1926 General Strike: Coverage by the Godalming Gazette that included the Thursley Thunderer

A general strike took place in the United Kingdom from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage-reductions and worsening conditions for 1.2 million locked-out coal miners. Some 1.7 million workers went out, especially in transport and in heavy industry.

It was a sympathy strike, with many of those who were not miners and not directly affected striking to support the locked-out miners. As well as workplace stoppages other organisation included 'Councils of Action, food distribution, and support for picket lines in some places.^[2] The government was well prepared, and enlisted middle- and upper-class volunteers to maintain essential services. There was little violence and the TUC gave up in defeat.

There was a paucity of information reaching areas beyond London and so the Godalming Gazette was created, and this was its opening paragraph:

This, which we believe to be the only daily newspaper ever bearing the name of Godalming, will, under Providence, be published every evening, except on Saturdays and Sundays, until the strike is over. It has come into existence simply because the tremendous local demand for a daily newspaper has not been met. The thin trickle of broadsheets from London has been swallowed up before it has reached Godalming: the hungry sheep (if we may use the term of our readers without disrespect look up and are not fed.