Kinmel Park Riots
Encyclopedia
On 4 and 5 March 1919, Kinmel Park in Bodelwyddan
, near Abergele
, north Wales
, experienced two days of riots in the Canadian sector of the military complex. The riots were believed to have been caused by delays in repatriation. The 15,000 Canadian troops had been stationed in Kinmel Camp
for a period after the First World War, and were kept in undesirable conditions due to strikes.
Noel Barbour, Gallant Protesters (1975)
Colonel G.W.L Nicholson, in the Official History Of The Canadian Army In The First World War, briefly describes the Kinmel mutiny as part of a larger series of events that occurred during the post war redeployment of Canadian troops:
Bodelwyddan
Bodelwyddan is a village and community in Denbighshire, Wales now bypassed by the A55 road. It has a population of 2,106. The village lies east of Abergele, south of Rhyl, and north west of Ruthin....
, near Abergele
Abergele
Abergele is a community and old Roman trading town, situated on the north coast of Wales between the holiday resorts of Colwyn Bay and Rhyl, in Conwy County Borough. Its northern suburb of Pensarn lies on the Irish Sea coast and is known for its beach, where it is claimed by some that a ghost ship...
, north Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, experienced two days of riots in the Canadian sector of the military complex. The riots were believed to have been caused by delays in repatriation. The 15,000 Canadian troops had been stationed in Kinmel Camp
Kinmel Camp
Kinmel Camp was an army training ground in what was once the grounds of Kinmel Hall, near Abergele, in Conwy county borough, Wales. The Kinmel Camp Railway served the camp from 1915 until 1964...
for a period after the First World War, and were kept in undesirable conditions due to strikes.
"The mutineers were our own men, stuck in the mud of North Wales, waiting impatiently to get back to Canada – four months after the end of the war. The 15,000 Canadian troops that concentrated at Kinmel didn't know about the strikes that held up the fuelling ships and which had caused food shortages. The men were on half rations, there was no coal for the stove in the cold grey huts, and they hadn't been paid for over a month. Forty-two had slept in a hut meant for thirty, so they each took turns sleeping on the floor, with one blanket each."
Noel Barbour, Gallant Protesters (1975)
Colonel G.W.L Nicholson, in the Official History Of The Canadian Army In The First World War, briefly describes the Kinmel mutiny as part of a larger series of events that occurred during the post war redeployment of Canadian troops:
"In all, between November 1918 and June 1919, there were thirteen instances or disturbances involving Canadian troops in England (sic). The most serious of these occurred in Knimel Park on 4th and 5th March 1919, when dissatisfication over delays in sailing resulted in five men being killed and 23 being wounded. Seventy eight men were arrested, of whom 25 were convicted of mutiny and given sentences varying from 90 days' detention to ten years' penal servitude."