The Llanelli Railway Strike of 1911 began on Thursday, 17th August.

It took place against a background of great social unrest. The immediate causes of the strike were the low wages received by railway workers. At 1 a week they were about twenty per cent lower than the average manual wage.

Things came to a head onSaturday, 19 August, when the train to Fishguardwas stoppedby strikers.Boats sailed from Fishguard toIreland, wherethere were the 'troubles'and politicians becameuneasy.

Eighty soldiers of the Worcestershire Regiment were sent toprotect the train and the Riot Act was read. The protesters were given sixty seconds (an insufficient time) to disperse, before shots were fired.

John 'Jac' John, twenty one,was sitting on his garden wallwhen he was shot dead. Leonard Worsell, twenty, in Llanelli recovering from TB, was also shot dead

Violence erupted when the crowd heard what had happened.Later, an explosion at the station resulted in the death of four more rioters.

The riotingcame to an end whenan agreementwas reached with the Great Western Railway Company afterthe workers threatened wider action.

On the following Monday, Harold Spiers, twenty two, a deserting soldier, was arrested in New Radnor. He had been put under arrest forrefusing to shoot a man sitting on a wall, but escaped. Spiers was due for court martial but there was a public outcry and he became a national hero.

A verse was added to 'Sospan Fach' in 1911 about 'Dai Bach y Soldiwr' and it is believed to be based on Spiers.

Thirty thousand people lined the streets of the town for the funerals of John John and Leonard Worsell.

Llanelli became a labour stronghold and Tom Mann and Ben Tillett addressed rallies and mass demonstrations in the town in the weeks ahead.