Author: ian wright

Charles Luker (1885 – 1970) was born in Chepstow  Workhouse. His  father worked as a fish dealer. By 1901, the family had moved to Whitecroft where his father sold fish from the back of his cart. As a boy, Luker started work as a trammer in the mines and by 1911 he had started working as a hewer at the Crown Colliery. He married Esther Phipps in 1912 and had two children. In 1919, he was elected as Secretary of the FDMA and as an FDMA representative on the Gloucester Employment Committee. The following year, the post of Secretary and Treasurer of the FDMA were combined to form the role of Financial Secretary and Thomas Etheridge took over the role. In 1921, Luker was working as a hewer at Princess Royal Colliery and was elected to the political committee of FDMA Executive whose job was to liaise with the labour party.

In October 1922, he was appointed as election agent and secretary of the Forest of Dean Labour Party which were paid posts and he continued in the role until the 1950s. In the 1920s, Luker also worked part-time as an insurance agent and became active within local government.

In 1922, he was elected to the board of the Forest of Dean School managers.  In March 1922 he was elected as a County Councillor, in which role he continued up to the 1950s. In 1923 he was elected as a West Dean Rural District councillor and by 1926, he was Chairman of West Dean Rural District Council, a role he held up to the 1950s.

Richard Kear (1876 – 1949) was born in Oldcroft, West Dean, the son of a miner. In 1891, at the age of 15, he was working as a general labourer and then started work at New Fancy as a hewer. He married Martha James in 1900 and went on to have eight children. In 1921, he was working as a hewer at New Fancy Colliery and he represented New Fancy on the FDMA Executive where he fulfilled the role of auditor for several years. He was a Primitive Methodist preacher who was “known in the Forest as a clear, earnest and intelligent local preacher”.[1]

[1] Dean Forest Guardian March 1914 quoted in Averil Kear, Bermuda Dick, (Lydney: Lightmoor, 2002) 146.

Raymond S Jones (1885 – 1967) was born in Yorkley, the son of a miner. He married Susan Watkins in 1912 and had two children and lived in Pillowell. He started work at New Fancy in 1897. He was a member of the FDMA Executive from 1924.

He was a member of the Forest of Dean Coal Production Committee during World War Two and worked at New Fancy until the pit closed in 1944. In 1950 he was a member of the Forest of Dean School Managers.

William David Jenkins (1903 – 1973) was born in Staunton near Coleford, the son of a miner. He married Winfred Bloxham in 1933 and worked as a miner at Cannop. He was Vice-Chairman of the FDMA in 1939 and 1940 and a member of the Forest of Dean Coal Production Committee during World War Two. In 1943 he was appointed as the Regional Investigation Officer working for the Ministry of Labour tracking absenteeism under the Essential Work Orders (EWO). In 1946, he was chair of the Coleford Branch of the WEA. In 1949, he was a member of West Dean Rural District Council representing the Labour Party for Broadwell and also elected onto Gloucestershire County Council in 1949 representing the Labour Party for Coleford. In 1950 he was the Labour Officer on the local NCB and a member of the Forest of Dean School Managers. He lived at 30 Woodville Avenue, Mile End.

George Thomas Dyer Jenkins (1898 – 1966) was born in Parkend when his father George Dyer (Snr) was 20 and his mother Nellie was 16 years old. George Dyer (Snr) did not stick around and emigrated to America.  Nellie married Frank Beddis, a coal miner, in 1900 and the couple went on to have ten children. George Jenkins married Hilda Watkins in 1919 and had four children. In 1921 Jenkins was working as an an uderground haulier at New Fancy colliery and then he worked at Princess Royal. He represented both pits on the FDMA Executive. He was a member of West Dean District Council from 1946 and 1949? He was a member of the Forest of Dean Trades Council (1947). He was President of the West Gloucestershire Labour Party in March 1949 and Forest of Dean delegate on the South Wales Executive of the NUM in 1950.

Horace Jones (1874 – 1967) was born in Yorkley, the son of a miner.  He started work at one of the Parkend pits as a teenager. In February 1889, he helped found the Pillowell brass band and was a playing member until 1903 when he helped found the Yorkley Onward band. He married Cora Biddington in 1901, but sadly she died two years later. In 1904, he married Florence Nelmes and went on to have six children.  In 1901 he was working as a hewer. However, by 1911 was working as a checkweighman at New Fancy colliery and represented New Fancy the on the FDMA Executive. He continued in these roles until his retirement.

Reuben James (1870 – 1948) was born in Pillowell, the son of a miner. He started work in the mines at fourteen. He married Alice Charles in 1890 and went on to have six children and worked as a haulier and a hewer at Princess Royal Colliery. He soon became active in the FDMA and joined a group of miners from West Dean who opposed the existing policies of conciliation and moderation promoted by the FDMA agent George Rowlinson. He was elected President of the FDMA from February 1918 to February 1919 and then represented Princess Royal Colliery on the FDMA Executive. He was blacklisted after the 1926 Lockout but returned to work at Princess Royal in November 1936 at the age of 65.  He was elected as Chairman of the Whitecroft branch of the Communist Party in 1944.

Joseph Holder (1874 -1937) started working in a mine as a boy. In 1899, he was elected as a checkweighman at Crump Meadow, remaining in this role until his retirement. He married Louisa Simmonds in 1898 and had two children. He was a governor of the Gloucester Infirmary and on the management committee of the Cinderford Co-operative Society. He also represented the mining community on social, welfare and organisations such as the Forest of Dean General Accident and Health Insurance Society, Gloucester Royal Infirmary and the Forest of Dean Council of School Managers. He was a long-standing and active member of the FDMA and a member of the FDMA Executive Committee. He was also treasurer of Cinderford Miners Welfare Hall. He suffered from miners’ lung disease in later life.

Jesse Hodges (Jnr) (1907 – 1990) was born in Cinderford.  He worked as an errand boy and then a hodder at Crump Meadow in the early 1920s for his father, Jesse Hodges Snr. In the early 1920s, he moved to Pontefract to work in the Yorkshire coalfield. In 1925 he married Naomi Hodges and had one son.

In about 1937, he moved back to Cinderford and worked in the Forest coalfield. Naomi died in 1949 and in 1952 he married Lucy Ackman in Bridgend.