1919 Southampton Mutiny
Overview
 
The 1919 Southampton Mutiny was a mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...

 of British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 soldiers which occurred in January 1919 in the aftermath of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. The soldiers, having been informed that they were being transported to Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

 to be demobilized, were then ordered to board troop ships for France. The mutiny was brought to an end without bloodshed when General Sir Hugh Trenchard
Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard GCB OM GCVO DSO was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force...

 threatened lethal force.
In early/mid January 1919, around 5,000 soldiers mutinied in Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

 taking over the docks and refusing to obey orders.

The former Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...

 and Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 general Sir Hugh Trenchard arrived in Southampton in mid January after Sir William Robertson, the Commander-in-Chief of Home Forces asked him to take charge.
Quotations

It may be necessary to use methods other than constitutional ones.

"ZAPU deposes Mr. Nkomo as Leader", The Times, 9 July 1962, p. 9.

Our votes must go together with our guns. After all, any vote we shall have, shall have been the product of the gun. The gun which produces the vote should remain its security officer – its guarantor. The people's votes and the people's guns are always inseparable twins.

Martin Meredith, "Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the Tragedy of Zimbabwe".

We are still exchanging blows with the British government. They are using gay gangsters. Each time I pass through London, the gangster regime of Blair

expresses its dismay'.

What we hate is not the color of their skins but the evil that emanates from them.

Speech in Harlem, New York (September 2000), quoted in Michael Radu, "State of Disaster", National Review, 27 May 2002

Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy!

"Whites are real enemy, warns Mugabe", Irish Times, 15 December 2000, p. 11.

The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans.

ibid.

We have fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty, small as we are we have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood…. So, Blair keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe.

Speech at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg (2 September 2002), quoted in John Battersby and Andrew Grice, "Anti-West anger at summit as Mugabe rounds on Blair", The Independent, 3 September 2002, p. 1.

Let Blair and the British government take note and listen. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans. Our people are overjoyed, the land is ours. We are now the rulers and owners of Zimbabwe.

Michael White, Andrew Meldrum, "Commonwealth leaders delay decision on defiant Mugabe", The Guardian, 6 December 2003, p. 2.

 
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