The Battle of George Square

A little bit of (slightly tenuous) family history. On this day 106 years ago in 1919 a strike in Glasgow, calling for a 40 hour working-week led to  increasing tension and riots and ultimately a mass rally of 20-25000 workers in George Square in the centre of the city and the raising of the Red Flag.  Running fights broke out throughout the city.

There's my Grampa... he's the one in the bunnet!

As tensions rose troops were called in and tanks deployed across the city and machine gun posts set up.  As this was only a couple of years on from the Russian Revolution and there was still unrest in post-war Germany it's not surprising there was a concern the troubles would spread.

The stand off lasted for several days before petering out.  In Glasgow there's still a lingering pride in the Red Clydeside story and names like Mary Barbour, John Maclean and James Maxton are part of a tradition of radicalism in the city.

3 Mark C and 3 Mark V tanks from Bovington deployed in the city's cattle market 

There are a number of myths that persist... Churchill didn't send in the troops (they were requested by the Sheriff of Lanarkshire and authorised by the War Cabinet), there wasn't a howitzer deployed at the City Chambers, and the troops weren't all English.  There's also a story that one of the Scottish regiments was confined to barracks in Maryhill as there was a worry they would side with the workers... no evidence of this at all.

I remember my Grampa telling me about it and how he'd been there... mind you he reckoned there were tanks in the Square which never actually happened!  He'd have been a young man of 16, working in the steelworks at Cambuslang at this point.  I like to proudly think he's one of the men in a bunnet in the main photo!

And of course it raises some interesting ideas for a pre-VBCW setting.  What if the government had actually sent in the tanks, what if some of the Scottish regiments had joined the revolutionaries or if the unrest spread to other industrial cities like Liverpool or Newcastle...