George Barnsby in his Socialism in Birmingham and the Black Country 1850-1939, gives a chapter to the General Strike in Birmingham.
He says that in the aftermath of the Strike two persons suffered permanent victimisation. Councillor Percy Shurmer (Labour) Post Office engineer, was dismissed after a £10 fine for inflammatory speeches. He doesn’t say however that the summonds was later quashed, but I can’t find any evidence that he was re-instated in his job.
There is a nice tribute to this unsung man of Birmingham started by Phil, the retired layabout, with a fitting tribute.
I hope nobody minds If I post this little tribute to Percy Shurmer. I do this because some time ago I tried to use the internet to find out some facts about his life and his times as a Councillor and M.P. for Sparkbrook and Birmingham South. I thought with such a well known Brummie it will be no...
birminghamhistory.co.uk
In Feb 1927 Percy spoke at a Council meeting concerning "willful overcrowding" in housing. He knew of cases where individuals had rented former licenced houses and charged extortionate rents. One house with 11 rooms, had been divided by cardboard and 38 people living there.
The second person was Margaret Clarke, a part-time teacher at Bournville Day Continuation School who was dismissed for her arrest at the raid of the Communist Hqts at Hockley Hill, and for her part in the production of the Birmingham Communist Worker pamphlet. She was bailed by the wife of Oswald Mosley, and Mosley paid all the fines of those arrested. What Barnsley doesn't say is that in March 1928 the NUT called for her reinstatement. She was the only one charged in Birmingham to receive more than one punishment. She got her licence back but was still waiting for her job.
Barnsby says “Cadbury s were ruthless in trying to break the strike on their own premises...”
(Bournville Day Continuation School opened in 1925 to further the education of young Cadbury employees, a mission close to George Cadbury's heart from the early days of Bournville. Attendance was compulsory for all workers aged 14 to 18, male clerks attended until they were 19 and apprentices until age 21. As well as academic lessons in English, maths and science, also on the curriculum were physical education and handicrafts. By the 1930s other local firms sent their young workers here and some 3000 students attended on day release. The building is now part of the University of Central England, now Birmingham City University.)
