Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Chains at Penarth Dock - Macey, Mules and Wallace Family History . . .

Living in Maughan Street and working in the docks at this time meant that 39 year old William was likely to have taken part in the 1911 seaman’s strike, which was based in South Wales. Organiser of the National Sailors Union and leader of the strike was a ‘Captain’ Edward Tupper, originally from Brighton. He had a mysterious background, and was a bit of an adventurer. Although he was not a real captain, he was a good orator, the Arthur Scargill of his day. He saw poor wages and poor working conditions, with men picked on a daily basis from a ‘pen’ on the dock entrance.

Striking sailors and dock workers (tippers and trimmers) photographed assembling outside the Royal Hotel, Penarth on 31st July 1911. Was William one of them?

Tupper was asked to lead the strike in South Wales. He based himself in the Royal Hotel at the far end of Maughan Street, in Penarth. At the start of the strike, he addressed a rally of several hundred men in the square below from the first floor balcony of the hotel.