0:00:04 > 0:00:09The popular image of the start of the World War I...
0:00:09 > 0:00:11Thousands of British lads
0:00:11 > 0:00:14enthusiastically heeding their country's call to join up.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17Soon, they'll be fighting the Boche in Belgium.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24Among them, the men and boys from Devon.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28By November, 6,000 West Countrymen had joined up
0:00:28 > 0:00:33with more than one in ten of them never to return.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36It's a story of blood, tears and sacrifice.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40And one that we rightly mark every November.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43But there's another story that's rarely told.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46One of strikes and struggle - of a home front divided.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52Because Devon, in 1914 and throughout the war, witnessed
0:00:52 > 0:00:57industrial unrest on a scale never seen since.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02I think if you were part then of the establishment, seeing that kind of
0:01:02 > 0:01:06development in the middle of 1917, you would be getting quite worried.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10This is the story of Devon in dissent.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30The South Devon market town of Newton Abbot,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32today a place of relative social harmony.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39And at its centre, a memorial
0:01:39 > 0:01:43commemorating 233 men
0:01:43 > 0:01:45who never returned from the front.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52Obviously, a memorial is our proper response to the
0:01:52 > 0:01:55heroism of those who fought and died.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01What we're less good at remembering is perhaps that we were not
0:02:01 > 0:02:05as united in war as we were after the event, in grief.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11A few miles up the road is Trusham Quarry.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13100 years ago,
0:02:13 > 0:02:18this was the unlikely setting for a bloody industrial conflict.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22On the eve of war, management locked out workers
0:02:22 > 0:02:25who wouldn't accept a pay cut.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28When war started, the quarry was reopened
0:02:28 > 0:02:30as a gesture towards the war effort.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33But managers refused to back down over wages.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38There was trouble.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40Some of the workers tried to return,
0:02:40 > 0:02:44but they were met by pickets who bombarded them with rocks.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46One man was badly injured.
0:02:46 > 0:02:4820 strikers ended up in court.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55The man described as the strikers' leader was a staunch socialist.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58He was also an opponent of the war.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02For William Bond and the minority who shared his political opinion,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05the war was being fought in the interests of grasping
0:03:05 > 0:03:08capitalists with the blood of the lower classes.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15Such views had been fermenting for years, a time that's come to
0:03:15 > 0:03:18be known as The Great Unrest.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23This was a period of increasing industrial disputes,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26certainly from 1910 through to 1913.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28But more than just days lost,
0:03:28 > 0:03:32they were quite high profile disputes as well in the coal mines
0:03:32 > 0:03:34and the railways
0:03:34 > 0:03:36and the Dublin Transport Strike of 1913.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38And all of these could be seen as
0:03:38 > 0:03:43part of a growing crisis within Britain.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45JEERING AND SHOUTING
0:03:47 > 0:03:52In the 1970s, the BBC dramatised one of the key events of 1913,
0:03:52 > 0:03:54Cornwall's biggest ever strike.
0:03:54 > 0:03:591,000 newly unionised clay workers downed tools in a dispute over pay.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05The BBC also interviewed some of those who were there.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10Well, the unions started about...either 1910 or '11.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14And then after a few weeks or a few months probably
0:04:14 > 0:04:17we had a three pence rise from three bob.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20And then at 12 months after, just before the strike, we had another
0:04:20 > 0:04:22three penny rise which made it a
0:04:22 > 0:04:24guinea but we were out for 25 shillings, you see.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32Police from Glamorgan were sent to protect those who still
0:04:32 > 0:04:34wanted to work.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39We travelled down to Cornwall by train.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42When we arrived at St Austell railway station,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45there we found several charabancs there waiting for us.
0:04:45 > 0:04:50But Inspector John Williams, who was in charge of the contingent,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53he said, "Take those charabancs away.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55"Take them down the bottom end of the town.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59"I'm marching my men down through here."
0:05:02 > 0:05:04The dispute escalated.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07When police blocked the way of strikers trying to reach the men
0:05:07 > 0:05:09still working...
0:05:09 > 0:05:10They said, "We will go!"
0:05:10 > 0:05:13So, the man in charge said, "Charge!"
0:05:15 > 0:05:18When we charged, from our previous experiences,
0:05:18 > 0:05:20there's no messing about it.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23But we were only about 26, all told,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26going into a crowd of over 1,000.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28When we got nearer, of course,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30we start scattering them, right and left.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37Eventually, as the BBC drama recreated, the workers
0:05:37 > 0:05:40were forced back to their jobs.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42But once the war had started,
0:05:42 > 0:05:45the government needed the unions on its side.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49Chancellor David Lloyd George
0:05:49 > 0:05:54invited workers' leaders to sit on industrial planning committees.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56The strikes weren't banned, as such,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59in the way that they were in World War II.
0:05:59 > 0:06:05Erm, but nonetheless the expectation was that there would be arbitration
0:06:05 > 0:06:07and conciliation in disputes
0:06:07 > 0:06:10and that wherever possible,
0:06:10 > 0:06:13disputes would be resolved without strikes or lockouts.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17But this didn't go down well with some at grass roots.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21There was a sense very often that leaders were selling out and they
0:06:21 > 0:06:24therefore become very antipathetic towards their leaders -
0:06:24 > 0:06:26not want to follow them so much.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35So, strikes went on throughout the war, often under local leadership.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40In Devon, bottom up militancy threatened to derail
0:06:40 > 0:06:43the truce between the government and the unions' national leadership.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50As well as the dispute at the local quarry,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54railway workers here in Newton Abbot came out on strike just before,
0:06:54 > 0:06:58just after and even in fact DURING the war...
0:06:58 > 0:07:01..against the wishes of their national leaders.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05One of the things that fascinates me
0:07:05 > 0:07:08as a historian is how the media covers the big
0:07:08 > 0:07:10political stories of the day.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14So, I've come to the offices of the local paper that reported
0:07:14 > 0:07:17those turbulent local events of 100 years ago.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23The surprising thing about the reports is their liberal stance.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25Just two months before the war,
0:07:25 > 0:07:29the paper comes out in support of the Trusham Quarry strikers.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34And four days after the start of the war, on the very day that
0:07:34 > 0:07:37the Defence of the Realm Act was passed, which made it
0:07:37 > 0:07:41possible for the government to censor any anti-war views, the
0:07:41 > 0:07:47newspaper published a vehemently anti-war speech by William Bond,
0:07:47 > 0:07:48in which he says,
0:07:48 > 0:07:53"If the working classes allow themselves to be dragged
0:07:53 > 0:07:57"into a war, it would be another means of keeping them down..."
0:07:57 > 0:08:00And, as he puts it,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04"..retarding the work for the better conditions of the people."
0:08:06 > 0:08:11The interesting thing is that the speech is reported without
0:08:11 > 0:08:14any comment, almost as if the newspaper
0:08:14 > 0:08:16agrees with its sentiments -
0:08:16 > 0:08:19a remarkable thing for that point in time.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24And perhaps an indication of the extent of local
0:08:24 > 0:08:26support for such radical views,
0:08:26 > 0:08:31views which were championed by the Independent Labour Party, the ILP.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34It was a forerunner of the present Labour Party,
0:08:34 > 0:08:36but much further to the left.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39William Bond was a member.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41The party was against the war
0:08:41 > 0:08:44because it believed workers of all countries should stand
0:08:44 > 0:08:48united against what it saw as the "capitalist masters".
0:08:48 > 0:08:53Evidence showed it had quite a following here in Newton Abbot.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57Photographs show the ILP could muster quite a crowd
0:08:57 > 0:09:02for their outings and that they even had their own Sunday School.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05This level of dissent in a South Devon market town
0:09:05 > 0:09:09is surprising, but even more so is the opposition to recruitment
0:09:09 > 0:09:13that came from those you might imagine being at the opposite end
0:09:13 > 0:09:15of the political spectrum to the ILP.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20Before 1916, service was voluntary...
0:09:21 > 0:09:23..but casualties were mounting.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Troops needed to be reinforced and replaced.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33The war office sought a solution and attention turned to Devon.
0:09:33 > 0:09:38Here, near Newton Abbot, the country's first purpose-built
0:09:38 > 0:09:42agricultural college, Seale-Hayne, had just been completed.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46This place was at the forefront of
0:09:46 > 0:09:48the drive to find those replacements.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50But it produced the most extraordinary
0:09:50 > 0:09:54opposition from the very people it had been intended to help.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00During the war, Seale-Hayne trained women to work on farms - land girls,
0:10:00 > 0:10:02as they were known.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05The plan was to free up farming men for service.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09There were over 2,500 women
0:10:09 > 0:10:13within Devon in 1915 and 1916 who
0:10:13 > 0:10:16had actually registered to work in agriculture.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20Many of these trained at places like this, Seale-Hayne.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27It was a hard month's training. Up at 5.30am and to bed about 10pm,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30with lots of milking and lots of mangold and lots of turnips and lots
0:10:30 > 0:10:35of all the other things that the girls managed to do quite well.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37But things didn't quite go to plan.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42There is every evidence that the women were good,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45though they never, ever managed to convince the farmers.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49There's also, of course, the fact that the farmers' wives themselves
0:10:49 > 0:10:52didn't much like strange women working on the farms.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Some farmers simply didn't want to let their men and their sons go
0:10:55 > 0:10:59to war, just as the government was trying to crank up the war machine.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05There was great resistance amongst the farmers for their own sons
0:11:05 > 0:11:09to join the forces.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13And unfortunately for the recruitment drive,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16the agricultural labourers too quite quickly realised that
0:11:16 > 0:11:19if their bosses' sons weren't going, nor am I.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23And that was a bone of contention that lasted right through until
0:11:23 > 0:11:25conscription, in 1916.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31The reluctance of some Devon farmers to support the war effort was
0:11:31 > 0:11:34a real factor in the county having one of the lowest
0:11:34 > 0:11:37numbers of army volunteers.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41Figures from the National Archives show a marked
0:11:41 > 0:11:47difference between recruitment rates in the South West and elsewhere.
0:11:47 > 0:11:52If you look at the percentage of men of military age who had enlisted
0:11:52 > 0:11:56by the 12th of November, 1914, the national picture for England, Wales
0:11:56 > 0:12:00and Scotland was 10.2%. So, 10.2% of men of military age
0:12:00 > 0:12:04had enlisted by the 12th of November, 1914.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08The picture for Devon is somewhat different, it's about 50% less.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13It's 4.7% of men of military age had enlisted by the 12th of November.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16It's not the worst rural county's performance.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21Cornwall actually does a lot worse than that and it's about 2.7%,
0:12:21 > 0:12:22for Cornwall.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27For those living in Devon,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30events across the North Sea must have seemed very distant.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36Two thirds of the population lived in very rural areas.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40It was the largest agricultural county in the South West, in 1914.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44And there is a historic connection between rural workers being
0:12:44 > 0:12:48less likely to enlist compared to urban workers.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52But it would be wrong to assume that because Devon farmers weren't
0:12:52 > 0:12:53keen for their sons to enlist
0:12:53 > 0:12:56that they were opposed to the war effort.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59It's a late harvest in 1914, so a number of men feel that they
0:12:59 > 0:13:02should stay at home to bring in the harvest.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05That their patriotic duty is best expressed
0:13:05 > 0:13:07by keeping the family farm going.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11That duty and patriotism can be fulfilled by feeding the nation,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15literally. And this becomes ever more important, particularly in 1915
0:13:15 > 0:13:19when German submarine warfare really begins to kick in.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24Some may have resisted the call to swap Devon's green
0:13:24 > 0:13:29acres for Flanders' fields. But as more men did enlist,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32cracks began to open up in Devon's manufacturing heartlands.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36It wasn't only farmers who were affected by the loss
0:13:36 > 0:13:38of men to the war effort.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41It also disrupted factory work
0:13:41 > 0:13:44and led to a huge increase in industrial tension.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52The remains of the paper mill at Stoke Canon, near Exeter.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56By 1915, several skilled men had gone away to fight
0:13:56 > 0:13:58and production was down.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02The owners wanted to pay those who remained by results.
0:14:02 > 0:14:03The workers said no
0:14:03 > 0:14:08and asked instead for an increase in their basic pay.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10The Tremletts, the owners of the
0:14:10 > 0:14:12mills said that would cost them
0:14:12 > 0:14:15far too much. In fact, they offered to open their books up to the public
0:14:15 > 0:14:18and said it would cost an extra £500 a year and the workers said,
0:14:18 > 0:14:21"No, we're serving you with a notice to strike."
0:14:23 > 0:14:26The paper mill owner was Frederick Tremlett.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29This was his house.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33He also owned the homes of many of his workers.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37By the middle of August, the Tremletts had clearly had enough
0:14:37 > 0:14:40and decided to seek a court case, an injunction to have all the workers
0:14:40 > 0:14:43evicted from the cottages behind me.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46The Mill Cottages and the Burnham Cottages which they owned,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49as workers' cottages for the mill.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53The case was heard by magistrates sitting at Exeter Castle.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59The local newspaper reported a Mrs Radford as saying she'd gone
0:14:59 > 0:15:03to work at the mill to keep her home going after her husband had
0:15:03 > 0:15:06been paralysed following an accident there.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09But eviction orders were still granted
0:15:09 > 0:15:11against her and 13 other strikers.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16She warned that she'd end up living in a tent.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21And that's exactly what she did, along with 50 men, women and
0:15:21 > 0:15:23children, three dogs and a cat,
0:15:23 > 0:15:26in tents provided by the Papermakers' Union.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32A play park now stands on the spot.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35Some of the strikers eventually went
0:15:35 > 0:15:38back to work, but others were replaced.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41It must have been tough living in tents for seven weeks
0:15:41 > 0:15:44and being forced to move elsewhere to seek work.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48The strikers here, unlike those at Trusham,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51got very little sympathy from their local newspaper.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54An editorial, typical for the time, said,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58"The whole attitude of Trade Unionism, as controlled
0:15:58 > 0:16:01"by the socialist element, is one of the most disheartening
0:16:01 > 0:16:05"aspects of the situation in which the nation finds itself."
0:16:08 > 0:16:10Such an editorial is not surprising.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13The war was more than a year old,
0:16:13 > 0:16:15the full horror of what servicemen were facing
0:16:15 > 0:16:17was by now well-known.
0:16:19 > 0:16:20But the conflict was also affecting
0:16:20 > 0:16:24the working conditions of people in every corner of Britain...
0:16:24 > 0:16:28..and tensions over pay led to unrest here in North Devon
0:16:28 > 0:16:30that lasted the whole war.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37This was once home to furniture makers Shapland & Petter.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41During the war, the company won a contract to produce shell cases.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43But it's better known
0:16:43 > 0:16:45for this sought after arts and crafts furniture.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48The men who made these pieces wanted a rise of four shillings
0:16:48 > 0:16:52and sixpence, bringing their wages into line with Northern workers.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58The owners said that they'd lost 100 skilled men to the army
0:16:58 > 0:17:00and business had suffered as a result.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03They could only afford to pay two shillings a week.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06The workers came out on strike.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12After four weeks they returned, accepting a compromise offer,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16but they continued to agitate throughout the war.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Their actions were damned by the local newspaper, which said,
0:17:19 > 0:17:22they were "Causing the greatest possible anxiety at a time
0:17:22 > 0:17:25"when the interests of the nation should be served to the
0:17:25 > 0:17:27"fullest possible extent."
0:17:33 > 0:17:37Strikers and socialist opponents of the war were given a rough ride
0:17:37 > 0:17:40by much of the press for the first two years, but at least
0:17:40 > 0:17:43they didn't have to fight if they didn't want to.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46That changed the following year,
0:17:46 > 0:17:48with the introduction of conscription.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50Now joining the army was compulsory
0:17:50 > 0:17:52for all eligible men.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58Voluntary recruitment literally could not keep up with
0:17:58 > 0:18:00the mounting casualty rates.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04And there was a sense of having exhausted that pool of voluntary
0:18:04 > 0:18:07participation and the system had reached its sell-by date.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09Something else needed to be tried.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18Every unmarried man between the ages of 18 and 41 had to sign up.
0:18:18 > 0:18:19There were exemptions,
0:18:19 > 0:18:22including for those termed "conscientious objectors".
0:18:22 > 0:18:26But nonetheless, conscription caused further conflict between the
0:18:26 > 0:18:28establishment and the far left.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32The Independent Labour Party fought
0:18:32 > 0:18:34to keep local people from being conscripted,
0:18:34 > 0:18:36making representations
0:18:36 > 0:18:40at local tribunals which decided who would stay and who would go.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46The ILP archives are held here at the London School of Economics.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49And they include the papers and
0:18:49 > 0:18:52letters of Newton Abbot's William Bond.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54They produce a fascinating insight into the thinking
0:18:54 > 0:18:57of the left in that town then and
0:18:57 > 0:19:02here is a letter from William Bond to the party chiefs.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06"Dear Comrade, Six of our members appeared before the local tribunal
0:19:06 > 0:19:09"on Tuesday and put up a good fight,
0:19:09 > 0:19:11"carrying the audience with them and
0:19:11 > 0:19:13"giving the tribunal an object lesson.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17"Enclosed is a short report cut out from the Daily Mercury, which gives
0:19:17 > 0:19:19"the ILP a look-in."
0:19:21 > 0:19:25So Newton Abbot's radical enclave was stubbornly standing firm,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29but prevailing opinion was against its anti-war stance.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35Anger was vented, in particular, against conscientious objectors.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39This rare footage shows an attack on a London meeting.
0:19:39 > 0:19:44One Devon paper said the "conchies", as they were known,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48were doing more than anybody else in Britain to help the other side.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54Conscription caused further disruption in the workplace.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57It put extra pressure on employers - and not just
0:19:57 > 0:20:01farmers - to get women into work, a move resisted by
0:20:01 > 0:20:02many male colleagues.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07At Heathcoat's textile works in the mid-Devon
0:20:07 > 0:20:11town of Tiverton, the government had to intervene to force the company
0:20:11 > 0:20:14to take on female employees.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18Pam Sampson's grandma was one of them.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20I think it was just men being men,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23they didn't want women stepping on their toes.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25That maybe they'd do the job better than they would, you know.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27They just didn't like it, did they?!
0:20:27 > 0:20:32Then they had to change the age of girls going in to 12, so the boys
0:20:32 > 0:20:35could go off to the land and the men could go off to war.
0:20:35 > 0:20:36Had no choice, in the end.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41But Devon's biggest wartime dispute occurred in a place more
0:20:41 > 0:20:45usually associated with military than industrial conflict.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48The Royal naval port and garrison city of Plymouth,
0:20:48 > 0:20:53an important base for escort vessels and repairs.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57It centred on pay and triggered a new escalation in tensions
0:20:57 > 0:21:02between the strikers and those that knew the slaughter at first-hand.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07Trouble flared towards the end of 1916 when workers
0:21:07 > 0:21:12from the country's second biggest co-operative society went on strike.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15It was big and getting bigger all the time.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17It had grown spectacularly
0:21:17 > 0:21:19since its foundation in 1860.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23And then in the 1890s, they built one of the biggest structures
0:21:23 > 0:21:26west of Bristol, just behind us here.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31They had well over 100 different outlets, they had groceries,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34butchers, milk places, a drapery they'd started.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38They'd just opened a massive new warehouse at Sutton Harbour
0:21:38 > 0:21:43and because they were fairer than any other retailer, people flocked
0:21:43 > 0:21:46towards them, especially when rationing meant that
0:21:46 > 0:21:50prices were going up and up and up in the normal retail world.
0:21:50 > 0:21:55The co-op even had its own quay where its coal ship would
0:21:55 > 0:21:58unload supplies crucial for keeping Plymouth's home fires burning.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02It was the men that worked here that ignited the strike.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06The Dockers' and the General Workers' Union had put in a
0:22:06 > 0:22:09request to have their wages raised by three shillings a week.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13And some of the workers hadn't had a pay rise for about 15 years,
0:22:13 > 0:22:14so it was due.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Soon workers from other sections of the co-op joined them.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22They met at the city's Guildhall.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26It wasn't just co-op management they had to contend with.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28According to local newspapers,
0:22:28 > 0:22:30one meeting was cancelled after
0:22:30 > 0:22:33police intervened to protect strikers
0:22:33 > 0:22:37from angry servicemen who accused them of cowardice and treachery.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40"You ought to be in the trenches" they said.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45But the Co-op workers stuck to their guns
0:22:45 > 0:22:48and achieved a modest increase after staying out for ten weeks.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54The numbers of casualties inflicted on Plymouth were devastating.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57It's easy to understand how the strikers would have struggled
0:22:57 > 0:22:59to gain sympathy.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04But, by this point, after Britain had endured two years
0:23:04 > 0:23:09of gruelling warfare, there was still enough left wing agitation
0:23:09 > 0:23:13going on for the establishment to fear a mass uprising.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22In October 1917, revolution swept across Russia
0:23:22 > 0:23:26and there were real fears that the same could happen here.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29The ILP and other socialists met in Leeds to discuss how
0:23:29 > 0:23:32they could follow Russia's example.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37Once you start getting people on the left getting very enthusiastic
0:23:37 > 0:23:39about revolution, you get the Leeds
0:23:39 > 0:23:41Convention of June 1917
0:23:41 > 0:23:43when lots of people, people who are
0:23:43 > 0:23:46actually in many ways...we would tend
0:23:46 > 0:23:48to see now as quite moderate people,
0:23:48 > 0:23:50but people like Ernest Bevin, for example.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54You know, the former Devon farm boy, one of the leading lights
0:23:54 > 0:23:58in transport trade unionism, go to the Leeds Convention
0:23:58 > 0:24:00and talking about setting up British Soviets.
0:24:00 > 0:24:02Then I think people on the
0:24:02 > 0:24:05establishment side do start to get worried.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10World War I was nearing its end.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14In 1918, the Germans launched their Spring Offensive, which would
0:24:14 > 0:24:19ultimately fail and grant victory to the Allied Powers.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22But there was no let up on the industrial front at home.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30In August, three months before the end of the war,
0:24:30 > 0:24:35council workers and dockers came out on strike, in Teignmouth.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39And the following month, railway workers walked out here,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42in nearby Newton Abbot.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44There was a growing sense of concern
0:24:44 > 0:24:47about what the post-war world is going to be like.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51Workers are looking to defend their position, to defend things that they
0:24:51 > 0:24:54won during the war.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57To get things back that they'd lost during the war.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01Prices are rising, and that obviously
0:25:01 > 0:25:03leads to people needing to take
0:25:03 > 0:25:07industrial action in order to maintain their standard of living.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13One of Devon's most memorable wartime strikes took place
0:25:13 > 0:25:16just before the armistice.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19It had all the ingredients of earlier strikes.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22It wanted better pay,
0:25:22 > 0:25:26it had the aggressive hostility of the establishment, but it
0:25:26 > 0:25:31also looked back to a pre-WWI militancy of the suffragettes
0:25:31 > 0:25:33and symbolised the hopes and
0:25:33 > 0:25:36aspirations of women for after the Great War.
0:25:36 > 0:25:41The all-female workforce at Exeter's City Collar Works
0:25:41 > 0:25:44went on strike complaining that the five pence an hour
0:25:44 > 0:25:47they got for making uniforms wasn't enough.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50They'd been refused a penny increase.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53The women marched 13 miles from
0:25:53 > 0:25:57Exeter to here in Ottery to persuade
0:25:57 > 0:26:01their fellow female workers to join them in the strike.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04And they were met on the bridge by soldiers,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07who threatened to throw them into the river.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10But the women were undaunted and they went on into Ottery and they
0:26:10 > 0:26:14did persuade the women workers there to join them in the strike.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20Their boss refused to budge and closed down the City Collar Works.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23If it reopened, it went unreported.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28Other events took over as the nation celebrated its victory over
0:26:28 > 0:26:33Germany. The troops came home to an economy whose major
0:26:33 > 0:26:37industries were booming, as were the demands of workers and unions.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42There's huge amounts of investment going into a lot of these industries.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46Very low levels of unemployment, I mean, very, VERY low levels
0:26:46 > 0:26:47of unemployment.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51And that, as always, increases the power of working class movements
0:26:51 > 0:26:55quite significantly because people can go out on strike and employers
0:26:55 > 0:26:57will give them better conditions or
0:26:57 > 0:26:59better wages in order to get them back
0:26:59 > 0:27:03because they can still sell their products.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05But the boom was short lived.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07Unemployment soared,
0:27:07 > 0:27:11and in 1926, nearly two million workers downed tools
0:27:11 > 0:27:14in support of striking miners.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18The Daily Mail called it "A revolutionary move".
0:27:18 > 0:27:22But by now the Labour Party we know today had come into being.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26Labour was led by Social Democrats, by moderates, democratic socialists,
0:27:26 > 0:27:28if you like.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30They weren't interested in revolution.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33The early years of the twentieth century were the nearest
0:27:33 > 0:27:36Britain ever came to revolution.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38As for Devon, its years of
0:27:38 > 0:27:40industrial militancy were numbered.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49And today, Devon's wartime dissenters are largely forgotten.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53How should we view those who went against the grain, attracting
0:27:53 > 0:27:57public vilification, risking their homes and their livelihoods?
0:27:57 > 0:28:00Unpatriotic troublemakers?
0:28:00 > 0:28:04Or defenders in their own way of the rights and freedoms that
0:28:04 > 0:28:07so many fought and died for?
0:28:07 > 0:28:10It's easier to overlook what was going on in people's
0:28:10 > 0:28:13everyday lives back home.
0:28:13 > 0:28:14When we look at them,
0:28:14 > 0:28:18we often find unexpected and even uncomfortable truths.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25But those are as much a part of who we are and our history
0:28:25 > 0:28:28as the undeniable sacrifice of those who fell.