0:11:21that two young men on the embankment overlooking the train were killed.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26Major Stuart had initially remonstrated with a group of people who'd gathered at the back
0:11:26 > 0:11:29of number four High Street, which is just up there.
0:11:29 > 0:11:35But when the shots were fired, they were directed, not at number four, but at number six High Street,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38which is where we can see the conifer trees today.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43There is witness evidence that much of the stone-throwing
0:11:43 > 0:11:46came from the very group of houses where they were standing
0:11:46 > 0:11:52and people even reported that Jack John, the young football player, bared his chest and said, "Shoot me!"
0:11:52 > 0:11:57Now, you're not shooting in the air, you're not shooting with rubber bullets at all.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00They're shooting to kill. And they actually do kill.
0:12:06 > 0:12:12John Francis was hit in the throat and slumped down in the back garden of number six, wounded.
0:12:12 > 0:12:19John John was shot through the heart and killed instantly.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24Leonard Worsell was also shot dead and Benjamin Hanbury was wounded.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29So, the four men were carried from the railway embankment -
0:12:29 > 0:12:33just beyond those trees - and brought into this garden.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36This is the garden of number six High Street.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39They discovered that the bullet that killed Jack John
0:12:39 > 0:12:43had also injured Ben Hanbury. And how's this for a twist of fate?
0:12:43 > 0:12:47One of the owners of number six today is a Hanbury.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52My name is Janet Williams. My maiden name is Hanbury.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56My grandfather was Ivor Hanbury and his younger brother was Ben.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01When we bought the house about 20 years ago, we had no idea of the history behind it at all.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05Neighbours told us of a few details as the years went by
0:13:05 > 0:13:07and then I put two and two together
0:13:07 > 0:13:12and then I remembered a childhood story that my great uncle had been shot.
0:13:13 > 0:13:20To think that two men died in my garden and were pronounced dead on my living room floor is quite haunting.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24It's not something I like to think about a lot.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27Here we are, a century on from what happened.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31The shootings happened just a few yards away.
0:13:31 > 0:13:36- What are your thoughts today? - The British forces killed two innocent people
0:13:36 > 0:13:42and there's never been any apology or explanation or anything as to why they did it.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44It's all been kept very, very quiet.
0:13:44 > 0:13:50It's a crucial point, isn't it? 100 years on, do you think an apology would be appropriate?
0:13:50 > 0:13:54Well, something needs to be done. If it happened in this day and age,
0:13:54 > 0:13:58there'd be court cases, appeals, goodness knows what.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06Jack John was laid to rest here at Llanelli public cemetery.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Leonard Worsell is buried just a few yards away.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16I have to say, it is a shocking thing when you read the wording on the gravestone.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19The graphic detail of his death at the age 21.
0:14:21 > 0:14:29If it's shocking for us, imagine what it is for the John family who are still living in Llanelli today.
0:14:30 > 0:14:35My name is Carole Slade, my maiden name was John.
0:14:35 > 0:14:40Jack was my father's older brother,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43so Jack John was my uncle.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47The family never spoke about it.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51I never heard my father mention it at all.
0:14:51 > 0:14:56The first I remember hearing about it was when my eldest daughter was in school
0:14:56 > 0:14:59and they were doing some local history.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04I know he was 21 years of age and he was a tin-plate worker.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07I also know that he was quite a talented rugby player
0:15:07 > 0:15:14because he was due to visit Canada with a rugby team in September.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17The September after he was killed.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21There is a view in some quarters that they were rioters, they had to be dealt with.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23Is that how you see it?
0:15:23 > 0:15:26No, I don't think they were rioters.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34It was your average 21 year-old, more interested, probably, in rugby than politics.
0:15:34 > 0:15:40This was an act that should not have happened. It was wrong.
0:15:40 > 0:15:45If Jack John was an innocent victim, then so was Leonard Worsell.
0:15:45 > 0:15:50Leonard Worsell is clearly an innocent bystander.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55Had he been standing there with a sign round his neck saying, "innocent bystander,"
0:15:55 > 0:15:58it could not have been clearer.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02He was from London, he was suffering from tuberculosis,
0:16:02 > 0:16:05he was in a sanatorium outside Llanelli
0:16:05 > 0:16:08and was on his weekend leave.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11He was in the middle of shaving in the kitchen
0:16:11 > 0:16:15and he had walked out into the back garden to see what was going on
0:16:15 > 0:16:17when he was struck by the bullet.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20But if the victims were innocent,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23if they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27then were the troops and their commanding officer the guilty ones?
0:16:28 > 0:16:33This was an unusual set of circumstances in a very hot climate
0:16:33 > 0:16:36in a politically charged atmosphere
0:16:36 > 0:16:41and the troops arguably just lost control of the situation.
0:16:41 > 0:16:47They were obviously, as soldiers, strongly disciplined and they had to carry out their orders.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51The only way they could do that in the end was to open fire.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58The train had been stopped, the troops went out,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02they shoot dead two people and injure others
0:17:02 > 0:17:07and then they retreat back to the railway station.
0:17:07 > 0:17:13They'd abandoned the train and now the soldiers more or less abandoned the town,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16leaving the local people free to vent their anger.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Back here at the eastern approach to the station,
0:17:19 > 0:17:24they came and set fire to dozens and dozens of wagons and carriages.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37What is surprising is that people were not driven off the streets,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41they were not cowed after those deaths.
0:17:41 > 0:17:48The whole of the working class districts in Llanelli rose up in anger.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53A large number of people found a train in the sidings with the equipment of the troops in it
0:17:53 > 0:17:56and that was fair game as far as they were concerned.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59Others went to the railway sidings and there was looting,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02people dressed up in some clothes they found,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05children were clad in clothes they had never had before.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08Then, at 11:30 at night...
0:18:08 > 0:18:10EXPLOSION
0:18:13 > 0:18:18There was a truck there containing explosives for an ironmonger in Llanelli
0:18:18 > 0:18:23and because of the flames, probably, or the heat of the fires, it blew up.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33The explosion took the number of dead from two to six
0:18:33 > 0:18:38now including William Harris, Alfred Morris, Joseph Plant
0:18:38 > 0:18:41and Margaret Fisher - all of them local people.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46One was a lady of about 30 who was pregnant at the time.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50So that again was a tragedy and this gives us the dilemma
0:18:50 > 0:18:55in Llanelli of how do we separate the looting from the shooting.
0:18:55 > 0:19:02The town explodes, the property of the Great Western Railway Company is ransacked,
0:19:02 > 0:19:04shops of the magistrates are looted.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07The town was completely out of control
0:19:07 > 0:19:14until further troops were sent in and then there was a confrontation throughout the night.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20Marcus Street had a lot of injuries because when the soldiers attacked there,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24they attacked with bayonets again and the police with truncheons.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29And there were lots of injuries in what was called the Battle of Marcus Street.
0:19:29 > 0:19:34There were many people injured who are not reported in history books
0:19:34 > 0:19:37because people were afraid to go to hospital.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40If they went to hospital, they would be arrested.
0:19:40 > 0:19:45So, the actual numbers of people who were injured, we will never know.
0:19:45 > 0:19:51Eventually, everything is clear, of course, by about 2:00 in the morning
0:19:51 > 0:19:53and it's all over, that's the end of it.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58That's the strike and the riots all over in two-and-a-half days.
0:19:58 > 0:20:04It had taken no fewer than 800 troops to deal with the Llanelli riots.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07But to add to the sense of bitterness and frustration,
0:20:07 > 0:20:13news came through that the strike had in fact been settled a few hours before the explosion happened.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17David Lloyd George, in his view at least, had saved the day.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22We know from the account of the Secretary Of State For War at that time,
0:20:22 > 0:20:26he'd immediately burst into the War Secretary's office and said,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29"A bottle of champagne! I've done it! The strike is settled!"
0:20:29 > 0:20:32He then phoned up the Home Secretary, Winston Churchill.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35Churchill's reaction was, "I'm very sorry to hear that,
0:20:35 > 0:20:39"I would have preferred to have gone on and given these men a good thrashing."
0:20:42 > 0:20:46In the days that followed, there were heated exchanges in Parliament
0:20:46 > 0:20:49and back in Llanelli, there were funerals.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54Thousands came to pay their respects to Jack John and Leonard Worsell.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59Exactly a week after the funerals, came the inquest.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05The verdict is interesting.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09Lawful killing in the way of justifiable homicide.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14The coroner informs the jury that is the verdict they are to bring in.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18They do bring in the verdict but also add a rider.
0:21:19 > 0:21:20The rider is that,
0:21:20 > 0:21:27"We regret that Major Stuart didn't find other means than shooting to disperse the crowd."
0:21:27 > 0:21:33Really, from reading the press reports of the subsequent inquest,
0:21:33 > 0:21:39the soldiers were exonerated and congratulated for what they did by the army authorities.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44That rider actually negates the verdict.
0:21:44 > 0:21:49In fact, the coroner allows Stuart to get away literally with murder.
0:21:49 > 0:21:55Another perceived whitewash involved the deserter, Private Harold Spiers,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59who claimed to have refused Brownlow Stuart's order to fire on the crowd.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04Spiers refuses to fire,
0:22:04 > 0:22:09is arrested, escapes...
0:22:09 > 0:22:14apparently hikes to the English border, living on berries and nuts
0:22:14 > 0:22:19and is then arrested but he is charged with going absent without leave.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22He's not charged with desertion.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26In fact, he wasn't one of the soldiers who had been ordered to shoot.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28He went absent subsequently.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33He claimed that he went because he couldn't bear the thought of firing on the local people
0:22:33 > 0:22:37but he wasn't one of those who was ordered to open fire.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41Despite the fact that clearly he was on duty and clearly he had deserted
0:22:41 > 0:22:45and almost certainly had refused to fire, the charges were reduced.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50Churchill had asked that the whole case could be downgraded,
0:22:50 > 0:22:57downplayed, so that there would not be any more sensational publicity about a man who refused to fire.
0:22:57 > 0:23:02Both Spiers and Brownlow Stuart went on to serve in the First World War.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06The latter, promoted to Brigadier General.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10His progress is recorded in the regimental archive
0:23:10 > 0:23:15but there is no mention of the deaths in Llanelli in the official battalion record.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21So, it seems the air brushing had already started.
0:23:21 > 0:23:22But not in Llanelli.
0:23:22 > 0:23:27Here we are, on Bigyn Hill, within sight of the railway station.
0:23:27 > 0:23:35Two weeks after the events of August 19th, the pupils of Bigyn School decided to stage their own uprising,
0:23:35 > 0:23:39in effect, the first strike by school children.
0:23:39 > 0:23:46One day, early on in the term in September, they left the playground and went out onto the streets.
0:23:46 > 0:23:51It was probably the fact that some of them had been caned rather severely.
0:23:51 > 0:23:52They took action.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02They said, we've seen what our parents have done, can we try the same trick?
0:24:02 > 0:24:08So, off they went around town, making speeches, actually, here and there on corners
0:24:08 > 0:24:14and contacted three other schools - New Dock School, Lakefield School and Old Road School -
0:24:14 > 0:24:16and brought them out as well.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20What I have here is a very valuable document.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25It is the original logbook for Bigyn School from 1911,
0:24:25 > 0:24:27which has survived to this day.
0:24:27 > 0:24:33It's crucial evidence and the headmaster explains that he was absent on the day
0:24:33 > 0:24:35because he was suffering from a cold.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38But he does give us his official account of what went on.
0:24:38 > 0:24:45He reveals, by the way, that some Bigyn boys were marching and singing with workers on September 5th
0:24:45 > 0:24:49and then on the Tuesday morning he says,
0:24:49 > 0:24:5432 boys absented themselves between 11:00 and 12:15.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59With a few exceptions, he says, they all returned in the afternoon and they were punished.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03"The above," says GJ Harris, "is a true account
0:25:03 > 0:25:09"of what has been boomed in the press as a schools strike in Llanelli.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13"The whole incident," says the headmaster, "has been grossly exaggerated."
0:25:14 > 0:25:17Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?
0:25:17 > 0:25:23The important thing was that it was copied in cities all over the UK.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28In places like London, Birmingham, Manchester, even as far as Glasgow,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33there were school strikes but it all started here in Llanelli.
0:25:36 > 0:25:44So, for a moment in time, the town of Llanelli was the focus of parliamentary and press attention
0:25:44 > 0:25:46and yet in the decades that followed,
0:25:46 > 0:25:51while the Tonypandy riots of 1910 were seared in the public memory,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55the rather deadlier uprising in Llanelli was forgotten.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04I think there was a sense of amnesia about the Llanelli riots
0:26:04 > 0:26:08which is very different from what happened in Tonypandy.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10The difference is about the character of the two places.
0:26:10 > 0:26:15Tonypandy is a community which is very much centred on the mine,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19very much centred on the industry in which everybody works.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23Llanelli isn't. Most of the people taking part have no connection with the railway.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27And to some extent, nobody could quite explain what happened.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31As a result, people tended to say, "Well, maybe it never did."
0:26:32 > 0:26:38Only now, a century later, does the town properly remember.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43There's even talk of petitioning the government for an official apology.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45Getting away from the guilt,
0:26:45 > 0:26:52the cloud of shame that the chapels said descended upon the town,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54that cloud of shame is still with us.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56I think the town of Llanelli
0:26:56 > 0:27:00and especially the families of those people who were killed,
0:27:00 > 0:27:03deserve an apology at least.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08I suspect the time for public recantation,
0:27:08 > 0:27:12an apology to the people of Llanelli, is probably past.
0:27:12 > 0:27:18All sorts of events that happened in the past have been dragged up and people want apologies.
0:27:18 > 0:27:26Whether the Ministry Of Defence would do that over what is a relatively small incident, I don't know.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30But I don't think it would be a reflection on the regiment.
0:27:30 > 0:27:35Too often now, in Llanelli, we see it as a place of high unemployment,
0:27:35 > 0:27:40social problems, drug problems et cetera.
0:27:40 > 0:27:47It is time we recognised the courage of people in Llanelli
0:27:47 > 0:27:49and the valour that they had.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52And I won't call it a riot - it was an uprising.
0:27:52 > 0:27:58It was a people's uprising against killings by the state.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03Black Saturday - the worst day, probably, in all history of Llanelli.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10What happened here in Llanelli a century ago was an outrage
0:28:10 > 0:28:16and it caused a sense of pain and anger that has lasted 100 years.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20And that's why it is so important for us to retell the story today,
0:28:20 > 0:28:23to spell things out as we see them.
0:28:23 > 0:28:30In that way, we can honour the memory of the innocent victims of the Llanelli riots
0:28:30 > 0:28:32and make sure that they're never forgotten.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:45 > 0:28:48E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk