Amos James (Jack) Harris (1904-1982) was born in Cinderford, the son of a coal miner. In 1921 he was working at Foxes Bridge colliery with his father. In 1925 he was elected as secretary of the Forest of Dean Miners Minority Movement. He was arrested and fined for intimidating blacklegs during the 1926 lockout. In 1939 he was working as a colliery deputy near Coventry in Warwickshire where he died.
John Harper (1866-1947) was born in Ruardean, the son of a miner. He started work in the mines after leaving school. He soon became involved in the FDMA and by 1890 was a member of the FDMA Executive. He married Edith Griffiths in 1894 who died two years later. He then married Annie Wright and went on to have six children. In 1911, he was working as a timberman at Waterloo colliery and soon after was elected as checkweighman. He represented Waterloo on the FDMA Executive until his retirement. He was a trustee for the free miners until his death. He was a leading member of the community of Ruardean and was involved in a range of community and welfare work.
Charles Fletcher (1892 – 1929) was born in Stroud. His father died in 1895 and he was brought up in Muller Orphanage in Bristol. As a teenager, he was sent to work on farms in the Forest including Longley and Trow Green where in 1911 he is recorded as living with the Teague family and working as a cowman. He joined the British Socialist Party in 1915. During the war, he moved to Chepstow and obtained work in the shipyards and latterly as a self-employed chimney sweep. In the early 1920s, he joined the Communist Party and then moved back to the Forest. In 1925, he was elected as Chairman of the Forest of Dean branch of the Miners’ Minority Movement. In 1926, he left the Communist Party and joined the Labour Party. He wrote articles on mining and industrial problems and was popular within the labour movement in the Forest and became a close friend of John Williams. He died aged 37 in 1929.
Margaret Jane Evans (1895 – 1949) was born on a farm near Gwynfe in Wales. Her father was a sheep farmer and both her mother and father were Welsh speakers. Margaret’s first language was Welsh but she could also speak English. She had two sisters, Mary Anne and Lizzie. As a teenager, she worked on the farm helping her father out with his flock of sheep. When she was about fifteen, she moved to Llandilo to take up studies as a student. She married John Williams in 1920 and moved with him to Cinderford in 1922 where she brought up two children, Dennis and Nest, and helped out her husband with his trade union duties. In later life, she suffered from ill health and was confined to her bed for the last five years of her life.
Thomas Etheridge (1896 – 1969) was born in Cinderford, the son of a miner. On leaving school, he started work as an office boy in the FDMA office under George Rowlinson. He continued in a paid role as a clerk and then was appointed to the full-time role of FDMA Financial Secretary in 1920. He married Ethel Holder in 1925.
In May 1937, it was discovered by an accountant that Etheridge had altered figures in his cash book in an attempt to deceive the auditors and over £700 was missing. Etheridge was arrested and committed to trial at Gloucester Assizes where he was charged with embezzlement, falsifications of accounts and the destruction of a bank passbook. The case was tragic as a large number of empty whisky bottles were found in his office, and he was stealing to finance his addiction to alcohol. Etheridge was found guilty and sentenced to 14 months in prison. When released from prison he found work as a general labourer.
Philip Elton (1891-1953) was born in Cinderford the son of a miner. In 1924 he joined the Miners Minority Movement.
William Henry Ellway (1900-1954) was born in Handsworth, Yorkshire the son of a miner from the Forest of Dean. He married Isabella Chalmers in 1921 and had seven daughters. He worked at Norchard Colliery and by 1941 was its representative on the FDMA Executive. In 1941 he was nominated as a Labour Party candidate for Pillowell ward of the West Dean Parish Council and was elected to the Council in 1949. He was chairman of the FDMA in 1946.
Harold Craddock (1895 – 1953) was born in New Road, Whitecroft and his father worked in the mines as a road repairer. He started work at 14 at the Princess Royal Colliery as a hodder. In 1920, he was sponsored by the FDMA to attend a two-year course at the Central Labour College in London starting in September 1920. He returned to the Forest in the summer and worked as a baker for the local Co-operative Society in Yorkley during the 1921 lockout.
In 1923. he was elected as the representative of Princess Royal on the FDMA Executive. He married Florence Hampton in 1925 and had one daughter. He was blacklisted after the 1926 Lockout but remained a member of the FDMA Executive until 1928. He obtained work again as a baker in Yorkley for the Co-operative Society.
In 1928 he was elected as Vice-President of the Forest of Dean Labour Party and elected as a Labour councillor to West Dean District Council.
In 1931 he was elected to the Bream ward of Newland Parish Council and in 1938, he was a member of the Lydney Board of Guardians. In 1946 he was elected to the county council as a Labour councillor for the Bream ward.
Walter Ernest Cooke (1900 – 1953) was born in Oldcroft the son of a miner. He initially worked as a tin mill man at the Lydney tin plate works but in June 1921 he was unemployed. He then joined his step-father and brothers working at New Fancy colliery. In 1926 became a delegate from New Fancy on the FDMA Executive. He married Edith Cox in 1923 and had two children. After the 1926 lockout, he gained employment at Oldcroft colliery.
William Butt (1879 – 1955) was born in Cinderford, the son of a miner. He married Rose Newman in 1903 and had three children. In 1911, he was working as a hewer and in 1921, he was working as a timber man at Lightmoor colliery. He was an Executive member for Lightmoor during the 1926 lockout. He was arrested and fined for intimidation of blacklegs during the 1926 Lockout.