Author: ian wright

William Wilkins (1898-1980) was born in Cinderford the son of a miner. He married Evelyn Carpenter in 1920 and they had two boys one of whom died at the age of eight. Like most young boys in the Forest at the time, he obtained work in the mines and worked at Waterloo colliery. In the 1920s, he was a member of the Miners Minority Movement.

In 1939, he took over from John Harper as FDMA representative for Waterloo but continued to work on the coal face. In the 1940s he was either a member or supporter of the Communist Party. In 1949, he was elected as a Labour local councillor on East Dean District Council for Pope’s Hill. He also was a Cinderford Town Councillor. He was elected chair of Cinderford Labour Party in 1951. At the time of the reorganisation of Local Authorities in 1974, he was on the Forest of Dean District Council.

Albert Wilding was born in Pontypool. He married Florence Phipps in 1907 and had 5 children. In 1921 he was working as a hewer at princess Royal colliery.

Leslie Sayes (1886 – 1966) was born in Fetter Hill, the son of Elijah Sayes who worked as a hewer at New Fancy colliery. On leaving school he joined the army and fought in World War One. He married Alice Barnes in 1914 and had one son. On returning from the war he worked for a while in South Wales. He returned to the Forest in the early 1920s and gained employment at Norchard and was its representative on the FDMA Executive in May 1927.  Sayes was a close friend of Beatrice Pace who was accused and aquitted of murdering her husband in 1928.

George Rowlinson (1852-1937.) was the agent for the FDMA from 1886 to 1918. A detailed biography and an account of his role as agent for the FDMA can be found in Ian Wright, Coal on One Hand, Men on the Other, The Forest of Dean Miners and the First World War 1910 – 1922 published by Bristol Radical History Group.

Timothy Ruck (1908 – 1981) was born in Cinderford, the son of a miner. He gained work in the mines. He married Marjorie Turley in 1938 and was secretary of the Cinderford Communist Party.

Holton Douglas (Elton) Reeks (1904 – 1974) was born in Bream, the son of a miner. He married Dulcie Miles in 1928 and had two daughters. He worked at Princess Royal and was an active member of the FDMA.

Thomas Phillips (1886-1950) was born in Bream and started work at the age of 13 at the old iron ore mine at Brockhollands, near Bream. Two years later he went to Flourmill Colliery and worked for the Princess Royal Company for forty-four years on the coal face. He married Rosa Pearce in 1910 and had two children. He was elected treasurer of Bream Labour Party in 1920. He was treasurer of Bream FDMA Lodge during the 1926 lockout and was elected secretary in 1928.

Martin Perkins (1858 – 1927) was born in Cinderford, the son of a miner, and started work in the pits at the age of fourteen. He married Elizabeth Knight in 1876 and they had eleven children. He was elected as checkweighman at Lightmoor colliery in 1893 and represented the pit on the FDMA Executive from this time to his retirement in December 1925. He was elected to the Westbury Board of Guardians from 1893-1895. He was President of the FDMA from 1913 to the end of 1917 and served as President of the Forest of Dean Free Miners from 1919 until just before his death. Initially a member of the Liberal Party he became a strong supporter of the Labour Party after 1918. He was President of the Cinderford Co-operative Society for over a quarter of a century and President of the FDMA’s General Accident and Health Insurance Society and the Cinderford Medical Aid Association. After World War One, he became a JP and member of the Forest of Dean Council of School Managers. He regularly attended the Baptist chapel.

John William Partridge (1889 – 1963) was born in Ruspidge, the son of a miner from a family of thirteen children. He started work in the mines as a labourer, married Mildred Glastonbury in 1915 and had one son. He worked his way up to become a colliery fitter.  He was a member of the FDMA Executive from 1924 to about1931.

Harry Morgan (1894 -1967) was born in Yorkley. He spent all of his working life working at Princess Royal. He married Millicent Morse in 1923. He was at times both chairman and treasurer of the Bream FDMA lodge, a member of the Pit Committee and the Miners’ Welfare Association District Committee.  Morgan was a West Dean Parish Councillor, chairman of Lydney Hospital Contributory Groups Committee, a well-known St. John Ambulance worker, and an official of the Baptist Church, Parkend. He was Co-chairman of the Forest of Dean Coal Production Committee during World War Two. In 1947 he was Support Economy Officer at the Princess Royal Colliery and was awarded the British Empire Medal.[1]

[1] Gloucester Citizen 12 June 1947.