Thanet film producer Norman Thomas is looking for people with stories to tell of the General Strike of 1926.
Mr Thomas said: “We are appealing to anyone whose relatives were in any way involved or affected by this unique event in Britain’s history to please get in touch.”
The General Strike took place a century ago, when some two million workers took action after the miners were locked out of work for refusing to accept lower pay.
Mr Thomas said: “I don’t expect we’ll find anyone who was actually alive during the strike, but I’m sure there will be people out there who will have been told stories of the time by their fathers or mothers or other relatives.”
Mr Thomas has organised a special screening of a film called “The General Strike: A Revolution Betrayed?” on Sunday 14 June at 7pm at the Palace Cinema in Broadstairs.
“We will be having a discussion after the showing and it would be great if we could find people to take part whose relatives were involved in the strike.”
Mr Thomas said: “It was a huge conflict. For nine days in May, strikers faced the full force of the establishment, including the BBC, the police and the army. In the end they only failed, many believe, because they were betrayed by their leadership in the TUC.”
He added: “Many people think it’s the closest this country came to a revolution.”
The film, made in the early 1970s, was recently unearthed in the archives of Platform Films. Mr Thomas, who is a producer with Platform, said the film was found in pieces and had to be carefully restored for public screening.
He said: “The great thing is that the film includes interviews with people who were alive during the strike. These are people from both sides of the dispute and people who were in the thick of the action.”
Mr Thomas is especially looking for local connections.
“We haven’t got too much information about how Thanet was affected but it’s on record that railway and other transport workers in the area came out solidly for the strike and Ramsgate Trades Council played a key part in coordinating local strike action. We’re really keen to find out more.”
Mr Thomas says that Platform is currently working on a follow-up production to the film and would be interested in including contributions from local people.
If you have a story to tell, email Norman Thomas on [email protected]
You can see a trailer of the film on: https://youtu.be/35BnteXEAKg
Tickets are £9, concessions £8 and children £4.
To book go to https://thepalacecinema.co.uk/tickets/
Just before the General Strike, my grandmother Mrs B.M.C.Pryor of 6 Guildford Lawn Ramsgate sent my father William Pryor by train to her sisters in Aylesbury, the strike happened and she had no news of him for over three months, as there was no post or telephone, she was worried sick, it’s hard to realise in these days of computers etc, there was no way of contact.
It’s the beginning of an interesting period in British social history.
Although it deals with the succeeding decade, Juliet Gardiner’s book “The Thirties” contains a lot of cinematic details. Particularly around the marches for work. Many of which resulted in Welsh miners settling in the Dover colliery area. Lots of Jones’ and Evans’ who weren’t there in 1926… and Thomas’😉!, but were a decade later.