We are extremely grateful to Nigel Whitlam (son of Harry Smith’s daughter, Lily Elvina Smith) for contacting the website with details of his grandfather (who has an impeccable Carleton Rode pedigree) and family photographs for us to publish.
Harry Levi Smith was born on 26 October 1896 (one of two children) and died on 22 May 1974. His parents were Levi Smith and Charlotte Ruth Smith (nee Frost) and they lived in a cottage in Church Road, Carleton Rode.
Harry came from a line of paternal ancestors born in either Carleton Rode or Bunwell, dating back to at least 1669:
Levi Smith (father) 1859-1944 (born Carleton Rode)
John Smith (grandfather) 1819-1900 (born at Great Green, Bunwell)
Richard Smith (great grandfather) 1777-1844 (born Carleton Rode)
Richard Smith ( 2 x great grandfather 1746-1782 (born Carleton Rode)
William Smith (3 x great grandfather) 1701-1773 (born Carleton Rode)
Samuel Smith (4 x great grandfather) 1669-1721 (born Carleton Rode)
Harry was a builder’s labourer before enlisting in the army on the 30 November 1914, joining the Norfolk Regiment, Private 16981.
It appears that his regiment went to France on 25 May 1915 and were involved in the Battle of Loos in October 1915 and the Quarries later that month.
He was wounded in January 1916 (shrapnel wound to the head), spending a period of time in hospital near the front and later convalescing back in the UK. By January 1917, whilst convalescing, the records show that he was with the Suffolk Regiment (number 29864) and it appears that by the end of the war he was with the 21st Ayrshire Yeomanry (Number 57142).
During his convalescence, Harry returned home and in June 1917 he married Margaret Cooper in Carleton Rode Church. Margaret was born in Carleton Rode in 1893 to David and Lily Cooper (who had died young). Margaret was one of three sisters – the youngest of whom, Barbara, married another surviving solder from the village, Reginald George Baker.
Harry and Margaret went on to have seven children together.
After the war, they continued to live in Carleton Rode, first on Church Road and then on the Turnpike, during the very difficult agricultural depression of the post-war years.
Harry became a local leader of the National Union of Agricultural Workers and was involved in the agricultural strike action in the 1923, fighting for better pay and conditions (see EDP extract below).
In the late 1920s, Harry and Margaret moved to Banham where they purchased Heath Farm and which Harry farmed until his retirement.
During World War II he joined the local platoon of the Home Guard.
On retirement, Harry moved to a house in the High Street in Attleborough, where he lived until after his wife died in 1962. He subsequently married his second wife, Elsie, and they moved to Norwich, where Harry lived until he died in 1974.
One of Harry’s sons, Jack took over the farming of Heath Farm, Banham on Harry’s retirement and another son, Walter, farmed close by at Haugh Corner Farm. Other descendants of Harry continue to live in the Carleton Rode and Bunwell area.
I am aware that my grandfather started a writing a book, which sadly was never finished, and I have no idea what happened to the unfinished manuscript. There would have been every chance that the part that had been written could have covered World War 1 and the 1923 agricultural strike. My grandfather was a larger than life character and he was known for miles around. The book would probably have been an interesting read.
Extract from an article in the EDP published March 16th 1973
FARM ‘REBEL’ WHO STRUCK 50 YEARS AGO
Fifty years ago tonight, Norfolk farmers offered their men £1 for a week’s work instead of the usual £1 5s, and the great land workers’ strike had begun. The farmers also sought to raise the working week from 50 to 54 hours, but on April 21st, 1923, after nearly five weeks bitter struggle, the workers won the day, returning for virtually the terms for which they had struck – 6d an hour for a 50 hour week, instead of 5½d for 54 hours, which the farmers had tried to introduce.
FOUGHT TO KEEP WAGE OF 25s
Mr Harry Smith, aged 76, of Edinburgh Road, Norwich.
Looking back 50 years, 76 year-old Harry Smith, of 88, Edinburgh Road, Norwich has vivid memories of what life used to be like for farm workers, and well remembers their strike beginning on March 16th, 1923.
In the dispute it was the farmers’ case that they were offering as much as they could afford. They were told by the Government that the industry must be self-supporting. The workers’ case was that they were asking for the very least on which they could live.
A few weeks ago, Mr Smith had a letter published in the EDP in which he wondered whether many of the “old boys” were left who attended conferences in Norwich during the strike.
As a result, Mr Smith who cycled over 60 miles to attend the conferences, had a letter from Mr C Loveday of 8 Station Road Kimberley Park, near Wymondham. Mr Loveday, aged 82 this month, was head team-man on a farm at the time and also attended the meetings.
‘Worst Times’
Recalling the situation 50 years ago, Mr Smith said, “They were the worst times I have known, worse than pre (first world) war at 14s a week. We were fighting to retain a wage of 25s.
At the time, Mr Smith was a farm worker at Carleton Rode Old Hall and had a wife and three children aged up to three to support. He became strike secretary of the local branch of the National Union of Agricultural Workers and the district headquarters was in Attleborough.
Mr Smith, who eventually became his own master and bought a farm at Banham, said the farmers’ offer (54 hour week at 5 and a half d (pence) an hour) – “It was absolutely grinding us into the ground.”
Even after the dispute was over, the 25s a week wage stayed with them until the 1930s.
Mr Smith said that although times were hard, he was better off than some men. One worker he knew had a wife and eight children to feed and clothe.
‘In Clover’
Compared with the £40 a week employee of today, farm workers are poorly paid, but compared with the men of the land 50 years ago, they are in clover, said Mr Smith.
There were incidents during the strike but there was no violence as far as Mr Smith’s branch was concerned. According to newspaper reports, bands of men stormed on to farms and set loose horses which were pulling implements in the fields and attacked farm students who had come into Norfolk to help farmers during the strike.
Four students were attacked and beaten with cudgels by strikers at Rougham, said one report, and a lad of 17 working on his mother’s smallholding at East Tuddenham, was dragged through the river, accused of being a blackleg.
Men arrived daily from all parts of the country to help farmers and 600 police were drafted into the county. This was said to have had a considerable effect in reducing intimidation by strikers.
On some farms, men returned to work on assurance of police protection. Some labourers were fined £3 and £2 for intimidation.
A leading churchman was quoted as saying that children had been kept away from school because they had no boots to wear.
“How can a lot of children be provided with adequate footwear when the father is only receiving 25s a week in these days of high prices?” he asked.
The general secretary of the NUAW was quoted as saying, “It is clear that agricultural wages at present do not provide a means of securing either decency or health to a satisfactory degree. Agriculture cannot be allowed to go on giving farmers good returns in some years but always screwing down the labourers to intolerable conditions in years when prices are not so good.”
(Elsewhere on the page it gives details of agricultural workers pay and conditions in 1973:
Today’s farm workers overdue pay rise, bringing their wage to £19.50 per week, is expected to be implemented as from 1st April when the freeze is lifted…. To bring their working conditions into line with other industries the NUAAW is now trying to get farm workers hours reduced from 42 to 40 hours per week.)
Here is a link to a book review written and published in 2016 which gives more details of the agricultural depression in Norfolk during the 20th century: