Llanelli railway station was built in the 1800’s. This is where the Llanelli Riots took place on the 17th August 1911 and was the 1st ever railway strike.
Railway workers were joined by thousands of tin plate workers from the area, where a 1,500 picket formed a barricade at the two railway crossings at the east and west sides of the station.
At 10am on Friday 18th August, the Fishguard Express taking passengers and goods to the main ferry port across the Irish Sea was halted in Llanelli Station, where strikers started a fire with the engines boilers, immobilising them. 700 soldiers were called to take action and they managed to clear the eastern crossing.
In the evening of Saturday 19th August, a train reached the station where it stood for some time. It took off at around 2.30pm where 250 people followed the train along the track, shouting and mocking until it was forced to stop by a human barricade at the level crossing on the western side of the station. Soldiers were ordered to open fire where two men were killed instantly.
The two men were John-John-Jac as he was known, who was a local rugby star and Leonard Worstell who only went outside his house to see what all the noise was about. The strike had already been settled before the events at the western crossing so the shootings and deaths were not needed.
Llanelli Railway Riots were a tragic and unfortunate series of events.
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