THIS year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. To mark the occasion, the Argus has teamed up with an initiative commemorating the contribution of people from Gwent in the Great War. This column is written by organisers of the project called ‘Journey’s End’, and its title reflects how many people from the region died in service. It is hoped efforts to name them all will be completed in time for the anniversary on November 11.

IN September 1918 a strike of railwaymen erupted across South Wales, with Newport as its ‘storm centre’.

The strike only lasted a few days but it highlighted great divisions in society.

It began as a series of local stoppages by men who rejected a national settlement of a five shillings per week increase and soon spread to Griffithstown, Bassaleg, Magor, Severn Tunnel, Rogerstone and elsewhere.

The government responded by sending 2000 troops to guard Newport station and ‘keep order’. The troops bivouacked in Bridge Street and on the station approach, where, according to the Argus, each man was issued with 120 rounds of ammunition.

The strike had an immediate impact, almost paralysing the Valleys. At a time when the country was already facing an acute shortage of coal, mines closed down as there was no way for many colliers to reach the pits or for coal to be transported out.

Jimmy Thomas, General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen, himself a native of Newport, and John Bromley, General Secretary of ASLEF, came to the town to meet the strike committee. When his plea for the men to return to work was rejected Thomas resigned his position in protest at what he called an ‘unconstitutional action’.

The strike caused severe social tensions and resulted in several outbreaks of violence against strikers. In Newport wounded and on-leave soldiers attacked the strike headquarters in Talbot Lane, off Charles Street, with one railwayman being taken to hospital after being hit over the head with a chair.

Some newspapers and politicians were quick to portray the strikers as ‘army dodgers’ led by ‘Bolshevik agitators’. In Magor, mainly an agricultural village but also the home to a number of railwaymen based at Severn Tunnel Junction, it was reported that there was a meeting of ‘Bolsheviks’ during the strike.The following evening a meeting of strikers in Magor included shouts of ‘down with the government’. The meeting was broken up -according to the Argus by ‘patriotic villagers’, but according to the strikers by ‘drunken hooligans’.

The strike was another indication that Britain was becoming a very fractured society and that a lengthy continuation of the war could have very severe consequences.