The Luton Peace Day Riots occurred over three days from 19 to 21 July 1919. Servicemen angry at the lavish spending for the peace parade held in London on 19 July, following the end of the First World War, protested that the money should be spent on re-integrating soldiers returning from the war.

Riot

On Peace Day, 19 July 1919, the

Luton Town Hall Luton Town Hall is a building at the junction between Manchester Street, Upper George Street and George Street, Luton, England; the current building was completed in 1936 on the site of the older Town Hall, which was burnt down 19 July 1919, fol ...

was burnt down during a riot by ex-servicemen unhappy with unemployment and other grievances. The riot started after members of the council arrived to read out the proclamation of peace, and many in the crowd expressed their disapproval. One issue was veterans not being allowed to hold a drumhead

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

in Wardown Park. Tension boiled over into violence, and after a number of clashes, many protesters broke through the police line and forcibly entered the town hall, which was eventually set on fire. Order was eventually restored to the town by midnight on 19 July, but the fire brigade were unable to extinguish the fire, and by the next morning the town hall was little more than a ruin. The remains of the building were demolished in August 1919 and in 1922 the statue "Peace", designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, inscribed with the names of more than 280,000 dead servicemen from the Great War, was unveiled.

Aftermath

Many of those arrested received serious sentences. John Henry Good who took part in the riots was sentenced to six weeks of hard labour. In 2019, to commemorate the centenary of the 1919 Peace Riots, Cultural Histories Community Interest Company, working with a number of partner organisations, individuals and local community groups in Luton, developed a range of projects to promote awareness and interest in the 1919 Peace Days riots via a programme of learning and the performing arts. The projects included collecting personal and family recollections of the Peace Riots, plus art and music projects to promote local awareness of the event.

Notes

References

* * * - Total pages: 191 * * *{{cite web , last=The Guardian, authorlink=The Guardian, date=23 July 1919, url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/23/soldiers-riot-luton-first-world-war-1919, title =Soldiers riot in Luton, work =

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, access-date = July 19, 2019 , quote= 1919 crimes in the United Kingdom Luton riot

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

20th century in Bedfordshire Crime in Bedfordshire July 1919 events in Europe Riots and civil disorder in England