Resource and details of 1911 riots
Can I suggest:
P.J. Waller, 'Democracy and Sectarianism. A Political and Social History of Liverpool, 1868-1939', (Liverpool, 1981).
Following the Bootle by-election of March 1911, won by Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law, there was sectarian rioting.
As to the August 1911 riots, there must be a lot of local history details around that you can tap into. The city effectively suffered a general strike and the death rate was double that of the previous August. Food which came into the city by ship and rail was cut off by the dock and rail strikes and there were bread riots with the bakeries having to be defended by the military.
Four people were shot, two were killed, but these were by the Army not the police. There were 200 rifle-armed members of the Royal Irish Constabulary, but the bulk of police only had truncheons. The council brought in police from Leeds and Birmingham. They also summoned 400 infantrymen, including elements of the two squadrons of cavalry and a Royal Service Corps detachment. By 26 August 1911 when the strikes ended, there were 2,500 soldiers including from the Yorkshire and Worcestershire regiments, the Royal Scots Greys and the 18th Hussars in Liverpool and 4,000 special constables had been recruited.
On 13 August a rally of 5,000 people on St. George?s Plateau turned into a riot with 350 people, including 20 police, injured and 100 arrests being made. The commanding military officer, in line with the policy confirmed in 1908, exercised his right to refuse police demands to open fire, thus avoiding carnage. This was because the guidance to soldiers in riots was to fire into the crowd rather than over their heads. This arose because in 1894 a man had been killed a quarter of a mile away from a riot as he stepped out from his house when soldiers fired over the head. It was felt firing into the crowd would hit the perpetrators rather than by-standers but would have led to a massace at St. George's Plateau if the guidance had been followed.
On 15 August the attack by 3,000 people on five prison vans demonstrated the hazards of using soldiers. Only 34 hussars and police officers accompanied the convoy. The hussars? horses were not suitably shoed for the cobbled streets and skidded. In the panic the soldiers fired six shots, killing two people and injuring two. The ensuing riot resulted in numerous injuries and one police officer being kicked to death.
The cruiser, HMS 'Antrim' sat in the Mersey during the strikes, although its crew took no part in actions that resulted from the unrest; the council wanted them to man the power stations but this was refused by the government.
I have read everything there is at the National Archives on the Liverpool riots of 1911 and there are references to the files I have accessed on my blog which has already been cited.
