On This Day / September 10, 1920

Battle of York Street

THE City Coroner, Dr James Graham yesterday resumed the inquest on the victims of the recent disturbances.

Nine of the men were killed in city centre rioting on August 30th.

The first cases were those of John Thompson, Henry Hobson, John Coad, Samuel Colville and Adam McClean who were shot in York Street area on August 30th.

Mr Cecil Fforde, KC said that most of these deaths occurred at the same time a little after 10 a.m.

On the 30th August at about seven o’clock in the morning an attack was apparently made on shipyard workers when going to their work.

This immediately led to retaliation and desperate fighting started.

In the course of that fighting large crowds of people came up as unfortunately and stupidly tended to happen, and some of these people unhappily paid the penalty of their curiosity.

Deaths might have occurred amongst the rioters but Counsel thought in the majority of cases they were not taking part in rioting but they were entangled in the mobs that were fighting and bullets directed at the belligerents struck them.

The police who were on the spot early tried to cope with the hostile mobs and to separate them but when the stone-throwing changed to rifle and revolver fire – and he might point out that service rifles were being used of the very latest pattern – the police sent for the military.

An armoured car arrived about 10.30am. The shots that were fired were by the armoured car and when it arrived the firing by civilians was intense.

Lieutenant Munden, First Somerset Light Infantry said that when the armoured car arrived a pitched fight was in progress.

Firing was going on and some of it was directed towards the car. The gunner was ordered to fire at people who were firing and did so.

District Inspector Ernest Gerity [RIC] said that at 9 a.m. he received information that there was rioting in York Street. There was a large crowd of people near the Metropole Hotel and they were kept back by a picket of the Norfolk Regiment.

Firing was going on further up in the side-streets between York Street and North Queen Street.

The most intense firing was from the southside of Great Georges Street at the foot of which was a large crowd of shipyard workers.

[Dr Phoenix notes: The victims of the ‘Battle of York Street’ on a normal workday morning included young men on their way to work. Most were killed by military machine-gun fire.

The youngest was a 17-year-old boy, Henry Hobson from Cromwell Road, an ardent football fan.]