It is now a hundred years since the General Strike of May 1926, when workers all over the country walked out on strike in support of miners. The strike was strongly supported in South London industries, and there were major clashes with police. One such episode took place by the Charlton riverfront, where the Medway Oil and Storage Company had a fuel depot storing petrol. This was on North Street, now Herringham Road near to the Thames Barrier.
On the night of Sunday May 9th, a crowd of 800 people were apparently marching towards the depot, presumably with the aim of stopping it operating during the strike. The police tried to disperse the crowd in West Street (now Westmoor Street) and there was at least 20 minutes of intense fighting with the police launching baton charges and the crowd launching a 'murderous volley of missiles' at the police including stones, bottles, and pieces of iron. Or at least that was the police account.
Four local men were arrested - Frederick Jay, Henry Coombes, Arthur Morley and Frederick King - and in court defendants denied using violence in the words and deeds attributed to them. Mary Jane Jay, the wife of one of the accused, said that the police had broken down their front door in North Street and truncheoned her in the process. Nevertheless Fred Jay was sentenced to prison with three months hard labour. No doubt there was conflict, but it was certainly not unknown for police witnesses to exaggerate the extent of violence. It seems unlikely for instance that there was genuinely an intent to set fire to the fuel depot, which with 200,000 gallons of petrol would have set off a massive explosion and destroyed the neighbouring houses where we know some of the demonstrators lived.
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