In February 1932, nine people were found guilty and imprisoned in for what has become known as the Kilbirnie Riots….
On 12th November 1931, during the Great Depression, Parliament passed the “Transitional Payments Order”. Those who were newly unemployed were entitled to 26 weeks unemployment benefit, after which the ‘Transitional Payments Order’ would come into effect. This was basically a Means Test. Anyone who had a mortgage or savings was not eligible for continued assistance.
Local Public Assistance Committees sent out investigators who became known as the ‘Means Test Men’ to make rigorous enquiries into the financial circumstances of each applicant. Their decision was final and there was no right to appeal. Every type of income was taken into account, including money saved with the local Co-operative Society, or a child’s earnings for running errands. Families had to sell off items and use up all their savings before they were entitled to any form of unemployment relief.
Only half of those who applied were deemed eligible resulting in severe hardship for many families and further aggravating the poverty-stricken conditions that were then prevalent in the West of Scotland. To make matters worse public sector wages and unemployment benefit had been cut by 10% on 10 September 1931. To add to the injustice, due to the Great Depression, it was incredibly hard for men to find work, resulting in many being long term unemployed.
Throughout Britain demonstrations were held, some of which were well organised by the National Unemployed Workers Movement (N.U.W.M.). In Kilbirnie a demonstration took place on Monday 8th February 1932. A crowd of two to three thousand people, many of them in receipt of Public Assistance, marched from the Memorial Arch along Main Street to the Walker Hall where a meeting was to be held between the Public Assistance Committee and a deputation of the unemployed workers, who marched under the banner of the ‘National Unemployment Workers Movement’ (N.U.W.M.). Eight men and one woman were admitted to the Walker Hall to meet with the six members of the Public Assistance Committee, a sub-committee of the Glengarnock District Council. The members of the Public Assistance Committee were asked to obstruct the operation of the Means Test or resign. They refused to do either.
While the meeting took place, the crowd waited peacefully outside, some indulging in community singing. At the end of the meeting, Charles Stuart, an unemployed journalist and chairman of the N.U.W.M. stood upon a chair in front of the crowd and informed them that the meeting had proved completely unsatisfactory. There was uproar as the angry demonstrators became noisy and threatening.
As the crowd became disorderly, a large force of policemen armed with batons charged the crowds. It was later found that many of the policemen had been drafted in from other parts of Ayrshire. While most of the crowd fled, nine men were arrested and brought up before Sheriff Martin Lang at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court the following day on a charge of mobbing and rioting. The men made no declaration and were committed to a week’s imprisonment, after which they were taken to Duke Street Prison, Glasgow.
The men were released on 15 February 1932 on payment of £10 bail for three of them and £5 for the other six. Arriving at Kilbirnie train station at 6.57pm, they were met by a large crowd who escorted them from the station. Charles Stuart was carried shoulder high along the street past the Council Chambers to the bottom of Montgomerie Street, where he addressed the crowd, ensuring them that the N.U.W.M. would continue to fight for the abolition of the Means Test until they were successful. The four day trial of the nine men arrested during the Kilbirnie riot began on 16th May 1932 at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court. On 25th May 1932 the Sheriff sentenced Charles Stuart, James Connel and William Skilling to 60 days imprisonment. The other six men were sentenced to between 21 and 40 days.