RAIL WORKERS AND WORLD WAR ONE

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: sept 2014 :: RMTnews 24 One May evening in 1916 a National Union of Railwaymen member, whose name is lost to history, was walking along a platform at a station on the outskirts of London when he noticed a hastily-scribbled note. It had been thrown from the window of a train heading for Southampton by one of 17 conscientious objectors (COs), conscripts that were refusing to fight in the trenches of World War One, warning that they were being taken to France to face military discipline and possibly the firing squad. The quick-thinking NUR member contacted the No- Conscription Fellowship which was mounting a vigorous campaign against the punishment of COs, known as Chonchies, following the introduction of the Military Service Act the previous March which brought in conscription for the first time in British military history. The issue was immediately raised in Parliament where Prime Minister Henry Asquith swore he knew nothing about the case. But it emerged that up to 50 men were being transported into the warzone, sparking huge protests led by figures like Sylvia Pankhurst and Bertrand Russell. This forced Asquith to send a telegram to the army’s commander in chief ordering that no Chonchies be shot. This is just one story of one member of a militant union that had only just won enough strength to win better conditions from the private companies before Western powers launched their disastrous imperialist war in August 1914. By the end of the war 184,000 railwaymen had joined up and 18,957 of them had lost their lives fighting in the armed forces. Despite the pleadings of the anti-war movement led by Keir Hardie, thousands of rail workers that could have claimed their work was of national importance flocked to recruiting stations to join the volunteer army. In fact by September 1914 railway managers called for a halt of the stampede and the government ruled that no rail worker could enlist without permission of his employer. Women were accepted into NUR membership in 1915 RAIL WORKERS AND WORLD WAR ONE Brian Denny looks at the impact of the First World War on the NUR and the lasting effects for its members