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In 1926 Britain suffered a general strike called by the Trade Union Council (TUC). Organisations representing different groups of workers had been around for some time. Over that time they had joined together under one governing body. This strike was called because of the way mine owners were treating their workers. Owners were trying to cut wages and increase hours. Coal was no longer in plentiful supply in the United Kingdom, having been mined massively during the war and so the mine owners had less money coming in.

After months of dispute, some mine owners locked their workers out of the mines. The TUC then announced that the strike would start at one minute to midnight on Monday, May 3rd. The workers involved, apart from the mineworkers, were railway workers, transport workers, printers, dock workers, and iron and steel workers. This meant about 1.75 million people were on strike.

The government were ready and brought in the army to take over some jobs and recruited volunteers from the middle classes to drive buses etc. Some of the strikers decided to picket factories or places where men continued to work. A picket is someone or a group of people who stand outside a workplace or other venue as a protest or to try to persuade others not to enter during a strike.

If you remember my grandfather had his own laundry business and pickets stood outside to stop deliveries coming in or out. His workers were well paid, well looked after and didn't want to strike. My grandfather came out and, dressed in his best suit, no doubt with a tie and the then-fashionable winged collar, drove one of the horse and carriages he still used for deliveries and collections through the picket line who all moved aside. His workers were then happy to enter and leave and business continued as usual. Bit of a determined guy was my grandad.The picture is him and my grandmother at the beach in the 1930s. Tie and winged collar even on holiday.

The strike lasted for 9 days ending on 12 May when the TUC visited the Prime Minister in Downing Street to say it would call off the strike. Things in the mines didn't really change and the feeling was that the strike had achieved nothing. By the end of November, most miners were back at work although not in the same numbers, Thousands were now unemployed. The ones who did go back were forced to accept longer hours, lower wages and district wage agreements. By the late 1930s, employment in mining had fallen from its pre-strike peak of 1.2 million miners to about three-quarters of a million.

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