Luton faced the end of the 1914—18 war in no way which appeared to be different from other large towns, having in the past been comparatively free from civil disturbances. It is true there had been an election riot in 1895 but this had been little more than an orgy of window breaking. The Riot Act was read, after which the rioters fled before a contingent of Metropolitan Police called in to restore order. That was now past history giving no cause to expect that anything similar would occur again.

LUTON IN 1919

The town had grown rapidly in the nineteenth century, having now a population of about 60,000. Its growth and prosperity had resulted from an expansion of its main industry, the making of ladies’ hats, wdiich was in small units with the majority of the manufacturers being self-made men. The industry depended much on its export trade and the importation of cheap raw materials with the result that, gaining so much from Free Trade, the town was Liberal in its political outlook. Nonconformity had also left its mark, to an extent that Liberalism and Nonconformity had become almost synonymous. The industry had suffered during the war mainly because of the loss of its export trade which never fully returned. The engineering firms of the town, all small in 1914, had grown during the war, to some extent with imported labour. When munition contracts ceased these firms diminished in size but not to their pre-war level. The industrial and social structures of the town were changing. From its very nature the town lacked a military tradition and while many had enlisted willingly in the early days of the war a number of those who were conscripted made reluctant soldiers.

The Peace Riots are worthy of note on another account, for two Bedfordshire historians were present. Joyce Godber was spending the week-end with a school friend, and for a time the two girls were on the outskirts of the crowd. John Dony, as a Lutonian, was at Wardown in the afternoon, returning home about 9 o’clock by way of the deserted Town Hall, when he noted that all the windows were broken, bar one.