A Brief History
On July 19, 1919, England celebrated Peace Day in honor of winning World War I. Unfortunately, her veterans were not so thrilled, and expressed their unhappiness by rioting and burning down the Luton Town Hall.
Digging Deeper
British commoners were drafted to fight in World War I, for low pay and under horrible conditions. Treated like cannon fodder by politicians and generals that did not understand modern warfare, they died and suffered en masse. Soldiers with trench foot, pneumonia, and other serious illnesses were treated with contempt at recovery centers and were made to engage in physical exercise even though it was bad for their recovery. The thought was to make rehab bad enough that slackers would want to go back to the front.
Upon release from the military, soldiers found mass unemployment at home, and little appreciation for their sacrifice. Many had lost girlfriends and wives to men that did not serve, their previous jobs taken and they found that businessmen got rich while workers remained as poor as ever. Owners of businesses and stores tried to treat the veterans like children or slaves, but the warriors had a taste of a hard life and were not to be pushed around. The veterans were outraged by the lavish public extravaganzas planned while they either could not find work or found low paying menial jobs. Many of the protesting veterans had been maimed, crippled or disfigured during the war. Pensions for these disabled men were meager and no programs to integrate them back into society were in place.
As public ceremonies began for Peace Day, veterans began to jeer officials and then to riot, burning down the Luton Town Hall and dragging pianos into the street for music and singing. Bonfires were started and when the town hall was burned rioters cut the firemen’s hoses. The mayor and his contingent cowered in his house, protected by police. Order was finally restored around midnight, but only with help from London police that had been sent for. The mayor left town in fear for his life, and stayed gone.
Luton was not the only place in Britain where veterans expressed their displeasure. It was obvious that the generation that had been blooded in the Great War demanded to be treated with respect. Change came slowly, though, and the working poor remained that way for a long time to come.
Returning American servicemen suffered during the depression and marched on Washington, D.C. to demand early payment of bonuses promised to them, only to be attacked by federal troops led by Douglas MacArthur.
Hopefully, people in Britain and the US have learned something since World War I and veterans will not be treated so callously in the future. The Veterans Administration scandal unfolding today does not cause optimism to run rampant.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Craddock, Dave. “Where They Burnt the Town Hall Down”. The Book Castle, 1999.
The featured image in this article, a photograph from 1897 of Luton Town Hall uploaded by GazMan7 at English Wikipedia, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
You can also watch a video version of this article on YouTube:
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="3113 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=3113">48 Comments
I can see why they burnt down the town hall because they were not treated well and I also think PTSD had a part in it as well.
I feel that veterans should be treated with a ton of respect. Too many of them fall in battle for our freedom. Nothing comes free in life no matter what.
Veterans should always be treated with more respect than the average joe. They decided to risk their lives to fight for their country. That should say something about their human character.
It bothers me when soldiers come home and a wife or girlfriend has left them. I understand how hard it must be for the woman but the man was out risking his life for others. Same goes for women who serve as well and their boyfriends back home.
Although I may not always support the military strategies of our government, those that serve deserve the utmost respect for there sacrifices. It is always disappointing to hear that many of those who serve do not receive that when they return home.
It’s sad how much veterans have sacrificed and how little appreciation is returned at times. I see in America that veterans are highly appreciated to an extent (it seems that way anyways).
I think it is disgraceful how the veterans were treated when they returned from the War. They obviously deserve to be treated like people who served for their country and lost so much in the process. Watching the pompousness of the wealthy and powerful who rarely served or were involved in the war effort, must have been difficult for them to stomach.
I think we should honor them and thank them for serving!!
I think veterans are more appreciated today but they are still not getting the payment and honor that they deserve for their sacrifices to defend their country.
Meh, we get paid way better than most folks out of high school and many who just finished university (especially if we’re married), and pay is usually adjusted (for inflation, cost of living [for COLA specifically], and area of residence, as well as the almost guaranteed increases associated with promotions); we also get preferential hiring, and are usually the first employed in gov’t contract jobs (preferential hiring again; gov’t contract jobs are often VERY lucrative; some technicians who do only routine phase work on some gov’t birds make a quarter mil a year while overseas).
The biggest complaint is usually VA and post-injury care, which is (in my opinion, anyway) underfunded and managed by people who have no business running a street-side hot dog stand, much less any VA functions.
If I was to go through the Hell of war only to come back and discover that people were making money off of it then I would probably burn down a town hall, too.
I can understand their anger. Watching the wealthy not serve must have been frustrating. I have the utmost respect for those who choose to serve our country.
No matter how you feel about war, politics or the military… PLEASE support our troops (active and inactive)! They make the ultimate sacrifices to defend our FREEDOMS! — DAVID WARDLE
It’s very easy to disregard people, even those with righteous claims, when they resort to a form of terrorism to get their point across. I sympathize, but burning things down and jeopardizing others (should the fire have spread) by destroying the means with which to fight the fires is pretty reckless.
US servicemen marched on DC “…to demand early payment of bonuses promised to them;” I’m curious as to what the timeline for bonus payment was (or what the agreed upon timeline was), and what percentage of the marchers were volunteers or draftees. If there was an agreed upon timeline for bonus payment (which the wording here seems to suggest), then demanding early payment almost seems like a renege on the part of the service members. Unfair, sure, especially for the draftees (which is part of why I am curious as to the numbers) but for volunteers, not so much.
“Hopefully, people in Britain and the US have learned something since World War I and veterans will not be treated so callously in the future.”
And then there was Viet Nam…
I could never treat a veteran badly. They should be treated with the upmost respect.
When the US military took out the camp outside of Washington D.C. it was a tragedy. this sounds like a victory in my eyes . keep treating our vets right
Every veteran should always be treated with proper respect .
It seems to me like the soldiers of WWI in England were treated like soldiers of Vietnam in the United States
Veterans should be treated with the utmost respect. They have fought for the freedom we have today in many different ways.
For the amount of psychological and physical harm veterns put themselves through, they should never be mistreated.
It’s hard to believe these men have to go fight in a war, and continue the fighting when they get home. The fact that people ostracized them for fighting in WWI is realistic, since we see that happen with many different wars. It is kind of like taking medicine when you think about what the soldiers went through after they had fought in such a war.
Fearful of provoking new violence, perhaps directed at officials, the court handed out remarkably light sentences. Luton was not the only place in Britain
where veterans expressed their displeasure. It was obvious that the
generation that had been blooded in the Great War demanded to be treated
with respect. Change came slowly, though, and the working poor
remained that way for a long time to come.
“Bonus Army” sound familiar? The brutal part of the past has made made a huge difference for veterans, I am thankful for the current VA benefits and am hopeful for the future.
It is sad to see how veterans were treated at the end of WW1 but that being said it seems like poor veteran treatment is a common issue a the end of almost all wars. At the end of the Vietnam war many veterans were ashamed of their service and were often overlooked by the system. The suicide and homeless rate in veterans is higher than any other group in the United States!
That’s insane they are serving the country and then get treated like crap. They put there life on the line and we just treat the like crap and don’t even care. That’s crazy and totally un called for.
I believe that veterans should get a lot of respect. They fought for our right to get our coffees in the morning and attend the schools we choose among other benefits we take for granted. We could be somewhere without internet but NO because our troops have fought for us. For us to see so many veterans homeless is a disgrace. Or even that video of the girl who got mad at Mcdonalds I think because a soldier asked if they had a military discount. That’s messed up, we’re lucky for everything we’re able to do because most countries don’t receive those benefits.
Pretty messed up how they had to serve in the grueling conditions of WW1 only to come home and get treated poorly.
Hopefully we have learned to treat veterans with the respect they deserve. We can expect people to put their lives on the line for us and then leave them unemployed and without proper health care.
Veterans deserve the utmost respect. It’s beyond unfair how we treat them once they come back. They are willing to do so much more than most of us and they are really take for granted sadly.
part of my family are veterans, and i wish they were treated better than they were.
I do think they deserve respect however in my opinion it was there choice to go. But they deffinitly should get respect
I have vets in my family and from what I’ve seen they have always been treated with respect. Every veteran should get respect, yes it was there choice, but they risked their lives while the people not showing respect didn’t.
Risking your life to only see non-respect to you and other veterans is not the way it should be. Veterans should have 100% respect in society
Vets have earned a little more respect than your average Joe. A lot of people are pretty quick to forget why they have the freedoms that they do.
Vets should be treated as heroes they gave up everything for us we should respect them for that alone not to mention all the other hardshios they endure
I don’t understand why countries including us treat veterans so badly after they went and put their lives down for us and sacrificed so much it just makes no sense.
The poor treatment of veterans sickens me, I know that even in the US TODAY vets have an extremely tough time receiving their medical benefits.
Just as far as diseases in this era and and like trench foot, i could feel so bad for the vets as good as the vets had it today or soldiers back then they would have died for this.
Veterans are heros. We should thank them all and not treat them poorly
We don’t do enough for our veterans, the statistics of rates of homelessness and suicide with veterans is heartbreaking.
There is nothing we can do regarding wives and girlfriends leaving there soldiers but its heartbreaking that these veterans came back and couldn’t even get there jobs back. They just fought for all of those people to be safe and they are treated so poorly.
I hate seeing veterans being disrespected like this. They go to war to protect their country so they should be treated with the up most respect.
i feel like after soldiers would always be treated with the up most amounts of respect
Peace Day, soldiers found mass unemployment at home and little appreciation for their sacrifice. Why such little disrespect.
I feel every Veteran should be treated more than fairly because they risk their own lives to fight a war for our country and protected our freedom. Veterans should be taken care of after they’ve come back from war.
Whether they are drafted or enlist, all veterans deserve to be taken care of by the country that they fought to protect.
I think that’s horrible no veteran should be treated that way. In my opinion, and this is my opinion, but I feel that if your servicing our country your pay should be better than what I’ve been hearing it is.
Every time I see a veteran, I thank them for their services. Veterans should be waaaay more appreciated. They go through unimaginable obstacles and they risk their lives for everyone! They should b treated better than what they are.