Category: Articles

The people who get ground down in wars get sung over and remembered. The state buried them after they were dead. We are not dead yet and the state is trying to bury us already.

Gwyn Thomas, Sorry for thy Sons (written in 1936)

 

The South Wales Miners’ Federation like all trade union organisations has as its fundamental duty the obligation to safeguard the working and living conditions of its members in all circumstances. The change from peace to war cannot lessen the obligation … we must preserve the complete independence of our organisation and avoid being drawn into an unhealthy collaboration which ignores class relations within modern capitalist society.^[1]

Arthur Horner in an address to the South Wales Miners’ Federation (SWMF) Annual Conference of April 1940.  (The Forest of Dean district became part of the SWMF in September 1940).

 

While they all realised that miners had suffered injustices in the past and were suffering injustices today, they should not do anything to the detriment of the effort that would mean the destruction of Hitler and all he stood for.^[2]

Will Paynter (SWMF Executive) addressing Forest of Dean miners on 27 July 1941.

 

During World War Two it was illegal to take strike action.[3] However, on 19 June 1941, the miners at Princess Royal Colliery in Bream in the Forest of Dean walked out on an unofficial strike without consulting their national or local trade union Executives or their full-time officials. This was followed by further unofficial strikes in other Forest of Dean pits in 1944. Many of these miners had relatives in the military and worked flat out to increase the coal supply for the war effort. This article explores the background of the strike and seeks to understand what motivated the men to take such drastic action.

The experience of the industrial strife of the 1920s and the severe economic depression which followed in the 1930s was crucial in moulding the attitudes that shaped the war-time behaviour of miners. The miners entered the war with a legacy of bitterness produced by the 1921 and 1926 lockouts, unemployment, and the impoverishment of their communities. The return to full employment brought about by the war did little to appease the miners whilst wartime experiences tended to justify and reemphasise pre-war attitudes. During the war, work conditions deteriorated, and unfavourable wage comparisons with munition and factory workers led to resentment.

The development of draconian labour laws introduced in 1941 meant that existing miners were compelled to work in the coal industry by government legislation, with no option to join the military or move to better-paid work in the munitions industry. This suggested that miners were still being treated as second-class citizens and this inevitably led to a degree of resentment.

During the World War Two, the coal industry experienced a decline in output. The reasons for this were complex but had little to do with the miners’ commitment to support the war effort. However, Government policy and measures to increase output placed the responsibility to increase productivity on a depleted, tired, ageing and often sick workforce.

When the decline in output continued and the pressure on the miners grew, strikes broke out. During World War two there were 514 stoppages between September 1939 and October 1944 in the South Wales coalfield alone.[4] Consequently, the miners were accused of being unpatriotic by the right-wing press and this was very hurtful and further impacted morale. 

Forest of Dean Miners Association

The Forest of Dean Miners Association (FDMA) was the main trade union representing miners in the Forest of Dean and was affiliated with the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain (MFGB). Each district of the MFGB had a full-time miners’ agent whose responsibility was the day-to-day running of the association, recruitment, and negotiations with the employer. The agent for the FDMA from 1922-1953 was John Williams.

Williams’s job was to deal with disputes over collective and individual grievances, violations of the eight-hour day agreement, wages, coal allowances, unemployment pay, dismissals and reinstatements, overtime, weekend work, industrial accidents, compensation claims, etc.

The FDMA was made up of lodges organised around individual pits or villages. The lodges held an annual election for President, Secretary and Treasurer.  In addition, pit committees were elected at each of the main pits to deal with day-to-day disputes and relations with the management.

Each lodge elected a delegate to attend the FDMA Council to which the agent was accountable and which met about four times a year. Every year elections were held for the FDMA Executive Committee to include a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Finance Committee, Political Committee and Auditors. An election could also be held if there was a challenger for the post of agent and the Council agreed. The Executive Committee held regular meetings jointly with FDMA delegates from the principal collieries. The agent would usually represent the FDMA at national or regional meetings.

FDMA Executive and Activists 1938-1947

FDMA Member	Role	Colliery	Home
John Williams	Agent		Cinderford
William Ellway	President	Norchard	Yorkley
Harry Morgan	Finance Officer	Princess Royal	Bream
Elton Reeks		Princess Royal	Bream
Alan Beaverstock		Princess Royal	Bream
Harry Barton	Delegate to SWMF	Northern United	Cinderford
Ray Jones	President	New Fancy and Princess Royal	Pillowell
Frank Matthews		Cannop	Mile End
John Harper		Waterloo	Ruardean
William Wilkins		Waterloo	Cinderford
Charlie Mason		Northern	Brierley
Wallace Jones	Safety Officer	Eastern	Cinderford
William Jenkins		Cannop	Broadwell
Stanley Turner		Eastern	Drybrook
Birt Hinton		Cannop	Berry Hill
G D H Jenkins	Secretary	New Fancy and Princess Royal	Parkend
Harry Hale
C Brain

 

In September 1940, it was agreed the FDMA should join the South Wales region, whose President was Arthur Horner, a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). The FDMA was renamed as the No 9 area of the SWMF.^[5] However, the press and Forest miners tended to continue still use the term FDMA when describing the miner’s union in the Forest because, at a local level, the union continued to function as before and so this convention will be used in this book.  Harry Barton, who was Secretary of Cinderford branch of the CPGB was elected as the Forest of Dean delegate on the SWMF Executive.

Williams and the FDMA believed that it was necessary to fight against fascism and worked hard to support the war effort by encouraging miners to increase production and campaign against unnecessary absenteeism. At the same time, they remained loyal to the interests of his members, supported them in their conflicts with their managers and defended their trade union rights.

Wages

Since the 1921 and 1926 lockouts, the power of the MFGB had been undermined by its federated structure which had returned power to the district associations. In some cases, such as in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, local associations had been able to negotiate reasonable terms and conditions based on higher productivity. This was because the MFGB was tied into a national agreement that linked district wages to district profits. Any rise or fall in wages was calculated using a complex formula based on profitability in the district.

The MFGB and FDMA argued that the mining industry should now be nationalised and  that there should be a single national union comprising all grades of workers with a single national agreement on wages and hours of work.

The hewers who worked on the coal face extracting coal and were paid by the ton of coal produced and these skilled men earned the highest wages. Men working on timber work and road ripping were also paid on piece rates. Piece rate workers were paid a district minimum wage if their earnings from piece work fell below this minimum. Most other tasks in the pits were carried out by men or boys employed directly by the owners and they were paid a day rate which was usually less than the wage for the hewers. These men included the banksmen, enginemen, blacksmiths, masons, carpenters, pump men and surface workers. Also on day rate wages were men and boys involved with the haulage of coal, maintenance of haulage roads, clearing roof falls, and attending to ventilation.

The average national wage for coal miners in 1938 was £2 15s 9d (about 11s per shift for a five-day week) ranking at number eighty-one in the official list of nearly one hundred trades.^[6] In the Forest of Dean, the earnings of miners were lower than in most districts because of the poor condition of the pits, thin seams, problems with water and lack of investment.

The minimum wage for a hewer in 1938 in the Forest  was 8s 9d and the average wage for a hewer on piece work in the Forest was about 10s a shift.[7]  In the Forest in 1938, about 40 per cent of shifts were worked at the coal face. However, the remaining workers including labourers, surface workers, craftsmen, etc, who were paid day rates, earned less than this.

The Coal Industry

The ownership of the British coal industry in 1938 was highly fragmented. In the Forest of Dean, there were seven large collieries employing over 100 men managed by five colliery companies and about twenty-five small pits owned by a variety of small colliery companies or private individuals employing up to a maximum of about 50 workers each. Some of these small pits were small family concerns owned by free miners.  The total of men employed in the Forest of Dean coalfield in 1938 was 4941.

Forest of Dean Collieries Employing More than 100 workers in 1938

Mine	Company	Location	Coal	Number of men	Dates of operation
Princess Royal	Princess Royal Colliery Ltd	Bream	Steam	750	1840-1962
Lightmoor	Henry Crawshay & Co. Ltd.	Cinderford	House	266	1840-1940
Eastern United	Henry Crawshay & Co. Ltd.	Ruspidge	Steam	831	1909-1959
New Fancy,	Parkend Deep Navigation Collieries Ltd	Parkend	House	333	1827-1944
Norchard	Princess Royal Colliery Ltd?	Lydney	Steam	222	1842-1957
Cannop	The Cannop Coal Company Ltd	Cannop	House and Steam	1152	1906-1960
Arthur and Edward (Waterloo)	Lydney and Crump Meadow Collieries Ltd	Lydbrook	House	681	1841-1959
Northern United	Henry Crawshay & Co. Ltd.	Cinderford	Steam	457	1933-1965
Total				4692

The coal industry in the Forest lacked investment and was dominated by sectional interest and the short-term seeking of profits by the owners, which contributed to low productivity. Slow modernisation of production methods, decrepit haulage systems, inadequate underground layout and poor and costly distribution contributed to the stagnation. Inadequate training and conservatism of managers combined with poor industrial relations made the situation worse. 

The Second World War brought tremendous changes in the organisation of the industry itself and industrial relations within it, though the changes were not immediate. At the beginning of the war, the government established an indirect form of control of the coal industry by introducing a central council and district boards for its regulation while ownership, control and day-to-day management remained in private hands.^[8]

War Effort

The leadership of the MFGB and the FDMA and most miners were committed to supporting the war effort and trade union representatives were brought into war planning at a local, regional and national level. As soon as the war was declared on 1 September 1939, the government set up a meeting of the Joint Standing Consultative Committee (JSCC) made up of the Miners Association of Great Britain (MAGB), which was the organisation representing the colliery owners, and MFGB representatives to discuss the matter of increasing coal production.^[9]

The government estimated that it would need to increase production by 30 to 40 million tons to bring it up to the level of 260 to 270 million tons deemed necessary to supply the muniton sindustry as well as industrial and domestic markets..

The MFGB made it clear that no extension of the working day should be agreed upon and any agreement on overtime should adhere to MFGB policy. The MFGB insisted that there be no reduction in the school leaving age (14), no extension of the employment of women and no employment of boys on the night shift. It was agreed to encourage unemployed or ex-miners to return to work and to reduce absenteeism.^[10]

The MFGB argued Britain needed a unified coal industry under public ownership to increase production levels. During the war, the policies of the MFGB were based on the following priorities:

• The need to ensure coal production at sufficient levels to meet domestic and wartime needs.
• The need to minimise industrial conflict.
• The need to win significant wage increases for its members.
• The need to end district agreements and negotiate a national agreement for all mineworkers.
• The need to nationalise the mines.

At the start of the war, the MFGB and FDMA encouraged their members to support the war effort by working extra hard, working through holidays, working extra shifts, etc. As a result, in the first quarter of 1940 productivity improved. However, as the year progressed it became clear that the intense work rate could not be sustained and productivity declined and did not recover for the rest of the war.

Manpower and Output in the British Coal Industry.^[11]

Year	Output of saleable coal in tons	Average number of miners	Output per miner per year in tons
1938	226,903,200	781,672	290.4
1939	231,337,900	765,322	301.9
1940	224,298,800	749,165	299.4
1941	206,344,300	697,633	295.8
1942	203,633,400	709,261	287.1
1943	194,493,000	707,750	274.8
1944	184,098,400	710,203	259.2
1945	174,687,900	708,905	246.4

 

Manpower and Output in the Forest of Dean Coal Industry[12]

Year	Output of saleable coal in tons	Average number of miners	Output per miner per year in tons
1938	1,349,500	4,941	273.1
1939	1,312,700	4,838	271.3
1940	1,204,200	4,451	270.5
1941	1,071,800	4,166	257.3
1942	1,021,000	4,216	242.2
1943	966,600	4,339	222.8
1944	926,000	4339	213.4
1945	873,100	4298	203.1

The difference in output per miner between the national and Forest coalfields was due to the poor conditions in the Forest such as thin seams, cramped conditions and water which required constant pumping combined with a lack of investment and the slow introduction of coal cutting machinery and mechanical conveyors.

About half the seams worked in the Forest were under four feet and none over five feet whereas in other districts 20 per cent of the seams were over 5 feet. In the Forest, most collieries still used timber supports and men and horses to move coal.[13]  In some pits in the Forest most of the undercutting and loading of coal was done by hand and the amount of coal cut and moved using machines was much less than in other districts. [14]

The use of Machines for Cutting Coal in Forest of Dean (FOD).[15]

Year	No of collieries using machine cutting in FOD	No of machines in use in FOD	Percentage of coal cut by machine in the FOD	Percentage of coal cut by machine nationally
1938	5	19	21	56
1939	7	25	26	59
1940	6	27	34	61
1941	5	26	42	63
1942	6	29	47	64
1943	6	33	55	67
1944			53.7	80.2

 

The use of Machines for Loading and Conveying of Coal[16]

Year	No of collieries using machines to load and convey coal in FOD	No of machines in use in FOD	Percentage of coal loaded and conveyed by machines in the FOD	Percentage of coal cut by machine nationally
1938	3	18	21	54
1939	4	23	28	58
1940	5	30	32	61
1941	6	29	34	64
1942	6	36	33	65
1943	6	37	42	66

The decline in number of miners was due to:

• Men joining the forces.
• Leaving to find better-paid work with better conditions in other industries.
• Deaths (accidents and natural).
• Retirement,
• Sickness,
• Lung disease

There continued to be the recruitment of juveniles (under 14-18) but, they could not replace the loss of older skilled workers. However, later in the war, recruitment was bolstered by some men returning from the armed forces and other industries, volunteers, and those sent to the mines by ballot (see discussion of Bevin Boys below). 

Build up to War

When Hitler broke his word and occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Britain and France gave a guarantee to Poland to support its independence. As a result, on 6 April, Britain agreed to a formal military alliance with Poland, however, they it refused to form an alliance with Russia.

In May 1939, plans for limited conscription applying to single men aged between 20 and 22 were given parliamentary approval in the Military Training Act.  This required men to undertake six months of military training and then to be transferred to the Reserve. Some 240,000 men registered for service including some miners.

On 23 August, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a Treaty of Non-aggression. In the Forest of Dean, this resulted in an accusation from some members of the Labour Party of treachery by the Soviet Union. On 26 August, Morgan Philips Price, the Forest Labour MP, expressed this view at the annual carnival and fete of the Forest of Dean Labour Party in Bream, chaired by Albert Brookes.

However, much they blamed Mr Chamberlain and the others, nothing could absolve Russia from the treachery to Poland.^[17]

The CPGB leadership strenuously denied this accusation, arguing that the Soviet government had been compelled to act when the French and British governments refused to enter a formal alliance with them against the Nazis.^[18]

On 1 September, Hitler invaded Poland and on 3 September 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. On 17 September, the Soviet Union invaded Poland through its eastern border.

As a result of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Comintern characterised the war as an imperial conflict between two more or less equally culpable blocs of capitalist nations. However, some British CPGB members ignored this policy and argued that the CPGB should support the war effort to defeat fascism. These included senior members such as Harry Pollitt and Arthur Horner, who were then sidelined by the CPGB leadership.

When the war was declared parliament immediately passed a more wide-reaching conscription measure, the National Service (Armed Forces) Act which imposed conscription on males aged between 18 and 41 all of whom had to register for service. Those medically unfit were exempted, as were others in key industries such as farming, medicine, and mining. Most miners over the age of 23 were exempted, although, for some less-skilled jobs in the mining industry, the exemptions were only for those over 30.

Some miners were eager to get out of the mines and volunteered for the forces.  As a result, by mid-September 27,000 men had left the mining industry for the military, civil defence or munitions work and this immediately impacted the level of coal production.^[19]  At the end of October, the MFGB requested the government reduce the reserve age in some grades of the mining industry to eighteen because of the need to increase coal production by at least 30 million tons.^[20]

In some pits in the Forest of Dean, men of military age and no experience in mining applied for work in the pits and some of the existing miners believed that this was to avoid conscription.^[21] As a result, stoppages were threatened and on Saturday 9 September, a meeting of the FDMA Executive was held at Speech House, after which Williams told the press:

What angers the miners is the suspicion that these men would have not come near a colliery but to get work but for the fact that the mine offered a chance to avoid military service.^[22]

Another meeting was held on Saturday 16 September and it was agreed to make representations to the colliery owners over the matter. Consequently, the owners agreed that, as far as reasonably practical, men who had entered the mines during the war or immediately preceding the war would be withdrawn. In addition, any miners who had recently left the industry should be given priority over those with no experience.^[23]

Wages

The MFGB argued that despite the promise by the government to reduce profiteering the cost of living was rapidly rising.^[24] The MFGB insisted the MAGB agree that the JSCC discuss issues to do with the cost of living, wage rates, hours and safety on a national as opposed to district basis. As a result, in September, the MFGB decided to use the JSCC to attempt to break out of the existing district agreements and negotiate a new national wage agreement. At the meeting of the JSCC on 28 September, the MFGB put in a claim for an immediate flat-rate increase for all miners in the form of a war bonus of 1s a day for men and 6d for boys under 18, as an interim settlement until the end of October. The MFGB demanded that wages should be increased from then on according to the rise in the cost of living.^[25]

In response, the MAGB offered a pay rise of 8d for men and 4d for boys to cover the period from 1 November to the end of the year.^[26]  The award was termed as a war bonus and would be merged with any rise in wages from district agreements and paid for by increasing the cost of coal.

At the MFGB conference on 2 November, there was some reluctance among the areas with higher productivity to accept a flat rate national agreement as they believed they would be better off with district agreements. Horner who was on the negotiating committee argued in favour of the offer:

Let us try to find a formula which will at least ensure this, that at the worst … the most backward district, including the Forest of Dean … shall have the same advantage as Yorkshire and the same as Nottinghamshire. In fact, they needed it more with an average wage of 11s a day as against an average wage of 15s a day … I want a national organisation. I believe in national control of the wage policy. I believe in using every possible situation to unify … the miners of this country. I do not think it is right that the accident of geography should determine that Welsh miners should get two-thirds of what miners in the Midlands are getting.^[27]

The voting was 342,000 in support of the agreement and 253,000 against it, resulting in the acceptance of the offer.^[28] 

Increasing membership

At the start of the war, the membership of the FDMA was low but, by December, had rapidly increased. Williams informed his members that in January they would receive a small pay rise resulting from the district agreement due to the increasing profits of the local colliery companies.^[29]

One of Williams’s tasks was to represent miners if they felt they had been wrongly conscripted. This could happen if a miner changed his grade after registration.

The FDMA was aware there was considerable dissatisfaction among its members over those non-union men who received all the benefits it negotiated. Consequently, the FDMA demanded the owners assist them in securing 100 per cent union membership in Forest collieries to prevent any stoppages over the issue of non-unionism.^[30]

The Cost of Living Formula

The increase in the cost of living meant that workers in other industries were also demanding and receiving pay rises. As an example, in December 1939, West Dean District Council agreed to a flat rate increase for its employees of 3s a week.^[31]

At the end of 1939, the MFGB threatened to hold a national strike ballot unless the MAGB and the government agreed to a formula to link wages to the rise in the cost of living. In January, the MAGB and government quickly gave way and conceded another national cost of living increase of 5d a shift for men and 2.5d for boys to be backdated from 1 January 1940. On 25 January 1940, this offer was accepted by the majority of delegates at an MFGB conference.^[32]

In addition, the MFGB negotiated a flat rate addition of 0.7d per shift for adult workers corresponding to a variation of one point in the cost-of-living index subject to a three-month review. The offer was referred to the districts and, by the first week in February, the majority including the Forest of Dean voted to accept it.^[33]

The agreement between the MAGB and MFGB meant that district wage negotiations would continue as before but any additions due to the war and the cost of living would be agreed upon nationally.^[34] This meant that wages in areas like the Forest of Dean would continue to lag behind the more productive areas. However, as the wage increases at this time were in response to the increasing cost of living, they made little difference to the miners’ incomes in real terms.

In March 1940, Forest of Dean unemployment of insured workers was down from 1262 in March 1939 to 450 in March 1940, of whom about 100 were women and girls. In Cinderford, unemployment decreased from 589 to 150 as some unemployed miners joined the forces or drifted away into better-paid work in the munitions industry.^[35] Many of the remaining unemployed workers were elderly or physically unfit for colliery work. Consequently, the Forest colliery owners started to run into difficulties recruiting skilled and healthy miners.

Deaths and Injuries

During World War Two, the UK’s coal mines experienced a significant number of accidents and fatalities, though not as severe as those in other industries like munitions factories or the military.  Between the outbreak of World War Two in September 1939 and the end of 1944, approximately 4,363 miners were killed in coal mining accidents across the United Kingdom. In addition, 15,240 miners sustained serious injuries during this period. ​[35b] These statistics underscore the significant human cost borne by coal miners who played a crucial role during World War Two supplying coal for the war effort.

In the Forest of Dean, there were fourteen deaths during World War Two in its mines and many serious accidents. The first death was Charles Screen, age 39, who was killed at Princess Royal Colliery on 24 September 1939.  Further deaths will be listed in boxes throughout the text with details taken from Dave Tuffley’s database of deaths in Forest mines, Roll of Honour, available on the Forest of Dean Local History website.

Beyond immediate accidents, many miners suffered from long-term occupational diseases. In South Wales alone, between 1937 and 1948, over 2,000 miners died and nearly 38,500 were permanently disabled due to silicosis and pneumoconiosis, diseases caused by prolonged exposure to coal dust. [35c]

Silicosis

Mining communities have always been aware of the devastating consequences of lung disease caused by breathing dust. It is now known that there are several different types of lung diseases caused by breathing dust in coal mines but silicosis was the first one to be recognised as an industrial disease.

Silicosis disease is a result of breathing in dust from rock containing silica often produced because of drilling or blasting operations when creating roadways in the mines. The disease meant miners could become disabled and unable to work at a relatively young age, sometimes as young as forty. They then could suffer a long painful early death leaving grieving families with no compensation or even recognition that the disablement and death were a result of working in a mine. Forest miner Albert Meek recalled how his father suffered from silicosis:

which was then called ‘colliers’ asthma,’ never got anything for it. I often think about it, my father was rasping for years before he died and he died before he was fifty.^[36]

The symptoms of silicosis usually take many years to develop and problems sometimes do not develop until after exposure and can then get much worse. In most cases, exposure for at least 10-20 years is required to cause the condition, although in a few cases, it can develop after 5-10 years of exposure or, in rare cases, after only a few months of very heavy exposure.

Silicosis was first recognised as an industrial disease for compensation purposes in the 1928 Various Industries (Silicosis) Scheme. Under this Scheme, the applicant for compensation had to prove that they had been working in silica rock containing 50 per cent or more free silica, had been blasting, drilling, dressing or handling such rocks and had already been disabled by silicosis.

This was the first step in a long battle with the colliery owners, the government, and their allies in the scientific and medical establishment to recognise the various types of lung disease caused by dust.

The FDMA encouraged miners with lung disease to apply for a medical assessment and compensation, however, there was no systematic screening so the prevalence of the disease was underreported. The deaths listed in the tables below are taken from reports of coroners’ courts in the local newspaper and do not reflect a true picture of the prevalence of the disease.

Deaths from silicosis in the Forest of Dean reported in the local newspapers in 1939 and 1940[37]

Name	Age	Date of Inquest	Home	Colliery
Charles Hook	52	Feb 1939	Ruspidge	Eastern
William Baglin			Mile End
Alfred Chamberlain	63	Nov 1939	Cinderford	New Fancy
Thomas James Davies	66	April 1940	Pillowell
William Charles James	53	November 1940	Bream	Princess Royal

Forest of Dean Coal Production Committee

In April 1940, the government established a National Coal Production Council made up of representatives from government departments, the MFGB and MAGB. On 23 May members of the FDMA and the Forest colliery owners met with Lord Portal in Gloucester to discuss ways of improving productivity.^[38] As a result, the FDMA helped set up a Forest of Dean Coal Production Committee (FODCPC) with owners and workers’ representatives to discuss ways of increasing output in conjunction with the pit committees.  In addition, each pit had its own production committee made up of  managers and  FDMA members Charlie Mason at Northern.

The FDMA representatives on the FODCPC were Wallace Jones (Eastern), William Jenkins (Cannop), Harry Morgan (Princess Royal), Ray Jones (New Fancy) and Harry Barton (Northern).^[39] The FODCPC agreed to work with the FDMA pit committees to urge the men to avoid unnecessary absenteeism and for those who worked the 2 pm to 10 pm shift to work a sixth shift on Saturday afternoon. Some workers already worked a Sunday night shift to prepare the ground for the Monday morning shift.  The committee also agreed to urge the men to work through the summer without taking a holiday. After the first meeting, Williams told reporters:

The first subject that we have tackled is that of voluntary absenteeism which relates to men losing time for their convenience. It has been found more time is being lost on Sunday nights. An appeal is to be made by the Forest Miners’ Association for all workmen to work every shift possible. Notices are to be put up at the pitheads informing the men they are expected to lose as little time as possible and announcing the decision of the Committee relating to the afternoon shift week.^[40]

However, after a ballot of FDMA members, it was agreed that working a six-shift should be voluntary and only if an additional allowance was paid. In the House of Commons,  Philips Price, asked the Secretary of Mines, David Grenfell, if he was aware of this grievance over the additional allowance. Lady Astor complained that there was no reason why the men should be paid. Some Labour MPs asked Astor: “What do you know about it?” Grenfell informed Astor that it was customary for the men to be paid an extra allowance for additional shifts and the matter was being dealt with by negotiation between the local associations and the local colliery owners.^[41]

Ernest Bevin

In the second week of May 1940, the Germans invaded Holland and Belgium resulting in the resignation of Chamberlain and the formation of a Coalition government with Churchill as Prime Minister and Clement Attlee as Deputy Prime Minister. Churchill’s war cabinet consisted of five members including two Labour MPs, Clement Attlee and Arthur Greenwood. Other Labour members held ministerial positions, the most important of whom was Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour and National Service. However, Chamberlain, as leader of the Conservative Party, remained a member of the government and continued to have many supporters in parliament until his death in October 1940.

Bevin’s standing as leader of Britain’s biggest trade union, the Transport and General Workers Union, was intended to deflect the kind of opposition to the control of labour that had been such a feature of the First World War. However, the measures introduced during the Second World War were similarly draconian and the Emergency Powers Act and Defence Regulations provided the government with all the power it needed to direct and control labour. On 10 July 1940, the government introduced a regulation allowing Bevin to ban strikes and lockouts and to refer any dispute to compulsory and binding arbitration. Bevin established a Joint Consultative Committee of seven employers’ representatives and seven trade unionists to advise on the conduct of the war effort on the home front.

An apprehension that an invasion was imminent was widespread and so the Forest  miners collectively took their responsibilities seriously and continued to work flat out. The FDMA continued to do everything in its power to maintain and improve the output of coal and at the same time sought to ensure the continuation of safety provisions and the protection of wages and conditions of its members.

In May 1940, it was announced that Lightmoor colliery was to close mainly because of the exhaustion of the coal seams and the drift of men from the colliery to the wartime factories.  The output at this time was only 118 tons a day. Most of the 172 men were absorbed in the Crawshay’s other collieries, Eastern United and Northern United. The last wagon of coal to leave the pit was dispatched on 5 June.

The government was concerned that more miners would leave the industry to find better-paid work elsewhere. As a result, in June 1940, the government introduced a regulation preventing miners from seeking alternative employment and preventing the conscription of unemployed miners.[42]

Dunkirk

The MFGB conference in July 1940 was probably the bleakest in its history and had only one concern; the defeat of the British army at Dunkirk and the success of the Nazi military forces in Europe.

Williams was elected to represent some of the smaller regions on the MFGB Executive Council and as a result, worked closely with Horner and other left-wing members of the Executive. in developing a strategy on how to respond.  On 16 July 1940, the SWMF and FDMA jointly presented the following resolution to the conference which was proposed by Horner and seconded by Williams:

This Conference of the Mineworkers’ Federation of Great Britain deplores the situation in which the British people find themselves largely in consequence of the policy pursued by the Chamberlain Government; a policy which has resulted in strengthening the potential enemies of Britain whilst weakening the forces who had common interests with us in preventing aggression. The Conference pledges itself to do everything within its power to assist in maintaining the freedom of the British people and to ensure that neither occupation of British territory nor capitulation to the forces of aggression shall take place. It considers it fundamental and essential to success in this effort that all those who, led by Chamberlain, pursued the policy which has created this situation shall now be retired from all offices in the Government so that a Government more representative of the people of this country shall be installed forthwith.^[43]

The motion provoked a long and heated debate with the main point of contention being that the resolution could be interpreted as a motion of no confidence in the government. In the end, the conference agreed to a similar but weaker motion which did not explicitly criticise Chamberlain or the government.

One result of the French armistice was a contraction in the demand for export coal from France. Nationally the number of men employed in the mines decreased and, in some areas such as South Wales, there was significant unemployment and poverty.  As a result, in October 1940, despite objections from the MFGB, the government removed the restrictions on the conscription of unemployed miners and any miner who was surplus to requirements. Consequently, more skilled men were lost to the mining industry.

Demand for Coal

1941 was characterised by the increasing crisis in the mining industry as shortages of coal became a concern and demands upon the labour force grew. The conversion to a war economy led to an expansion of demand for coal by the munitions industries while at the same time, miners were drifting away from the industry into work with much better pay and conditions such as munitions. The pressure on the workforce to increase productivity led to discontent and, in some cases, strikes.

The MFGB was very concerned about how the crisis in the production of coal would impact the war effort. In December 1940, the MFGB requested that the Labour Party and TUC consider supporting their demand for the nationalisation of the mines arguing that a nationalised industry with good pay and conditions was needed to retain the workforce. However, on 31 January, the TUC and Labour Party rejected this suggestion but decided to promote a scheme of national control in which the mines remained in private ownership but their finances were controlled by the government.^[44]

In early 1941, the Ministry of Labour established  National Service Tribunals for the coal mining industry in each district to decide which men should be retained in the mines or released to the munitions industry or military.  In the Forest of Dean, the Tribunal was made up of J E Rees, from University College, Cardiff as Chairman with Percy Moore and David Lang as the employers’ representatives and Williams and William Jenkins as the FDMA representatives.^[45] In most cases, only young inexperienced miners and unemployed miners from districts affected by the decline in the export trade were released.

Food

One of the tasks of the District Councils was to set up Food Committees to monitor the distribution of food. These committees were made up of retailers and consumers including miners and miners’ wives.

One of the issues impacting productivity in the mining industry was the shortage of food for the miners, in particular sugar and cheese. This was acknowledged on 4 January 1941 when the West Dean Food Committee heard complaints from miners’ wives that they could not get suitable food for their husband’s packed lunches. The discussion arose after the announcement by the Divisional Food Officer, L P Hullett, that permits issued for extra sugar for miners were to be withdrawn even though permits were still available for local tin plate workers.^[46] The Chairman, L C Porter said:

They have to get coal for steam. Without steam, you cannot generate electricity, and without electricity, you cannot have munitions. The miners must, therefore, be properly cared for.^[47]

It was reported by Thomas Phillips, a miner from Princess Royal, that there was discontent at his colliery over the removal of permits for sugar and the scarcity of cheese. He said, as far as the miners were concerned, the situation was very serious. Miner’s wife, Cindonia Clutterbuck from Bream, said: “They cannot possibly realise what the life and the running of a miner’s home really is”. Porter pointed out that munition factories have canteens where the workers can get good cheap food in addition to their rations and this is not available to miners in the Forest of Dean. It was agreed to raise the matter with Morgan Philips Price, the local Labour MP, and the Ministry of Food.^[48]

The issue of food for miners came up again at the West Dean Food Committee meeting on 6 February 1941 when it was revealed that munitions workers were getting extra rations of meat in their canteens.  Clutterbuck claimed that no cheese had been available in the Bream area for three weeks. This was of particular concern as cheese was the staple food for miners’ packed meals. Despite this, it was reported to the meeting that an application by the Committee for cheese to be made available to miners was turned down by the Ministry of Food in Bristol.^[49] This situation was aggravated by the increase in the cost of food and the cost of living had gone up by 42 points by February 1941.

Absenteeism

Resentment among miners was exacerbated when, on 28 March 1941, accusations of slacking and absenteeism were made by an anonymous local colliery owner in the Dean Forest Mercury. The managing director of another Forest of Dean colliery company claimed that men are avoiding working a full week to evade paying income tax and added: “The fact is that they do not want to work a full week”.^[50]

However, the managing director of another Forest colliery company said absenteeism was a problem but no worse than before the war. He claimed that illness, accident and voluntary absence from work at his group of pits was running at about 13 per cent and of these, about 6 per cent had a just cause such as holidays, lack of equipment, etc. He added that the main problem was the migration of skilled miners to other industries.^[51]  A spokesman for the miners replied that the accusation:

that men are deliberately losing time and thereby reducing their wages so as to avoid paying income tax is too absurd to be treated seriously.^[52]

Essential Work Orders

The government was reluctant to increase its control of the coal industry and attempted to solve the crisis in productivity by placing restrictions on the movement of workers out of the coal industry. In March 1941, the government introduced an Essential Work Order (EWO) which placed a statutory requirement on all skilled workers to register and tied workers to jobs considered essential for the war effort such as munitions and agriculture. The EWO empowered the Ministry of Labour to prevent workers from leaving the industry without permission and to direct skilled workers to wherever they were most needed. The EWO made persistent absentees the subject of the discipline of the National Service Officer. On 8 April, the government announced the mining industry would be subject to EWOs.

The authorities continued to cite absenteeism as one of the main causes of falling output in the coal industry and applied increasing pressure on the local production committees to resolve this issue. The EWO empowered the authorities to impose a fine of up to £100 or three months imprisonment and the removal of the exemption from military conscription status on any miner found to be guilty of persistent absenteeism without just cause.

The accusation that absenteeism was the source of low productivity did not stand up to scrutiny because attendance was rising. The main cause was falling productivity in the older coalfields where conditions were poor and lacked investment, such as the Forest of Dean, which was not offset by rising productivity in the more productive regions.

Also, behind the statistics lay the legacy of the inter-war years. The labour force was getting older. Some miners were disabled and suffering from lung disease and unable to work the long hours expected of them resulting in sickness and absenteeism. The Dean Forest Mercury was regularly reporting the deaths of middle-aged miners from silicosis. In May 1941, the Forest of Dean Coroner reported:

These cases are inevitable in coal mining districts and I am afraid there will be many more.^[53]

Deaths from silicosis in the Forest of Dean reported in the local newspapers in 1941

Name	Age	Date of Inquest	Home	Colliery
Alfred Henry Cole	58	April 1941	Bream	Princess Royal
Check for another one
William Leyshon	62	Sept 1941	Cinderford	Eastern

 

Moreover, the population was declining in the mining areas and most miners were reluctant to let their children go down the pits.  Accusations by the authorities and in the media that the miners were not pulling their weight led to resentment and discontent within the mining communities throughout the country.

At the MFGB conference in May 1941, the delegates initially opposed the EWO scheme arguing it was a form of ‘statutory slavery’. Then they agreed to support the scheme on condition the government consider their request for a Joint National Board to cover all problems facing the industry, a guaranteed weekly wage and the end of non-unionism. The government failed to respond and, under protest, the conference finally agreed to accept the scheme unconditionally.

New Fancy

One of the oldest of the large collieries in the Forest of Dean was New Fancy and it was the last large house coal colliery in the Forest of Dean.  It was likely that Thomas Deakin, who was the owner of New Fancy, was one of the colliery owners mentioned above who complained about absenteeism because, in May 1941, he threatened to close New Fancy unless productivity increased and absenteeism was reduced. Deakin claimed that absenteeism at New Fancy over the past four months was running at about 15 per cent, including voluntary and non-voluntary absenteeism. ^[54]

However, he failed to mention that its output was steadily declining because many of the better-accessed seams had been worked out, the work conditions were very poor and he had made little investment in the pit which could have improved productivity. House coal colliers were highly skilled and used to working in difficult conditions and many of these men were approaching the end of their working lives. As a result, Deakin was having problems recruiting and maintaining a skilled workforce and, because of the conditions, absenteeism was higher than in the other pits. On top of this about half of absenteeism was not voluntary but due to other reasons such as holidays, disputes, machinery breakdown, lack of tubs, etc

The issue of absenteeism was not confined to the Forest of Dean and had become a national issue. As a result, the MFGB made an agreement with colliery owners that a bonus of 1s a shift for men and 6d for boys should be paid to men working a full week. The scheme would be introduced across the country at the beginning of June. William Lawther, the President of the MFGB, stated the agreement included a provision that if a man was absent due to illness (confirmed by a medical certificate), an accident or having to attend to trade union duties, air raid warden or home guard duties then this should not affect the bonus.  However, he added:

The man who stayed away from work without good reason should be dealt with. The miners realised that every ton of coal was required for the war effort.^[55]

At the same time, an appeal was made to the district production committees to increase output to prevent a shortage of fuel for the war effort and civilian population in the winter.^[56] Also, the government announced that the recent agreement that workers in most industries should take a week’s holiday did not apply to miners who were expected to work throughout the summer without a break. However, in the Forest, Williams, the FDMA and the pit production committees made it clear that they would refuse to get involved with disciplining their own members over absenteeism. 

Strike at Princess Royal Colliery

The Forest miners continued to work long hours to support the war effort. Some Forest miners had already agreed to work on Sunday night to prepare the coalface for the next day so Monday morning could become an ordinary coal-producing shift.  The matter of voluntarily working a sixth shift on Saturday afternoon was put to a ballot with a recommendation from the FDMA Executive to accept the proposal. Consequently, most Forest miners voted to accept the proposal but only on the basis that it was voluntary..

As a result, the FDMA made an agreement with Princess Royal and Norchard managers that an extra shift would be worked and paid at a rate of time and a half. It was agreed that working the sixth shift should be voluntary and the FDMA pit committee would endeavour to encourage full attendance. Despite the efforts of the FDMA, the agreement was only partially successful as there tended to be higher levels of absenteeism on this shift compared to others. 

On the evening of Thursday 19 June, miners at Princess Royal Colliery walked out on an unofficial lightning strike over the payment of the new one-shilling attendance bonus which the management claimed was dependent on working the Saturday afternoon shift. The miners claimed that because they had made an agreement with the managers that working the Saturday afternoon shift was voluntary then their absence on that shift should not disqualify them from getting the bonus. The FDMA representatives at the pit immediately contacted Williams who advised the men to return to work and agreed to negotiate with the managers over the matter of the bonus. However, the men decided to stay out on strike.

Williams and a deputation of Princess Royal miners met Percy Moore, the managing director, on Friday morning but could not get an agreement. Williams addressed a mass meeting of the miners later in the day and gained permission from them to negotiate an immediate return to work provided the Princess Royal management agreed to pay the full bonus owed and to refer the dispute to the Conciliation Board. Unfortunately, Moore rejected these demands outright.

On Friday night Williams received a phone call from the Mines Department urging him to do everything in his power to bring about a settlement. It is likely that Moore also received a similar phone call as the next morning he invited Williams to meet him at Old Dean Hall. Moore agreed on a compromise which involved the ending of the Saturday afternoon shift and made some proposals involving arbitration. Williams responded by agreeing to discuss these with the pit committee and FDMA Executive on Sunday morning.

Williams met Moore again at noon on Sunday when a settlement was negotiated which meant that the Saturday afternoon shift would be abolished and the question of the bonus owed to the men would be referred to arbitration. Later in the day, Williams put the proposed agreement to a mass meeting of Princess Royal miners at Knockley Wood, which was presided over by Harry Morgan from the Princess Royal pit committee. The meeting was also attended by the FDMA Executive members and addressed by Arthur Horner and W J Sadler (President and Vice-President of the SWMF) and William Jenkins from Cannop. The men agreed to the proposal and returned to work Monday morning. Subsequently, the management agreed to pay the bonus owed to them.^[57]

Williams told the Dean Forest Mercury that in his view abolishing the Saturday shift would increase productivity as the men needed time to recover over the weekend and that:

The company made a mistake in withholding the bonus. If they thought that the men were not entitled to it, they should have referred it to the machinery set up for dealing with disputes like this. The Company miscalculated very badly in the whole affair.^[58]

No one was prosecuted for taking the strike action mainly because the government did not want to inflame the situation. However, the problems associated with shortages of skilled labour and an ageing and exhausted workforce continued to impact productivity.

Five Point Programme 

On Monday 23 June 1941, Bevin announced that he was introducing a five-point programme to increase the production of coal. He added that about 690,000 miners were employed at present and another 50,000 were needed to increase production but argued that there was no need for miners to be returned from the military.  The five points included:

• Management to concentrate on maximum production.
• Absenteeism must stop and those not pulling their weight could have their exemption withdrawn.
• Men available in mining districts must be taken back into the industry.
• Ex-miners working in other industries must be returned to the pits.
• No more miners to be called up.^[59]

The MFGB and FDMA agreed to cooperate but added that it would be necessary to release skilled miners from the armed forces to increase production. In July 1941, Bevin introduced compulsory registration at employment exchanges of ex-coalminers who had been employed in the industry since 1935 with the view of sending them back to work in the mines.

Holidays

The Mines Department continued to press the miners to work through their holiday and to work six shifts a week which included Saturday afternoon.^[60] On 4 July 1941, the local colliery owners met with the FDMA Executive who agreed to try and persuade the miners to give up their one week’s holiday provided they were given an extra allowance of 1s 7d a day. After the meeting, the FDMA Executive met with the men and recommended they accept this proposal. However, in a ballot, most of the lodges turned the proposal down insisting on taking their full week’s holiday as was their right.^[61]

The issue was discussed again at a meeting of the FDMA Executive on Monday 21 July chaired by William Ellway who represented Norchard on the Executive Committee.[62] The Executive was aware of the discontent among his members about the hours they were being asked to work and the pressure they were under and so Williams issued this statement to the local papers:

The miners of the Forest of Dean are entitled to a holiday each year under the terms of their agreement with owners.^[63]

In addition, the men rejected another attempt by the local colliery owners to make it compulsory to work six afternoon shifts a week. Concerning this request, Williams said:

As far as the Forest of Dean is concerned, this meant that the workmen are being asked to work Saturday afternoon shifts. The workmen’s representatives submitted that a ballot on this subject had been taken last year and the workmen had rejected the proposal flatly. The experiment of working six shifts had been tried at Princess Royal Colliery and it proved a failure: in fact, production decreased. The workmen’s representatives, therefore, rejected the idea of six afternoon shifts.^[64]

The FDMA had agreed to encourage more miners to work on Sunday night to prepare the faces so that there could be full production on the Monday morning shift. At Eastern United, where some miners were working on Sunday nights, the issue of the loss of bonus for missing a shift came up again. The reason was that sometimes miners missed the shift because the bus conveying them to work did not turn up.  As a result, on 25 July, members of the FDMA Executive met to discuss the issue and this was followed by a mass meeting of Eastern United workers at Soudley Camp, where Wallace Jones announced that:

If the bus does not run you will not lose that wretched attendance bonus.^[65]

On the same day members of the FDMA Executive, representatives of the owners of the main Forest of Dean collieries and representatives from Bristol and Somerset coalfields met in Gloucester with Andrew Duncan, the President of the Board of Trade to discuss issues connected to production targets and the shortage of coal.

The FDMA representatives were Wiliams, Harry Morgan (finance officer), Wallace Jones (Eastern), Elton Reeks (Princess Royal), Ray Jones (New Fancy), Frank Mathews (Cannop), John Harper (Waterloo), William Ellway (Norchard) and Harry Hale and C Brain (District Representatives).[66] The issue under discussion was the acute shortage of coal and a strategy for increasing production.^[67]

Duncan continued to press the FDMA Executive to persuade the men to give up their one-week holiday and work extra shifts. Williams made it clear the miners needed rest to improve productivity and on Wednesday 30 July, issued the following statement to the local papers:

There is undoubtedly a shortage of coal in the country. At the same time, the miners need a rest very badly. That is a plain fact. The miners of the Forest of Dean gave up the greater part of their holidays last year. This year they intend to take their full holiday. It should be clearly understood that Forest miners are entitled to a week’s holiday under the terms of an agreement with the colliery owners, so they are not taking something which does not belong to them. The public does not realise that many miners with large families going to work on a poor diet and this has been going on for a long time. From about Wednesday in each week until they get their rations many of the workmen go to the pit with plain bread, or with a sandwich made up of bread and lettuce. Mining is exceptionally arduous and this kind of food does not contain enough nourishment to sustain a collier at his work.^[68]

Williams went on to compare the situation of miners with those other workers who have canteen facilities adding:

It is extremely annoying to hear miners criticised by those people, who notwithstanding the war, and rationing, are bloated from eating and drinking the best which can be got by them, merely because they have plenty of money to buy what the poor cannot buy. Some of them have not done a stroke of work since the war started.^[69]

At a meeting on Thursday 31 July 1941, the owners still refused to come to an agreement with the FDMA Executive over holidays and insisted that it should be left for each colliery to decide if it was to remain open during the holiday week. Williams pointed out to the Dean Forest Mercury that the SWMF had obtained an agreement that the miners should take a week’s holiday and it would be difficult for the FDMA to recommend any other course of action as they were now part of the same district. He went on to issue an instruction to all his members to take a holiday except for those who were needed to maintain the pits.^[70]

Total War

On 22 June 1941, Germany launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the most extensive land theatre of war in history. On July 12 1941, the British government and the Soviet Union signed the Anglo-Soviet Agreement which was a formal military alliance committing both countries to assist each other and not to make a separate peace with Germany. The CPGB changed its policy and now through its weight behind the war effort. The invasion impacted miners immediately because it led to increasing demands by the government, trade union leaders and the CPGB to increase coal production and munitions in solidarity with Russia.

Since the Anglo-Soviet pact, the strength of the CPGB both locally and nationally was growing and its national membership was on the way to its peak of 50,000 at the end of the war. Its main strength was within the mining and engineering trade unions, especially in South Wales and Scotland.^[71]  Communist officials within the MFGB, such as Horner and Paynter, wielded considerable influence over their members in reducing industrial unrest and pushing for higher productivity.

At this time, a small number of miners in the Forest of Dean, including several members of the FDMA activists, were members of the CPGB. These included Harry Barton, Len Harris and Tim Ruck from Cinderford and Reuben James and George Everett from West Dean.  Some Labour Party and FDMA members were sympathetic to the communists and organised joint meetings with CPGB, FDMA, SWMF and Labour Party speakers. These included Williams, Ray Jones, William Wilkins, David Organ, Richard Kear, William Ellway and Albert Brookes.

Soon after, on 31 July 1941, the FDMA Executive met and passed the following resolution and asked it to be passed on to the Soviet ambassador in London:

• The Forest of Dean miners wish to express their deep and sincere admiration of the Red Army and its colossal and magnificent fight against the ruthless Fascist marauders.

• The Red Army has performed imperishable deeds for the everlasting benefit of the world.

• The Forest of Dean miners extend to the Russian people their earnest sympathy and ask that you convey these sentiments to the government of the USSR.^[72]

Meetings

The leaders of the MFGB toured the country and held public meetings on the issue of how to increase the production of coal for the war effort. In July, a series of meetings arranged by the Ministry of Information were held across the Forest of Dean.

Two meetings were held on Sunday 27 July; the first at the Barn, Cinderford chaired by William Ellway and the second at the Camp, Soudley chaired by Wallace Jones. The speakers were Will Paynter from SWMF Executive and a CPGB member, Charles Gill, the miners’ agent for Bristol, E J Plaisted from Bristol City Council, an ex-South Wales miner who was blacklisted after 1926 and Williams.^[73]

Paynter reported that out of 100,000 ex-miners who had been required to register on Bevin’s programme, 25,000 men had volunteered to return to the pits. He warned of the dangers of fascism, the dire situation facing Russia and the need to make an extra effort to increase coal production. Paynter spoke of his own experiences as a miner in South Wales and his involvement in the fight against fascism as a volunteer during the Spanish Civil War. The Gloucester Citizen reported Paynter arguing that:

while they all realised that miners had suffered injustices in the past and were suffering injustices today, they should not do anything to the detriment of the effort that would mean the destruction of Hitler and all he stood for.^[74]

Williams said he recognised the importance of coal for the war effort but spoke up in defence of his members. He argued that the miners in the Forest of Dean were working at their maximum potential and could not produce more coal without extra manpower. He suggested returning men from the military back to the pits, better organisation in the pits and nationalising the mines. He added that only 100 out of about 200 ex-miners from the Forest working in other industries had returned to the pits.^[75]

Pay and Conditions

The issue of the attendance bonus had been causing problems in other districts and as a result, on 4 September 1941, the MFGB obtained an agreement with the owners that the condition of full attendance attached to the bonus would be dispensed with. However, the MFGB accepted a provision that the production committees ensure that measures are taken against any individual whose conduct mitigates against the maximum production of coal.^[76]

On Monday 6 October, the FDMA Executive met with the colliery owners to discuss pay and conditions. Williams told the Dean Forest Mercury that under pressure the owners had conceded a district pay rise to the lower-paid men including trammers, drivers, fillers, train attendants, conveyor loaders and landers, horse drivers and bond riders. The increase was from 4s 10.5d per shift to 5s 3d per shift.

The FDMA Executive also achieved an agreement with the employers that a dispute committee be set up made up of two worker and two employer representatives. In addition, the FDMA obtained an agreement for an increase in rates for injured workmen. The Executive put in a claim for an increase in holiday pay, but the owners decided to defer the matter to give their decision later. ^[77] In the last quarter of 1941, all miners were receiving a cost of living addition of 2s 8d plus the attendance bonus of 1s above the minimum rates in the district agreements.^[78]

Canteens and Baths

The FDMA had been campaigning for the installation of pit head baths and canteens for many years, arguing that this would take the pressure off the work done by miners’ wives. However, the issue of pit head baths and adequate food for miners had been rumbling on for a while. Cannop was the only colliery that provided a canteen and pit head baths. In July 1942, the miners discovered they had an ally in the local GP, Dr W H Tandy, who had raised the matter of the quality of food available to the miners in the columns of the Dean Forest Mercury.^[79] 

The matter was taken up by Philips Price who raised the subject with the Ministry of Food who informed him that they were in the process of consulting with the Ministry of Mines about proposals to install canteens and pit head baths across the coalfields with finance from the Miners’ Welfare Fund.^[80] Consequently, the Ministry of Supply and the Ministry of Food negotiated an agreement with the Forest of Dean colliery owners to provide canteens at all the main collieries with funding for the buildings and equipment from the Miners’ Welfare Committee. The plan was that miners would be provided with nutritious food such as meat sandwiches, pasties and pork pies supplied by the Ministry of Food, although it would take some years before it was fully implemented.^[81]

Princess Royal was the second pit in the Forest to build pit head baths and the opening ceremony was planned for Saturday 20 September 1941. However, in early September, a dispute arose between the FDMA and the baths committee of the colliery over the terms and conditions of employment of the two bath attendants. The attendants had asked the Princess Royal pit committee and FDMA to intervene on their behalf to negotiate trade union terms and conditions. However, the baths committee refused to meet with the pit committee and then employed two other attendants in the place of the original two workers whose offer of employment was cancelled.^[82] On 18 September 1941, Williams issued a statement outlining the history of the case and ended it as follows:

The Miners’ Executive requests all members to refrain from attending the opening of the Baths as a protest the refusal of the Baths Committee to meet the Union representatives.^[83]

A picket was placed across the gate of the pit on the day of the opening ceremony. As a result, the event was only attended by representatives of the colliery owners and other Forest dignitaries with only a handful of miners.^[84] On 29 February 1943, a canteen was opened at Northern United and the FDMA continued to campaign for pithead baths and canteens at all the collieries.

William Jenkins

In the Autumn, FDMA member William Jenkins who worked at Cannop was appointed by the government to the full-time post of Labour Supply Inspector for the mining industry in the Forest of Dean. His job involved liaising between the Department of Employment and the collieries to ensure the efficient use and distribution of labour. His principal duties were to examine demands for skilled labour including training and the redistribution of miners within the coalfield training.

Deakin was still having problems recruiting and maintaining the workforce at New Fancy and absenteeism was higher than in the other pits.^[85] In November, a dispute arose over a proposal to transfer fifty men from Cannop to other Forest collieries including twenty men to New Fancy. Unfortunately, this was arranged between William Jenkins and O G Oakley, the manager of Cannop, without consulting the workmen’s representatives on the District Coal Production Committee. Williams was furious and released a statement to the press which said:

It is the function of the District Coal Production Committee to make allocations of workmen to the collieries in this district which need the men most. Therefore, I at once made a protest to the Committee on behalf of the workmen that a fait accompli had been presented and that before anything was done on this matter it should have been brought before the local Coal Production Committee. I warned the Committee that this action would cause considerable resentment among the workmen and this view was echoed by the whole of the workmen’s side of the Production Committee.^[86]

Williams said that this had caused considerable unrest and there would be a mass meeting on Sunday to discuss the matter. The issue brought to the surface the feeling among miners that their knowledge and experience of the local industry were being ignored and there was little consultation over production policy. The authorities still refused to entertain the idea that the drop in productivity was due to the loss of skilled miners from the industry and continued to blame the shortage of coal on the miners and absenteeism.

In December, the authorities gave the pit production committees the authority to report any miner who was absent from work without just cause to the National Service Officer who had the power to prosecute or conscript the men into the military. However, this task was intensely disliked by the miners’ representatives on the committees who claimed they would prefer to spend their time dealing with issues of production.^[87]

Prosecutions

In the three months ending 6 November 1941, about twenty thousand ex-miners had returned to British pits.  As the winter approached, the authorities made further attempts to track down ex-miners some of whom had left the industry years ago due to unemployment, poor conditions and low pay. If they were found, the Department of Labour sent them letters requesting them to report to a particular colliery, sometimes with only a few days’ notice.

Some of these men had health problems and were reluctant to transfer back to an industry with hazardous and unhealthy work conditions. There was the added problems of a possible wage cut and having to move home. One man in the Forest of Dean complained: “I don’t even have any pit boots!”^[88] Not surprisingly some men refused to comply and so were brought before the courts.

In one case before the Coleford Police Court, William Jones (33) from Coleford, failed to comply with a direction given by the Ministry for Labour to return to work at Princess Royal Colliery. Jones worked as an aircraft fitter and left Cannop colliery in 1937 because of ill health and irregular employment. He had applied to join the RAF but was turned down due to his medical condition. He had registered with the Department of Labour as an ex-collier as required but on the advice of his employer had ignored the instruction to return to Princess Royal. The court decided there were mitigating circumstances and his case would be referred to the Ministry of Labour.^[89]

In another case, George Chamberlain (31) of Cinderford was directed by the Ministry of Labour to return to work at New Fancy Colliery. Chamberlain had ten years of experience as a collier. When he was asked to justify his failure to comply, he could not make himself understood because his speech impediment was so bad. His representative from the Transport and General Workers Union explained that his client had a deep fear of the pit owing to the early death of his father from lung disease. The magistrates directed that Chamberlain should immediately start work at New Fancy.^[90]

On 30 December 1941, Lewis Simmonds was killed at Waterloo Colliery

 Discontent

During the winters of 1941 and 1942, the danger of severe coal shortages became acute, and the gap between estimated consumption and estimated production widened. The EWO had not provided enough extra manpower, and discontent rumbled through the coalfields over the conditions in the pits and the pressure on miners to increase productivity.

On 9 January 1942, miners at Betteshanger Colliery in Kent struck over allowances for working difficult seams. The Ministry of Labour decided to prosecute 1,050 miners for contravening the Emergency Powers Act. Three local union officials were imprisoned, some of the strikers were fined £3 each and a thousand other miners were fined £1 each. The Betteshanger miners continued their strike and other Kent pits came out in sympathy. On 28 January, the managers gave in to their demands and in February the Home Secretary dropped the prison sentences. By May, only 9 miners had paid their fines and, in the end, most fines were never paid. Kent was not alone and in the first three weeks of May 1942, there were eighty-six unofficial strikes across the British coalfields involving 58,000 men.^[91]

On 24 January 1942 William Thomas, age 35, was killed at Eastern United colliery

Threat of Industrial Action

In January 1942, Williams had to deal with the threat of industrial action at Eastern United. The dispute had its roots in the butty system which was abolished in 1938. An account of how the butty system worked in the Forest of Dean is provided on this website under the section on articles.[92]  In cases of teams working on piece work, it was still normal for one person to be responsible for the place of work and to collect a joint wage packet for the team to share on an equitable basis. The problem was that it was unclear how much money any individual was being paid or whether the butty system had continued in some form or another with the money not being shared equally.^[93]

In addition, this arrangement caused problems with income tax since there was no record of actual earnings by any individual miner working in the hewing team. Consequently, some members of the team may have been paying more or less tax than they should. Also, injury compensation was based on earnings and if the company had no record of actual earnings, then the benefit would be difficult to calculate.

As a result, on 31 December 1941, in response to requests from its members mainly in the West Dean pits, the FDMA presented a proposal to the colliery owners that in future all the workmen should be given a separate wage packet setting out their earnings and deductions individually. The owners agreed but on the condition that the extra clerical work would mean payday being put back by two days. On 16 January 1942, some men at Northern United and Eastern complained about the new arrangement and at Eastern, this led to a threat of strike action. Williams was appalled and issued a statement which included the following text:

Fellow Workmen. For some time now an agitation has been on foot among you and there has been some talk of going on strike, and a lot of talk about taking a ballot on the settlement reached between the coal owners and the Miners’ Executive on the miners’ demand that each workman should be given a separate pay packet. I am ashamed that there are miners to be found who are so short-sighted, and in some cases so mean, as to associate themselves with this stupid agitation.^[94]

The increasing authority of the FDMA meant that Williams was able to prevent an unnecessary strike and from now all the workmen would receive individual wage packets. In addition, in February 1942, Williams negotiated an agreement with the owners that all miners would now be required to become members of the FDMA.

Deakin

Meanwhile, the threat of closure still loomed over New Fancy colliery and it was anticipated that the men would be given notice of termination of their employment on Saturday 14 March 1942. Deakin announced that the pit was still short of about forty men and the problems of absenteeism had continued. He said it was necessary to produce about 220 tons of coal a day to maintain profitability and now it was only producing about 160 tons a day. Williams responded:

During the past month, there had been a considerable amount of illness and furthermore, some of the men had been working seven and eight shifts a week and probably finding themselves unable to keep it up had a day’s rest; that sent up the percentage. We shall do everything that lies within our power to keep the pit open.^[95]

Ray Jones, the FDMA Executive member for the New Fancy, produced a report on the situation at the pit.  Williams used this information to make a case for keeping the pit open to the SWMF and the Mines Department. Consequently, on 12 March, Deakin announced that he would keep the pit open for the time being.

Government Control

At the end of March 1942, a series of meetings were held by the Labour Party where speakers argued for the government to take control of the mining industry. On the afternoon of 29 March, Jim Griffiths, the MP for Llanelli, and Philips Price spoke at meetings in Bream presided over by Alan Beaverstock who worked as a roadman at Princess Royal. A similar meeting was held at Yorkley presided over by Charles Luker, an ex-miner who was now County Councillor and agent for the Forest of Dean Labour Party.[96] Philips Price argued:

The coal industry has been mismanaged, men have drifted from it, and it is clear that the industry should have been taken over by the State, and as the Labour Party has urged, controlled by the State.^[97]

Griffiths went on to argue that it was no surprise that many skilled miners had left the industry over the last twenty years considering how they had been treated and no wonder they were reluctant to return to work for the same owners. He explained the Labour Party was not asking for immediate nationalisation but for a National Board to take control, as opposed to ownership of the industry, to provide for the needs of the war effort. He said the Board would consist of both owner and MFGB representatives as well as government-appointed technical experts. He added that each area should have a District Board acting under the direction of the National Board. He added:

Miners feel that a proper status must be given to the industry and that there should be some recognition of their sacrifices which they are only too willing to make in this hour of the country’s need.^[98]

In a House of Commons debate on 19 May 1942, Arthur Greenwood the leader of the opposition and deputy leader of the Labour Party was more blunt:

The palsied hand of vested interests and the old-fashioned methods which so many people in the mining industry still cling to so very tenaciously must be removed if the men in and about the mines are to be enabled to put the whole of their weight into and to pull all their strength for the national cause.^[99]

The output of coal continued to fall and so in May 1942, the government decided that 7,000 miners should be brought back into the coal industry from the military and another 4,000 more should be recalled from the munitions industry and civil defence.

On 22 May 1942, Alfred Bayliss, age 65, was killed at Eastern United colliery

In addition, in June 1942, the government published a White Paper which set out its proposals for a greater role for the state in the coal industry. The Ministry of Fuel and Power was to be established and the coal industry was to be organised with a National Board and eight Regional Boards. Financial ownership was to remain with the colliery companies and their managers were to remain responsible for the day-to-day operation of the mines. However, overall industrial responsibility was to lie with the Regional Controller, sensitive to the distinctive problems of the different areas, advised by technical experts and answerable to a national authority.^[100]

This did not fulfil the nationalisation aims of the MFGB but did allow a greater say in the running of the industry by its members. In September 1942, CPGB member Harry Barton was appointed as the FDMA representative on the Welsh Regional Board under the Ministry of Fuel and Power.^[101] Horner was selected to represent miners in South Wales, Forest of Dean, Bristol, and Somerset on the National Board which held its first meeting in December 1942.^[102]

The Greene Award

The industrial strength of the MFGB was growing.  However, many miners continued to compare their wages with those being paid in munitions and, as a result, there were outbreaks of strikes across the nation’s coalfields. In response, a special board of investigation called the Greene Board was set up and, after hearing the case put forward by the MFGB, it conceded the claims for a national minimum wage and a general increase in wages. As a result, on 18 June 1942, the government announced all mine workers over 21 and all underground workers over 18 were to be awarded an increase of 2s 6d a day. Also, a minimum of £4 3s a week or 13s 10p a shift was awarded to all underground workers over the age of 21 years.

The total estimated cost was £23,500,000, and the Government raised this by authorising an increase of 25s a ton in the retail price of coal. The government also set up a Coal Charges Account into which all the colliery companies were required to pay a flat-rate levy on each ton of coal raised with the view of spreading the increasing costs of coal production during the war. The Account allowed the government to pay a guaranteed profit to the colliery owners including those in districts where profitability was low. In addition, the government could draw on the Account to finance pay awards. This was similar to the pool scheme which operated during World War One up to the 1921 Lock Out. It meant that low-productivity districts like the Forest of Dean, Cumberland, Kent Durham and South Wales were subsidised by the higher productivity districts like Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.

This was an important settlement because the government had conceded the demand from the MFGB that wages should be determined nationally.  In an interview with the Gloucester Citizen, Williams explained how the increases in colliery workers’ pay would affect the Forest men and presented the folowing figures:

The new minimum rates in the Forest of Dean.[103]

Grade	Old Rate	New Rate
Collier (Hewer)	12s 5d	14s 11d
Trammers	11s 5d	13s 11d
Surface Labourer	10s 9d	13s 3d
Roadmen and Repairers		14s 6d

One of the consequences of this development was that the MFGB felt confident it could negotiate a new national agreement and pursue its demand for nationalisation. As a result, it sought to change its structure to correspond with the new reality. In July 1942, a delegate conference passed a resolution in support of a change of structure from a federation of district unions to a single national union for all workers in the coalfield.^[104]

Work Conditions

The problem for ordinary miners, particularly young men, was that poor management practices continued at a local level. Managers were under increasing pressure to send men to work seams in adverse and sometimes dangerous conditions. As a result, young men were sometimes being asked to work in difficult places and subject to bullying and victimisation.

In addition, it was often the case that miners carrying out arduous work and suffering from fatigue took time out without obtaining a medical certificate from a doctor and then were accused of being absent from work without a just cause. In such cases, it was difficult for the managers to ascertain if the stated reasons for absenteeism were genuine and this also could lead to victimisation.

In one case, in July 1942, the court heard that George White from Coleford and Charles Thomas from Wigpool ignored three summonses to return to work as trammers at Cannop. Both men complained they had been expected to work in places with water up to their waists. The court decided that it would ask the National Service Officer to remove their status as reserved workers meaning they could be called up by the military.^[105]

In another case, the magistrates heard that Sidney Pritchard (19) of Ruardean Hill had only worked 6 shifts out of 107 and then failed to turn up for a medical examination for National Service. He complained that he was sick and then he could not get on with the men at work. He was fined £1 and ordered to pay the costs £4 4s and ordered to attend a medical examination.^[106]

On 3 July 1942, Harold Jenkins was killed at Eastern United colliery.

Death at Cannop

On 28 September 1942, Alfred Smith, who was working at Cannop colliery, was killed by a huge bell of rock that fell from the roof fracturing his skull. As a result, a section of the men returned home out of respect for the dead man which was an established practice. However, the men were outraged after the Cannop management and Regional Coal Controller wrote to Williams to complain about the loss of production.

In response, on Sunday 23 October, the FDMA organised a mass meeting of Cannop miners at Broadwell Church Hall. Most of the workforce attended and the men were excused from their home guard duties for the day. Williams said he fully supported the men and recognised they were motivated by a desire to show their final respect to their comrade. He informed the press that the meeting had passed the following resolution:

That in future should a fatal accident occur, the workmen will continue at their work, except in the district in which the accident has taken place. This is in accordance with the agreement made between the Miners’ Executive and the owners in February 1941.^[107]

The meeting agreed that in any future accident, all the men would donate 1s and the boys 6d to the widow of the deceased. Williams sharply criticised the Cannop management for sending twenty men home a few days after the death for being a little late for work which had also caused a loss of production.

Labour Supply

In September 1942, the government created an option that any young man under 25 who was eligible for military service should be given the option of volunteering for pit work instead. This only served to increase resentment among miners who were angry at the government’s assumption that unskilled men could mine coal. However, in the end, very few men decided to take up this option preferring the dangers of the military to the conditions they would face in the pits.[108] Nevertheless, the manpower in the coal industry continued to decline and the MFGB continued to argue that all the skilled miners serving with the military should return to the pits.

The FDMA and the pit production committees refused to get involved with issues of disciplining its own members over absenteeism. As a result, in September 1942 the task was transferred to newly appointed Regional Investigation Officers. In the Forest of Dean, this responsibility was given to William Jenkins as part of his role as Labour Supply Inspector. Jenkins now had the authority to refer cases to the National Service officer who could then bring them before the courts.

The first case in the country under this new arrangement was in the Forest of Dean. William Gwilliam (age 21) of Coleford, was fined £4 on each of three charges and 21s costs by the Coleford magistrates on Tuesday 17 November.  Gwilliam claimed his absence was down to ill health and complained about having to work in stagnant water. William Jenkins, representing the Ministry of Fuel and Power, said he formed the opinion, after interviewing the defendant, that he was not particularly concerned about his absenteeism and its effect. The chairman (Major Percival) said: “If the man won’t work, better somewhere else”.^[109]

Wasted Away

Deaths from silicosis reported in local newspapers in 1942

Name	Age		Home	Colliery
Philip Cooper	59	Feb 1942	Cinderord	Eastern
Edward Brobyn	69	Nov 1942	Popes Hill	Lightmoor
William Short	66	May 1942	Cinderford	Crawshay

During the inquest of Edward Brobyn at the Coroners Court, the pathologist reported that Brobyn’s body was like that of an elderly and wasted man and the lungs showed advanced silicosis. The Dean Forest Mercury reported that:

Before the illness, Mr Brobyn was of extraordinary fine physique and possessed remarkable strength. He had wasted away to a mere skeleton of his former self. For many years he walked to work at Lightmoor colliery leaving sunrise cottage his pleasant Popes Hill home at 4.30 every working morning and arriving with exemplary regularity at the pit head by exactly six o’clock. He never faltered whatever the weather.[110]

His old workmate, Alfred Roberts, who had worked with Brobyn for many years reported:

The last work he did with him was on road repair at Lightmoor about four years ago. They had worked together on the coalface and had to blow all the coal out with powder. Cutting, drilling and boring had been parts of their daily work for a period of years during which they would be subject to a good deal of coal and stone dust. They had done a lot of coal and stone blasting at Foxes Bridge and Lightmoor and were bound to inhale dust.[111]

On 26 November 1942, Charles Adams, age 56, was killed at Northern United. On 21 December 1942, Maurice Meek, age 41, was killed at Northern United.

In January 1943, the owners made another attempt to introduce six shifts, this time by proposing the introduction of a Saturday night shift. Williams responded by saying if he thought an extra shift would produce more coal, he would recommend acceptance to his members but the experience at Princess Royal proved that this would reduce output. Also, he argued that a night shift would result in increased absenteeism. As a result, the FDMA Executive rejected the proposal.^[112]

The Forest colliery owners continued to antagonise the miners. Williams discovered that in some cases the Forest owners were not paying the Greene award of 2s 6d on all the shifts worked and as a result, he raised the issue with the owners. He obtained an agreement that in future the Greene Award would be paid on every shift worked and the men affected would receive a retrospective payment from 18 July 1942. This meant some miners received a significant lump sum extra payment. In addition, Williams obtained an agreement from the owners that all union dues would be deducted from wages at the source.^[113]

The Communists

In November 1942, Cinderford CPGB organised a meeting at Bream Miners’ Welfare Hall with Will Paynter as the main speaker and presided over by Len Harris. He argued that:

They must secure the greatest possible national unity between employers and employed and the discussion of grievances subordinated for the desire to obtain victory. Everyman who supported a strike was actually working against his class, against his fellow workers and against the men in the forces.

The CPGB was also instrumental in galvanising support within mining communities for increased productivity in its effort to build solidarity with the Soviet Union and the Red Army. Arthur Horner argued:

There is an irresponsible minority, mainly composed of young men, and others who absent themselves, particularly at weekends. That Irresponsible element bears a heavy responsibility at the present time. If 4.5% who are guilty of voluntary absenteeism today would decide to reduce their absenteeism by only half, this country would have 4 million tons more coal per annum.^[114]

Average Percentage of workers absent each shift.[115]

District	year	Vol Absenteeism	Non-Voluntary	Total
Forest of Dean	1943	4.5	7.1	12.6
National	1943	4.9	7.3	12.4
Forest of Dean	1945	6.4	9.5	15.9
National	1945	7.2	9.2	16.3

However, the pressure on the miners was relentless and as exhaustion took its toll voluntary absenteeism crept up over the next two years. 

Ray Jones

Williams was very aware of the poor state of the Forest coalfield and the consequences of this for the Forest community with the inevitable drop in demand for coal when the war ended. However, he was determined to keep the pits open and preserve jobs as long as possible. In April 1943, he spoke these prophetic words:

I would not like to say that the Forest of Dean coalfield will be extinct in 20 years, but I have no hesitation in stating that the industry will be of little consequence to this district by that time and may be finished altogether. It is probable that three out of the seven still working will not last more than two years after the end of the war. It is a depressing picture but nothing can be gained from daydreaming on the subject.^[116]

On 28 July 1943, Thomas Yemm, age 58 was killed at Northern United. On 13 September 1943 Robert Pever, age 73 was killed at Princess Royal. On 27 October 1943, Leslie Jones, age 39, was killed at Cannop.

New Fancy provided a good illustration of the failure of the existing system of control which depended on colliery companies to invest in their pits. On 5 November 1943, the Regional Controller and officials from the Fuel and Power Board met the pit production committee at New Fancy and warned them the pit would have to close because output was unsatisfactory and it was only being kept open by government subsidy. The closure would mean the 300 men employed there would be transferred to other pits. This would be a heavy blow to these men as most lived near the pit and had worked there most of their lives. New Fancy was the last large house coal colliery in the Forest and so the men would have to learn new techniques associated with mining steam coal. ^[117]

Ray Jones had worked at the pit for 46 years. He was now President of the FDMA and the pit production committee and put up a strong case for keeping the pit open. He argued that there was insufficient coal-cutting equipment at the colliery and if new machinery could be obtained there would be ten more years of work in the colliery on the existing seams which could average 800 to 1000 tons a week. In addition, he argued other seams could be opened up:

If there was no coal at New Fancy, it would be an entirely different matter but there are millions of tons in the present and potential seams which could be worked if proper machinery were made available for us. And for that reason, the Ministry’s decision will be hotly contested and a fight will be put up for the pit’s survival.^[118]

His views about the viability of the pit were supported by Williams and Edward Jones from Yorkley who had worked at the pit for 50 years and was an overman at the pit and on the production committee. Albert Cooper from Yorkley, now retired, who had worked the pit for 57 years argued that there are rich seams such as the Brazilly steam coal seam within reach.^[119] Williams helped prepare a case for re-organisation of the colliery in conjunction with the SWMF who presented a comprehensive report to the Regional Controller and consequently, the colliery remained open.^[120]

Williams was not alone in his frustration at the regional authorities and local managers dismissing the expertise offered by miners on the pit production committees. A statement from a meeting of the South Wales colliery managers that the pit production committees were undermining their authority leading to indiscipline and reduction in output resulted in a flurry of letters to the Western Mail including one from Williams:

Managers have always disliked pit production committees and cannot adapt themselves to sharing responsibility and authority with the workmen. While they have professed to welcome suggestions by the workmen, they have no real stomach for them. It is my belief that the average manager has had no intention of making these committees successful and had quietly undermined their functions. There is no evidence to support the erratic statement that reduction in output is part and parcel of political ramp.^[121]

Pneumoconiosis

The SWMF had been campaigning for over ten years for the introduction of compensation for miners suffering from pneumoconiosis which was another lung disease disabling and killing a significant number of miners and impacting all underground workers. The introduction of mechanisation including machine undercutting of the coalface increased the amount of coal dust and the associated pneumoconiosis. The miners called the machines ‘widow-makers’.

The 1943 Workmen’s Compensation Act was the first major piece of legislation to deal with pneumoconiosis.  However, the Act did not provide any medical treatment for miners suffering from the disease. In addition, one of its most significant limitations was the restriction of compensation cases to workers employed in the industry between 1934 and 1942 which excluded those who had become disabled from work in the industry before 1934.

Williams and the FDMA’s first task after the passing of the legislation was to arrange medical examinations of any miner suspected of having pneumoconiosis. If the disease was diagnosed and certified a claim could be made against the colliery company involved at the County Court. A miner could receive compensation either as a lump sum or a weekly payment (based on their previous average earnings) which would be reduced if the miner found alternative work.

The role of the FDMA in improving health and safety in the mines was enhanced in September 1943, when Wallace Jones was appointed as the FDMA representative on the newly established Forest of Dean Safety Board.

Despite this, the FDMA often had to take legal action to get compensation. As an example, an award was made by the Judge at the Monmouth County Court for compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, to Charles Milsom Porter from Pillowell, in respect of disablement from pneumoconiosis, while he was working at the Princess Royal Colliery. Porter was certified as disabled in February 1944, and the Judge made an award of compensation at varying amounts from 28 February 1944 based on his average earning of £5 per week.

However, two years later, in July 1946 the Princess Royal Company appealed against the decision on the basis that Porter’s average earnings were below £5 due to absence from work possibly as a result of his illness. While accepting that the illness could have contributed to his absence from work the Judge accepted the appeal and reduced the compensation to an amount based on average earnings of £4 10s a week.^[122] 

All miners certified with pneumoconiosis were suspended from employment in the coal industry further reducing the workforce of experienced colliers. The effect on the individual and their family could be devastating in areas like Cinderford where little alternative work was available and the families were often dependent on their compensation, The papers now were reporting cases of Forest of Dean miners dying either from pneumoconiosis or silicosis or where the disease was a contributing factor in a death. The opinion of one Northern United miner, giving a statement some years after the end of the war, was that:

Under private ownership, it was very difficult to get very much compensation. The compensation man at Northern was Harold Fisher. He was responsible to the coal owners for these matters. I understand that benefits were cut to a mere pittance after men in some cases had given their lives to the industry. Ill-health dogged men with the dreaded coal and rock dust disease. I well remember seeing Ski Jordan, a little frail man, who was given the job of whitewashing the manholes and haulage houses. He hardly had enough breath to put one foot in front of the other. Others were given jobs on the screens. What a place to finish a working life!^[123]

Deaths from silicosis reported in local newspapers in 1942

David John Richard Thomas	48	June 1943	Oldcroft	Princess Royal and Norchard
Geoge Brain		June 1943	Cinderford	Crump Meadow and Lightmoor
Thomas Gwynne Griffiths	58	Oct 1943	Ruardean	Waterloo
Miles Henry Barter Smith		Dec 1943	Cinderford	South Wales

 Bevin Boys

Throughout 1943 at least 20 public meetings were held across the Forest organised by the FDMA, the Labour Party and the CPGB encouraging the miners to increase production. There were differences but they were united on one point summed up by Barton in November 1943:

Coal is the basis of victory and peace … Give the miner a square deal and he will produce enough coal to bury Fascism.^[124]

The problem was that the number of miners working in the pits continued to fall. As a result, in December 1943, Bevin introduced compulsory recruitment of men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five into the mines. One in ten men were selected by a ballot and the conscripts were called Bevin Boys. Only those who were on a list of highly skilled occupations or who had been accepted for aircrew or submarine service were exempt.  Some 21,800 young men became Bevin Boys, alongside 16,000 who opted for coal mining in preference to the forces when they were called up. The scheme lasted until 1948.

However, yet again, the ruling elites revealed their failure to understand the skills required to mine coal and right from the start the scheme met with criticism from the MFGB and some miners not least those chosen to be Bevin Boys many of whom would have preferred to be in the military.

Initially, the boys were sent to training centres such as Haunchwood Colliery in the Midlands, or Oakdale colliery in South Wales. On arriving in the Forest, they had to find lodgings and were required to carry out further training at a site near Cannop colliery which had an underground roadway to practice timbering, etc. Initially, some miners resented their presence in the mines because of their lack of skills, strength, and stamina. In addition, they often needed supervision which sometimes interfered with productive work and could impact piece work rates of pay.

However, the majority of Bevin Boys worked on haulage loading tubs or on conveyor belts with only a few graduating to work on the coal face and, in most cases, they were soon accepted as part of the workforce and community. In the end, most Bevin Boys adapted to their new work conditions but a few found it difficult to cope adding to the absenteeism rates.

Porter Award

On 15 December 1943, the MFGB put in a claim for an increase in the minimum wage to £6 for underground workers and £5 for surface workers to counteract the rise in inflation and to encourage productivity. At the end of December, the SWMF met and heard reports of the further discontent across the coalfield concerning the comparative wages paid to workers in other industries, the failure of the government to take full control of the mining industry and the impact these factors have on levels of production. The SWMF Executive Council issued the following statement:

The Council warns the Mine Owners Association and the Government that further delay in the settlement of the men’s wages claim may have serious effects upon production, and it urges the MFGB to do everything possible to secure a favourable decision at the latest by January 27, the date of the next annual conference.^[125]

On 5 January 1944, the National Reference Tribunal (NRT) chaired by Lord Porter commenced an examination of the case for a substantial increase in the national wage rates. The Porter Tribunal’s decision was published on 22 January 1944. The NRT recommended the minimum weekly wage be increased to £5 for all underground workers and £4 10s for all surface workers. Although both amounts were £1 short of the MFGB’s demands they were, nevertheless substantial. The government agreed to finance the increase as a war bonus.

However, the Porter award did not mean that actual rates of pay would rise because it only referred to minimum rates. In fact, by now, the earnings of some miners particularly those on piece rates in the more productive districts were well above the minimum rates.  In addition, the flat rate increases to the minimum wage would significantly reduce the differentials between the higher-earning hewers and the lower-paid labourers and surface workers. Other anomalies had unpredictable implications on miners’ wages because some long-standing extra payments established through custom and practice, such as a coal allowance, were incorporated into the new minimum wage.

Strikes

In some instances, in the lower-paid coalfields, the differentials were wiped out and this caused a severe crisis in industrial relations as unofficial strikes spread across the nation’s coalfields. The MFGB warned that the industrial unrest would continue unless differentials were restored by increasing the pay of piece-rate workers. The government and the MAGB responded by saying that neither would provide the funds to finance this or increase the price of coal to generate the extra cash.

In South Wales, 100,000 miners were involved in unofficial strikes lasting from 6 March to 18 March.^[126] There was also trouble in the Forest of Dean resulting from anomalies in the Porter award which resulted in threats of industrial action at Waterloo and a stoppage at Cannop.

One of the conditions of the Porter award was that each miner would have 4s deducted from his wages to cover the coal allowance and this caused considerable resentment in the Forest of Dean. A mass meeting of the workmen at Waterloo colliery on 27 February 1944 passed the following resolution:

We the workmen at Waterloo colliery call upon the agent and the Miners’ Executive to get in touch with the Ministry of Fuel and Power with a view to solving the coal allowance question, and failing satisfaction to take the necessary steps to tender 21 days’ notice.^[127]

The FDMA took the case up with the SWMF and Williams issued a statement arguing that they:

were fully in favour of the demand that a 4s a week deduction in respect of allowance coal should be abolished. This deduction is tantamount to a reduction in the miners’ wages since coal allowance has always been part of the wages.^[128]

Subsequently, after a meeting with Williams, Horner and Sadler, the Forest colliery owners agreed to make an application to the JNNC and the Ministry to reduce the charge for the coal allowance from 4s to 1s 6d backdated to 23 January 1944.^[129]

Cannop Colliery

On Friday 10 March 1944, there was a stoppage at Cannop Colliery. Williams met with the men on Sunday and after resolving the dispute released the following statement:

Last Friday there was a stoppage at Cannop Colliery but this could have been avoided if a wiser course of action had been taken by management. There was some dissatisfaction expressed by some trammers who suffered from anomalies under the Porter award: for example, two men both doing the same job would get two different rates of pay – one would receive £5 and the other £3 15s. The trammers thought that this could be adjusted and held a meeting before going down the pit, but were told by the Union officials that the payments were an award by Lord Porter and were told also that the anomalies were receiving the attention of the Federation.

The Union officials prevailed upon the men to get back to work, but when they got to the pit head, they were a little late and were stopped from going down by the manager: after an interval, the manager came back and told them they could go down, but by this time the men had dispersed, and therefore did not go down.

On Sunday morning I held a meeting with the Cannop workmen at the pit head and the workmen submitted their grievances. At the end of the meeting, it was decided that the case of the trammers should be submitted to the Joint Standing Committee in London and failing settlement a new score price list should be negotiated to bring all the workmen up to at least the minimum.^[130]

New Agreement

The stoppages were only a few weeks away from D-Day and Britain could not afford any more disruption in the supply of coal. The government had not foreseen that the anomalies created by the Porter award would lead to so much discontent. As a result, the government decided to fundamentally transform the way wages were paid and, on 24 March, came up with a new set of proposals which involved increasing the rates for piece workers and increasing the day rates for other skilled workers such as the craftsmen.^[131]

The problem was that neither the government nor the colliery owners agreed to cover the cost and progress was halted. As a result, 120,000 Yorkshire miners went on strike from 16 March to 11 April.

On 12 April after several weeks of negotiation, in which further anomalies of the Porter ward were ironed out the government agreed to cover the cost. Finally, an MFGB delegate conference agreed to accept the government proposals and a new agreement was signed on 20 April 1944. which was to last for four years until the Spring of 1948.

In the Forest  on Tuesday 2 May 1944, the FDMA Executive met with the coal owners to discuss the implications of the agreement for the Forest of Dean. The owners agreed to pay 1s a day as an extra payment for skilled and semi-skilled men not working on contracts and a new higher rate for pieceworkers.^[132]

This was a landmark in the history of wage negotiation. It increased the incentive to pieceworkers and consolidated wages. It also stabilised the national minimum rate for four years in advance and obliged the government to form a national pool from which wages would be available.^[133]  Within six months of the agreement, a coal miner’s average national wage had been brought up to fourteenth in a list of one hundred trades.^[134]

Payslip for Edward Fisher working at Waterloo on 5 August 1944 (Credit Forest of Dean Family History Society)

May Day

The FDMA Executive organised five meetings across the Forest to celebrate May Day at Yorkley, Bream, Broadwell, Cinderford and Ruardean. At the Yorkley meeting, chaired by Ray Jones, Tom Wintringham, Vice President of the Common Wealth Party was the main speaker along with Williams and Ellway.^[135] Williams spoke in defence of the miners who had drawn criticism from the public over the recent strikes and threats of industrial action. He said:

Miners had long memories and they remembered that after 1926 some collieries in the Forest worked one or two shifts a week at a minimum rate of 7s 9d a day; the approximate average wage of the men between 1926 and 1938 was 8s 6d and in the collieries working short time men were getting more money from the dole than in the pit.

However, Williams went on to argue:

Any strike action was indefensible in these days when men and women were giving their lives to save us. But there should be no cause for strikes and the public should, if truly critical, criticise the cause of strikes.^[136]

At the meetings, Williams reported on other matters of local concern and explained it was touch and go if New Fancy would close. Williams also reported that he had asked the Government Controllers to take over the pit because of the lack of investment which resulted in the frequent breakdown of out-of-date equipment, stating that “the men had been working on scrap iron”.^[137]

In addition, he reported on a dispute at Norchard where some hewers downed tools over the percentage rate they were receiving on top of their piece rate price. He explained that, with the support of Ellway, he managed to convince the men to return to work and added that he would be taking their case up with the Conciliation Board.^[138] Williams’s approach was to back the men up and to quickly attempt to resolve the disputes and get the men back to work as soon as possible.

On 3 June 1944, Hubert Morse, age 58 was killed at Pillowell Level.

Victory

The war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the subsequent surrender of Germany on 8 May 1945.

The main legacy of the war for the mining community was total exhaustion and deep grief for those families who had lost their loved ones. However, there was also a strong belief that there should be no return to the conditions faced by the community in the 1930s.  There was hope that this time there really could be a land fit for heroes. The FDMA was determined that no Forest miner would be treated as they had been in the 1920s and 1930s.

However, the experience of mining communities following the end of World War One and the defeats of 1921 and 1926 lockouts meant that some miners inevitably viewed the end of the Second World War with trepidation, fearing a direct return to depression in their industry. In light of past experience, consolidation of their economic position in the last years of the war was a priority to reduce the effects of unemployment and poverty which many felt could follow the end of the war. 

Despite this, as the war progressed the miners became more confident as their trade union grew stronger and so the type of society to be created in the aftermath of the war became a dominating theme. The miners campaigned for a National Health Service, a humanitarian national insurance scheme and nationalisation of the mines.  At the end of the war several of their long-term objectives had been fulfilled or at least seemed possible.

First, they received a large increase in wages and, whilst some of it was to counteract the effects of inflation, there was a genuine advance as is indicated by the improvement in relation to other industrial workers. Secondly, the nationalisation of the industry seemed to be firmly on the agenda. Thirdly, the formation of a single National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to take the place of the federated structure of district associations to cover every worker in the nation’s coalfields with a membership of over six hundred thousand men came into existence on 1 January 1945.

Miners’ Wages 1938 to 1944.

Year	The minimum wage for a hewer in the Forest of Dean per shift.[139]	The average wage for all miners in the Forest of Dean per shift.[140]	The average wage for all miners nationally per shift.[141]
1938	8s 9d	10s 0.7d	11s 2.83d
1939	9s 1d	10s 6.19d	11s 7.7d
1940	9s 10d	11s 10.60d	13s 0.40d
1941	11s 6d	13s 11.10d	14s 10.94d
1942	14s 11d	16s 5.09d	17s 5.48d
1943		18s 0.30d	19s 1.19d
1944	16s 7d	19s 4.31d	20s 3.58d

The average wages for all workers are higher than the minimum wages because the hewers who worked on piece rates earned considerably more than their minimum rates.  In January 1944, the Porter award gave a minimum weekly wage of £5   (16s 7d per shift for a six day week) for all underground workers and £4 10s for all surface workers for a six-day week.

Labour Party

Williams attended the AGM of the Forest of Dean Labour Party in March and was instrumental in submitting the following resolution on behalf of Waterloo Miners’ Lodge and Eastern United Lodge which was seconded by Stanley Turner from Eastern;

That an adequate standard of life for the people of this country can only be achieved if the system of private enterprise in industry and agriculture is abolished, and as a first step to this end, the mines, railways, banks, land and farms should be owned by the State and controlled by those persons engaged in these industries, and that this shall be the policy of the Labour Party at the next General Election.^[142]

The significance of Williams’s speech was his emphasis on workers’ control as well as nationalisation. Speaking at a May Day meeting at Yorkley, G T D Jenkins added:

The Forest coalfield was becoming exhausted and this was a fact which was not generally appreciated when criticism was levelled directed at the miners about output. The industry existed on cut-throat competition which had assured the owners a high profit in a short time at the expense of the miner and his family. They were approaching an era during which the miners could demand to be treated on a level with workers in other industries.

Jenkins went on to appeal for every effort to be made to win the seat for Labour in the general election and moved a resolution on state ownership of the mines and the re-establishment of international working-class solidarity. The motion was seconded by Elton Reeks.^[143]

Deaths from silicosis reported in local newspapers in 1945

Caleb Henry Hawkins		March 1945	Christchurch	Cannop
Stanley Griffiths		March 1945	Yorkley	New Fancy
William Henry Hayward	70	June 1945	Littledean	Eastern
Maurice Henry Thomas	49	Sept 1945	Bream	Princess Royal

1945 Election

The support for socialism was so strong in the Forest at this time that the Conservatives and the Liberals did not even bother to put up candidates. The only opponent to Philips Price was Sergeant Major John Brown, an ex-member of the Labour Party, who was given leave of absence from the military to fight the election as an Independent Nationalist candidate.  Brown was now a strong supporter of Churchill and a proponent of free enterprise and against the nationalisation of the mines.^[144] He had the backing of the local Conservative Association whose members spoke at his election rallies.^[145]

The result of the election was announced on Thursday 26 July 1945 with votes for the Labour candidate Philips Price 19,721 and 10,259 for Brown.[146] The landslide victory for Labour across the country was celebrated throughout the Forest by all sections of the labour movement and this gave the NUM an opportunity to seek further concessions.

On 2 November 1945, Fredrick Liddington, age 49, was killed at Norchard. On 13 December 1945, Charles Mason, age 59, was killed at Northern.

Charlie Mason

Charlie Mason was along long-standing FDMA activist and Executive Committee member. He had been blacklisted for seven years after the 1926 miners’ lockout before getting a job at Northern United. The constant pressure to increase production coupled with exhaustion and long hours inevitably impacted safety. Charlie was now in his late fifties and was still required to carry out heavy physical work.

On 13 December 1945, Charlie Mason became one more person among the thousands killed in the coalfields of Britain. The Dean Forest Mercury on 21 December 1945 reported:

A well-known and highly esteemed Brierley inhabitant, Mr Charlie E. Mason (59) was accidentally killed at Northern United Colliery, on Thursday, Dec 13th, as reported in last week’s Mercury. He was a member of the Northern United Lodge and the Production Committee, a prominent Trade Unionist, and highly regarded by the officials and his fellow workmen. He was keenly interested in the social life of the district. He leaves a wife, one son and four daughters to whom the greatest sympathy is extended.

Charlie’s watch recovered from his body after he was killed (Credit: Clive Mason)

Mason was working with his long-term friend Tim Brain. The accident happened while they were using a ‘Sylvester’ to pull a ring from a roadway using a timber setting, which was used to support the roof, as an anchor.^[147] Tragically instead of pulling the ring, the timber setting moved and this caused the roof to collapse crushing both men. The Gloucester Citizen reported:

The alarm was sounded. Within a short time rescuers were attacking the mound of debris which had engulfed the two friends. Brain, severely crushed and suffering with a broken leg, was quickly located. ” Never mind me—find Charlie,” he pleaded as he pointed out the spot in which he last saw his comrade alive. And still trapped, he watched the rescue party turn to dig for Mason and later he saw them extricate him. But Mason had worked his last shift —he was dead.^[148]

On Saturday 15 December a meeting of the Forest of Dean Trades Council, which is made up of delegates from nearly all the trade union branches in the Forest, passed a resolution moved by the secretary, G D H Jenkins, to send a letter of sympathy to Mason’s family.

Jenkins paid a warm tribute to the work Mr Mason had done for the betterment of the working man.^[149] The chair, William Ellway, added that:

Mr Mason was sincere in his convictions and full of enthusiasm for the cause of workers. He is another of our comrades who had died with his boots on. That is often said of soldiers: it can be said of miners.^[150]

The day of Mason’s funeral was 17 Dec 1945. It was a cold, windy day with sleet and snow. Despite Mason’s agnosticism, a preacher led a small service outside his cottage in Brierley which was attended by a large crowd of mourners. Mason’s work comrades then carried his coffin through the woods to the Holy Trinity Church in Drybrook where the internment took place.

They carried him in relays, nearly two miles to the church, and everyone was glad to take the burden.^[151]

A huge crowd attended his funeral including many relatives, friends, and work colleagues. Representing the FDMA were William Ellway, president, John Williams, agent, Harry Morgan, finance officer, Wallace Jones, safety officer and Harry Barton, the Forest of Dean representative on the South Wales Miners’ Federation Executive. Among the flowers, there was a “Tribute from “A Friend” with the following note:

In him, we have lost a great champion in the cause of humanity. All who knew him remember his struggles for a better system of society, his work with the council: his connection with the Miners’ Executive, and pit Production Committees earned him great respect. Some will remember his leading a band of women to Westbury Institution in order to strengthen the case of the miners on strike, He was an inspiration to the young; he comforted the old with I reasoning which they understood: was unselfish to a fine degree. ^[152]

On 4 January the Dean Forest Mercury published the following letter:

You have been very generous to the space allotted on the death of my dear father, Charles Mason. But from a heart broken in grief at his passing, I feel the public should know how just and kind and a dear parent he was. And in his memory, I would urge fathers to practice tolerance, love and understanding towards their children. Thank you, Dad from one of his children.

John Williams paid tribute to Mason as follows:

Charlie was held in respect, a reflection of his own estimable life. He was not without his faults, but the few he had were eclipsed by his many virtues and outstanding merits. The highest testimony to his integrity is that his innumerable friends thought, felt and said the same about him when he was alive as they are thinking, feeling and saying now. Charlie Mason had known and experienced prolonged and intense poverty, and during his life had endured severe privations and hardships because of his convictions, yet he bore no malice towards those who brought these privations and hardships upon him. Charlie Mason was a thinker and it was always a delight to listen to him. He was sometimes away from the point at issue, but by some means or other, he was more charming and graceful on those occasions than when he addressed himself to the point. The world would be better in many ways if there were more people like Charlie Mason.^[153]

The inquest was conducted by the Forest of Dean Divisional Coroner, M. F. Carter).  The local Inspector of Mines, W. E. Thomas, who was present at the inquest, strongly condemned the anchoring of the Sylvester to a wooden prop. However, Lewis Witt, the undermanager at Northern United Colliery argued that considering the peculiar circumstances involved – the nature of the soft roof – there was some justification for the method the two men had used. Clearly, there was pressure to get the job done quickly.

Normally it was customary for the men to take the rest of the shift off out of respect. However, as the demand for coal was still great there was no time for respect and the men were told to carry on working for the rest of the day.

Miners’ Charter

This strategy of the NUM was to link a commitment to increased productivity to a series of demands on the new Labour government set out in the Miners’ Charter which was agreed by the NUM Executive on 10 January 1946. These included:

• a five-day working week without loss of pay;
• a guaranteed weekly wage average wage not to fall below that of any other sector of British industry;
• two weeks paid holiday;
• adequate pensions at the age of fifty-five;
• modernisation of existing pits together with the sinking of new ones;
• adequate training for young people;
• new safety laws;
• proper compensation payments for industrial injury and disease;
• the construction of new towns and villages with good housing in mining areas.

However, despite men returning from the military there was still a shortage of skilled labour and production was struggling to keep up with the demand for coal. The EWO remained in place but there continued to be a high number of men leaving work for medical reasons, death and old age. In 1945, in the Forest of Dean, there were 248 more new compensation and medical cases than recovered cases returning to work.

Miners leaving and joining the workforce in 1945[154]

The number of men who joined the workforce in 1945.	Forest of Dean	National
Juveniles under 18	54	9571
ex-miners returned from military	53	11675
Men recruited from government training centres	80	17731
Ex-miners recruited from other industries	50	8259
Men from other industries, other than ex-miners	13	1432
Other	0	0
Total	250	48668
Number of men leaving the workforce in 1945.
Deaths (accidents or otherwise)	21	3206
Retired from all work	22	4646
Excess of new compensation and medical cases over recovered cases returning to work.	248	39780
Joined the military	3	1316
Joined other industries by permission of the National Service officer.	39	12143
Others		4928
Total	333	66019
Net loss of miners	83	17352

 

Silicosis and Pneumoconiosis in the Forest of Dean Coalfield in 1945[155]

No. of applications	Deaths	Total incapacity	Partial incapacity	Not Granted	Outstanding
52	4	14	14	20	7

Note: Under the Workmen’s Compensation legislation, workers needed to be certified as being disabled because of silicosis/pneumoconiosis by the Silicosis Medical Board before they were eligible for compensation.

The ballots for the Bevin Boys were suspended in May 1945, but because of the shortage of miners, the last Bevin Boys were not demobbed until 1948. Unlike other conscripts, they had no right to go back to their previous occupations, they received no service medals, “demob” suits or even a letter of thanks. Because the official records were destroyed in the 1950s, former Bevin Boys cannot even prove their service unless they have kept their documents. In the Forest of Dean, many Bevin boys stayed on working in the mines or other jobs and married into the community. Passing his verdict on the scheme when addressing the annual SWMF conference in April 1945

Arthur Horner claimed that it had been nonsense to expect that trainees sent to the mines for the first time could compensate for the loss of skilled miners who had left the industry for reasons of ill-health, accident and old age. As for the Bevin boys themselves, as time went on many felt their contribution to the war effort was forgotten and this has only recently been recognised.

On 11 March 1946, Manny Shinwell, Minister of Fuel and Power, replied that the Miners Charter had the blessing of his government and could be brought to fruition after nationalisation.[156]  Arthur Horner, who was elected as General Secretary of the NUM at the end of August 1946, warned that it was still necessary to increase output and this could only be achieved by recruiting more workers arguing that those who had sufficient money to live without working should be recruited into the mines.[157]

On 1 September 1946, the government removed EWO legislation covering the mining industry. However, all miners were still not allowed to apply for work in other industries without permission from the Ministry of Labour or National Service. In other words, miners had no choice but to continue to work in the mining industry. This meant that miners from the Forest of Dean could only either move to other mining districts with better pay and conditions or otherwise remain in their existing pits.

Vesting Day

The agreement in principle to the terms of the Miners’ Charter by the newly elected Labour government reflected its urgent desire to have the NUM’s full support for the newly nationalised industry. On Wednesday 1 January 1947, cheering miners took part in early morning ceremonies at the pitheads in the Forest of Dean marking the transfer of the mines from private ownership to the nation. The miners pledged themselves to make the scheme a success and sent a message to the National Coal Board (NCB) to that effect.

Most of the vesting ceremonies took place between 6 and 7 am before miners on the day shift had entered the cages to descend the shafts. It was still dark when hundreds of colliers made their way by foot, cycle and coaches to attend the pit-head ceremonies. At Princess Royal, Ray Jones hosted the flag and said:

We have waited a long time for this day. For years we struggled as lowly, underpaid mass of workmen; for years we battled for better conditions and now at last this momentous landmark in the history of mining has been reached. We are here as one team. Let us do our very utmost to increase production. Let us ensure that we do not live to regret this great occasion.[158]

Jim Clements from the Deputies Association appealed for 100 per cent, cooperation.  At Norchard the flag was hoisted by William Ellway, at Cannop by Birt Hinton, at Northern by E. E. Virgo, a member of the clerical staff, at Eastern by Stanley Turner and at Waterloo by William Wilkins. David Lang who was the managing director of Henry Crawshay and Company Ltd was appointed as the new Forest of Dean Area Manager of the NCB.

Bitter Winter

Early in 1947, coal shortages coinciding with a bitter winter threatened to undermine the economy. The crisis began with the production of coal already at dangerously low levels due to the shortage of skilled labour. In February, record snows and frigid temperatures down to -25 degrees in the Forest of Dean further reduced output and hampered the transportation of supplies.

Shinwell, the responsible minister, was unprepared for these difficulties, despite having received warnings that there were too few miners to maintain stocks. On Friday 6 February, he advised the cabinet that rationing of coal must begin at once, even though industries that depended on it would lie idle for part of each day and individual consumers would not be able to heat their homes. This was a grave threat to the government’s recovery program, popularity and reputation. In the Forest, the Whitecroft pin factory and Lydney tin works could only work part-time. Electricity supplies were under threat and lights were off in the streets and shops.

The government started putting pressure on the miners to work extra shifts. However, on Thursday 20 February, the FDMA Executive agreed that no Sunday shift should be worked. Williams argued that:

The great bulk of Forest miners reach the point of exhaustion by the end of the working week, and if Sunday work were to be undertaken there would be in all probability be a serious falling off in output the following week. ^[159]

Ray Jones reported that the production committee at Princess Royal agreed with the FDMA policy and recommended other forms of increasing production such as reducing absenteeism on the Saturday morning shift. The managers, most of whom were from the old private companies, remained hostile to suggestions from the workforce and there was conflict leading to a dispute over shift payments.^[160]

As a result of the shortages of coal, a letter appeared in the Dean Forest Mercury on 14 February 1947 suggesting that coal miners should forego their coal allowance. The following week several letters responded to this suggestion including one from Williams who explained that the extra coal miners got at a reduced rate was part of their wages and had been for the past 150 years. He added that miners have to get up early in the cold and often travel long distances to work and added that if anyone still felt aggrieved, he suggested they should apply for a job at the coal face or send their sons to work in a pit.

Ray Jones pointed out that miners often returned home in wet clothes that had become frozen solid and were in desperate need of a bath. They needed the coal to wash their bodies and work clothes. He added this is why they were still campaigning for pit head baths. He explained that sometimes miners did not even receive a coal allowance if, for instance, they were living in lodgings. There were some very indignant letters from miners’ wives in the paper over the following weeks, some of whom suggested the author of the letter could help out the country by getting a job in a pit.^[161]

Williams also explained that under the still-existing Emergency regulations, miners were still not allowed to leave the pits.

It is not realised that the miner is shackled to his industry like a pit pony. If he wants to leave the industry he cannot be except on medical grounds.^[162]

It was not until 1948, nearly three years after the cessation of hostilities, that miners were finally released. However, even then, any miner leaving his job could not expect any help from the State if they failed to get a job elsewhere because they were deemed to have made themselves deliberately unemployed.

In March 1947 a national agreement was reached between the NUM and NCB to introduce a five-day working week. In November 1947, a national agreement between the NCB and the NUM resulted in a weekly minimum rate of £5 15s (about 23s a shift) for underground workers and £5 (about 20s a shift) for surface workers for a five-day week.[163] This was the first pay rise since 1944.

This meant that, during the period from 1939 to 1947 the increase in the minimum rate for a hewer rose by about 150 per cent while prices increased by about 50 per cent.[164] In return, the NUM gave its full commitment to maximising production, asking miners to work every available shift and not engage in unofficial stoppages. In December 1947, this led to miners setting a new coal production record for a period covering recent years.[165]

Conclusion

During World War Two Forest of Dean miners made huge sacrifices, worked hard long hours and played an important role in the defeat of fascism by supplying coal for the war effort. At the same time, the miners were determined that, in contrast to post-World War One, there would be a land fit for heroes. 

By the end of the war, the NUM had emerged as a powerful trade union, securing significant improvements in pay, working hours, and conditions. However, despite significant pay awards, soon after nationalisation the hopes and dreams began to dim, as miners became increasingly aware that private ownership had been replaced by state ownership, rather than the common ownership and workers control that Williams and others had campaigned for. Control and management of the industry had been left in the hands of those who had previously been either managers or owners of private mines.

To add to this the fledgling nationalised industry had to pay huge financial compensation to the former owners, which left a huge financial burden on the industry. The total money paid out in compensation nationally was £237,000,000 and in the Forest of Dean, it was £914,082.^[166] In today’s money, these figures would be about 8,600,000,000 and £33,000,000.^[167]

As predicted by Williams, nationalisation was no panacea and industrial strife would again rumble through the Forest of Dean coalfield during the 1950s because of redundancies and pit closures. But that is another story.

Appendix

A list of some of the public meetings taking place from September 1941 to May 1944 in the Forest of Dean concerning the miners and encouraging higher productivity for the war effort.

 

Date	Venue	Organiser	Chair	Main Speaker	Other Speakers
1 September 1941.[168]	Yorkley Onward Hall	Cinderford CPGB (Anglo-Soviet Solidarity Campaign)	Len Harris	Harry Bourne, (CPGB organiser for the West of England)	Harry Barton and Richard Kear.
11 October 1941.[169]	Yorkley	Cinderford CPGB	Len Harris	George Thomas (CPGB organiser for the Rhondda district)
12 October 1941.[170]	Ruardean Woodside	Cinderford CPGB	Len Harris	George Thomas	Timothy Ruck, Ray Jones and Richard Kear
18 October 1941. [171]	Broadwell Memorial Hall	FDMA	David Organ	Harry Pollitt and Williams	P George and W S Wilson
19 October 1941. [172]	Ruardean	FDMA	William Wilkins	Harry Pollitt and Williams	John Harper and Ray Jones
19 October 1941. [173]	Palace Theatre Cinderford	FDMA	H W Vowles	Harry Pollitt and Williams	Wallace Jones, Harry Barton and Ray Jones.
9 November 1941.[174]	Bream Miner’s Welfare Hall	Labour Party	Harold Craddock	Haydyn Guest MP for North Islington and Philips Price
9 November 1941. [175]	Regent Hall, Lydney	Labour Party	Harold Craddock	Haydyn Guest
22 December 1941.[176]	Bream Miners’ Memorial Hall	Cinderford CPGB	Len Harris	Will Paynter

 

 

Date	Venue	Organiser	Chair	Main Speaker	Other Speakers
15 November 1942	Bream	Cinderford CPGB	Len Harris	Will Paynter	Albert Brookes
24 January 1943	Coleford Town Hall	Cinderford CPGB		Alf Davis (SWMF and CPGB)	Harris and Barton
15 February 1943	Whitecroft Memorial Hall	Bream CPGB	William Ellway	David D Evans (Chief Clerk to the No 9 area of the SWMF and CPGB)	Barton
28 February 1943	Palace Cinderford	Cinderford CPGB		Arthur Horner (SWMF and CPGB)	Harris, Barton and William Wilkins
28 March 1943	Yorkley Onward Hall	Labour Party	Harold Craddock	David Grenfell Labour MP	Philips Price and Luker
28 March 1943	Bream	Labour Party	Albert Brookes	David Grenfell MP
4 April 1943	Yorkley Onward Hall		Reuben James	Jack Jones CPGB	Barton and Ellway
18 April 1943	Yorkley Onward Hall	Cinderford CPGB	Birt Hinton	Sid Jones (SWMF)	Barton
1 May 1943	Whitecroft	Labour Party	Albert Brookes	Harold Laski, Labour MP	Philips Price
1 May 1943	Coleford	Labour Party	Helen Hicks	Harold Laski	Philips Price and Luker
1 May 1943	Cinderford	Labour Party	Albert Brookes	Harold Laski
1 May 1943	Miners Welfare Hall, Bream	FDMA		William Rust (CPGB) and W J Sadler (SWMF)
1 May 1943	Ruardean	FDMA	Ray Jones
7 November 1943	Yorkley	Yorkley CPGB	C.E. Wintle	Glyn Jones (TGWU)	Frank Tilley, R Beddis, A Thomas, H A Evans and Barton
5 Dec.  1943	Drybrook
	Bream
	Yorkley
18 Dec. 1943	Cinderford Town Hall	Cinderford CPGB	G. J, Abraham (Gloucester)	Rev, Dr Bryn Thomas, Vicar of Kemble	Reg Evans (CPGB organiser for Forest of Dean District)

Date	Venue	Organiser	Chair	Main Speaker	Other Speakers
5 March 1944	Yorkley Onward Hall	Yorkley CPGB	C W Wintle	Rowley Hanson Pontypool Urban District Council and the National Executive of the CPGB	R W Evans and Philips Price
1 May 1944		FDMA	Ray Jones	Tom Wintringham, Vice President of the Common Wealth Party	Williams and Ellway
1 May 1944	Bream	FDMA		W J Saddler, General Secretary of the SWMF, and Alf Davies, Vice President of the SWMF
1 May 1944	Broadwell	FDMA		Wintringham
1 May 1944	Cinderford	FDMA		Saddler and Albert Davies, members of the SWMF Executive
1 May 1944	Ruardean	FDMA		Alf Davies and Albert Davies.
20/21 May		Labour Party		Arthur Jenkins MP.	Philips Price
	Cinderford	Labour Party	A. M. White	Arthur Jenkins MP.	Philips Price A E Stigwood
		Labour Party		Arthur Jenkins MP.	Philips Price

 

[1] Hywel Francis and David Smith, The Fed, (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1980) 394.

[2] Gloucester Citizen 28 July 1941.

[3] Strikes and lockouts were illegal under Order 1305 passed in July 1940. From the inception of the Order in July, 1940, up to 7th February, 1951, there were 4,029 reports made under the Order by or on behalf of workers; 97 were made by or on behalf of employers, and 16 were made jointly by employers and workers.

[4] Western Mail 18 November 1944. This is an official Ministry of Fuel and Power figure. Strikes were not limited to the coalfields. In the first few months of the war, over 900 strikes occurred. Most were brief but still illegal. The number of strikes grew annually, reaching a peak in 1944. Nearly half were driven by wage demands, while the rest were defensive responses to worsening workplace conditions. In 1944 there were more than two thousand stoppages, resulting in the loss of 3,714,000 production days. In response, Defence Regulation 1AA was introduced in April 1944, with the backing of the TUC, making it illegal to incite strikes.

[5] Gloucester Journal 21 September 1940.

[6] Hansard, House of Commons, 17 October 1944.

[7] Dean Forest Mercury 24 February 1939.

[8] At the outbreak of war, the government put into action a system of planned organisation for the supply of coal which consisted of a system of coal supplies officers in the coalfields, divisional coal officers in the civil defence regions and coal export officers. A House Coal Distribution (Emergency) Scheme was also established to control domestic distribution under the indirect control of the divisional coal officers.

[9] R Page Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War (London: Allen and Unwin, 1961) 176-178. The JSCC was established in January 1936 for consideration of all questions of joint interest including the determination of wages based on district agreements.

[10] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, Chapter 7.

[11] Ministry of Fuel and Power Statistical Digest, 1938-1947.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Gloucester Citizen 28 August 1939.

[18] Michael Jabara Carley (2019) Fiasco: The Anglo-Franco-Soviet Alliance That Never Was and the Unpublished British White Paper, 1939–1940, The International History Review, 41:4, 701-728.

[19] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 298.

[20] Dean Forest Mercury 3 November 1939.

[21] Gloucester Citizen 11 September 1939.

[22] Dean Forest Mercury 15 September 1939.

[23] Dean Forest Mercury 22 September 1939.

[24] The cost of living index jumped by ten points in September 1939 and within twelve months was up by 34 points.

[25] Dean Forest Mercury 6 October 1939.

[26] Dean Forest Mercury 27 October 1939.

[27] R Page Arnot, The Miners, One Union, One Industry, A History of the National Union of Mineworkers 1939-1946 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1979) 22-23.

[28] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 289 -291.

[29] Dean Forest Mercury 22 December 1939.

[30] Gloucester Citizen 21 December 1939 and Dean Forest Mercury 22 December 1939.

[31] Gloucester Citizen 29 December 1939.

[32] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 294.

[33] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 294.

[34] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 295.

[35] Gloucester Journal 13 April 1940.

[35b] https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1945/jan/30/accidents-statistics?utm-source=chatgpt.com   These figures do not account for fatalities in 1945, the final year of the war, so the total number of mining deaths during the entire conflict would be somewhat higher.​

[35c] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4582420/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

[36] Albert Meek interviewed by Elsie Olivey on 6 April 1983, Gage Library.

[37] Gloucester Citizen and Dean Forest Mercury.

[38] Gloucester Citizen 23 May 1940.

[39] Gloucester Citizen 31 May 1940. See https://forestofdeansocialhistory.co.uk/mr-cinderford-wallace-jones/    https://forestofdeansocialhistory.co.uk/william-david-jenkins/   https://forestofdeansocialhistory.co.uk/harry-morgan/    https://forestofdeansocialhistory.co.uk/raymond-s-jones-2/  https://forestofdeansocialhistory.co.uk/harry-barton/

[40] Gloucester Citizen 31 May 1940.

[41] Gloucester Journal 22 June 1940.

[42] In July 1940, the number of unemployed insured workers, including miners, in Cinderford was 80, Coleford 70, Lydney 60 and Newnham 10. Most were elderly, sick or disabled.

[43] Arnot The Miners in Crisis and War, 303.

[44] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 312.

[45] Dean Forest Mercury 7 February 1941.

[46] The West Dean Food Committee at this time was made up of L. P. Hullett (Divisional Food Officer), L. C. Porter (Chairman), Mrs Clutterbuck, Mrs Bevan, S. J. Joseph, E. B. Barter, J. W. Fox, T Phillips, I Howells, S.W. Hatten and George Jenkins.

[47] Dean Forest Mercury 10 January 1941.

[48] Dean Forest Mercury 10 January 1941.

[49] Dean Forest Mercury 14 February 1941.

[50] Dean Forest Mercury 28 March 1941.

[51] Dean Forest Mercury 28 March 1941.

[52] Dean Forest Mercury 28 March 1941.

[53] Dean Forest Mercury 16 April 1941.

[54] Dean Forest Mercury 30 May 1941.

[55] Dean Forest Mercury 6 June 1941.

[56] Dean Forest Mercury 20 June 1941.

[57] Dean Forest Mercury 6 June 1941, Gloucester Journal 28 June 1941 and Gloucester Journal 5 July 1941.

[58] Dean Forest Mercury 6 June 1941.

[59] Dean Forest Mercury 27 June 1941.

[60] Dean Forest Mercury 25 July 1941.

[61] Dean Forest Mercury 25 July 1941.

[62] https://forestofdeansocialhistory.co.uk/william-henry-ellway/

[63] Dean Forest Mercury 25 July 1941.

[64] Ibid.

[65] Ibid.

[66] https://forestofdeansocialhistory.co.uk/holton-douglas-elton-reeks/  https://forestofdeansocialhistory.co.uk/frank-matthews/  https://forestofdeansocialhistory.co.uk/john-harper/

[67] Ibid.

[68] Dean Forest Mercury 1 August 1941.

[69] Ibid.

[70] Ibid.

[71] Clegg, A History of British Trade Unions, 1934 -1951, 255.

[72] Ibid.

[73] Dean Forest Mercury 1 August 1941.

[74] Gloucester Citizen 28 July 1941.

[75] Dean Forest Mercury 1 August 1941.

[76] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 321 -322.

[77] The demand was that holiday pay should increase from £2 12s to £3 10s for adults and for those under 21 from £1 14s 8d to £2 6s 8d.

[78] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 322. Based on an 0.7d increase in the cost of living addition for each point rise in the cost of living index as agreed in March 1940.

[79] Dean Forest Mercury July 11 1941.

[80] Dean Forest Mercury July 25 1941. The Miners’ Welfare Fund was set up under the provisions of the Mining Industry Act 1920.  It was administered by a Miners’ Welfare Committee in the interests of ‘the social well-being, recreation and conditions of living of workers in or about coalmines’. The Committee was appointed by the Board of Trade in January 1921. It included representatives of the MAGB and MFGB. The fund was raised from a levy, initially a levy of 1d per ton of coal produced, and after 1926 a levy of five per cent of coal royalties.

[81] Dean Forest Mercury 1 August 1941 and Dean Forest Mercury 12 September 1941.

[82] Dean Forest Mercury 19 September 1941.

[83] Dean Forest Mercury 19 September 1941.

[84] Dean Forest Mercury 26 September 1941.

[85] Dean Forest Mercury 28 November 1941.

[86] Dean Forest Mercury 28 November 1941 and Gloucester Journal 29 November 1941.

[87] H. A. Clegg, A History of British Trade Unions, Vol 3. 1934-1951 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994) 238.

[88] Dean Forest Mercury 5 September 1941.

[89] Dean Forest Mercury 19 December 1941.

[90]

[91] Ben Pimlott (ed.), The Second World War Diary of Hugh Dalton (London, 1986), 441 quoted by Keith Gildart, Coal Strikes on the Home Front: Miners’ Militancy and Socialist Politics in the Second World War, Twentieth Century British History, Volume 20, Issue 2, 2009, 127.

[92] https://forestofdeansocialhistory.co.uk/pity-the-poor-buttyman-the-butty-system-in-the-forest-of-dean-1921-1938/

[93] Dean Forest Mercury 23 January 1942.

[94] Dean Forest Mercury 23 January 1942.

[95] Dean Forest Mercury 13 March 1942.

[96] https://forestofdeansocialhistory.co.uk/frederick-allan-beverstock/  https://forestofdeansocialhistory.co.uk/charles-luker/

[97] Dean Forest Mercury 3 April 1942.

[98] Dean Forest Mercury 10 April 1942.

[99] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 236.

[100] Barry Supple, The History of the British Coal Industry Volume 4, (Oxford: Clarendon, 1987) 530.

[101] South Wales Gazette 4 September 1942.

[102] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 353.

[103] Gloucester Citizen 24 June 1942. Rates are given to the nearest penny.

[104] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 355.

[105] Dean Forest Mercury 24 July 1942.

[106] Dean Forest Mercury 24 July 1942.

[107] Dean Forest Mercury 30 October 1942.

[108] This may have been down to a misplaced perception of life in the military which did not take into account the long hours, discipline and the horror, brutality and trauma associated with armed combat.

[109] Gloucester Citizen 18 November 1942 and Western Mail 19 November 1942.

[110] Dean Forest Mercury 27 November 1942.

[111] Ibid.

[112] Dean Forest Mercury 22 January 1943.

[113] Dean Forest Mercury 22 January 1943.

[114] Western Mail 24 April 1943.

[115] Ministry of Fuel and Power Statistical Digest, 1938-1947.

[116] Dean Forest Mercury 16 April 1943.

[117] Dean Forest Mercury 12 November 1943.

[118] Dean Forest Mercury 12 November 1943.

[119] Dean Forest Mercury 19 November 1943.

[120] Dean Forest Mercury 26 November 1943 and Dean Forest Mercury 31 December 1943.

[121] Dean Forest Mercury 31 December 1943 and Western Mail 30 December 1943.

[122] Gloucester Citizen 31 July 1946.

[123] Bent, The Last Deep Mine of Dean, 118.

[124] Dean Forest Mercury 12 November 1943.

[125] Dean Forest Mercury 1 January 1944.

[126] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 396.

[127] Dean Forest Mercury 3 March 1944.

[128] Dean Forest Mercury 3 March 1944.

[129] Dean Forest Mercury 17 March 1944.

[129] Dean Forest Mercury 4 February 1944.

[130] Dean Forest Mercury 17 March 1944.

[131] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War

[132] Dean Forest Mercury 5 May 1944.

[133] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 397 – 399.

[134] Arnot, The Miners in Crisis and War, 399.

[135] The Common Wealth Party was formed in July 1942 with an idealistic socialist party with a largely middle-class membership and a manifesto of public ownership and morality in politics. Its five key policies were common ownership, vital democracy, equal opportunity, colonial freedom and world unity. The Party was initially chaired by JB Priestley, but it was his successor, Sir Richard Acland MP, who led the Common Wealth Party to success in the three by-elections it contested. However, Acland resigned after widespread defeat in the post-war General Election of 1945, when only a single member of the Common Wealth Party was returned. Many members joined Labour, but the dwindling Party continued its campaigns until 1993.

[136] Dean Forest Mercury 12 May 1944.

[137] Dean Forest Mercury 12 May 1944.

[138] Dean Forest Mercury 12 May 1944.

[139] Reports in the Dean Forest Mercury 1938 to 1944.

[140] Ministry of Fuel and Power Statistical Digest, 1938-1947.

[141] Ministry of Fuel and Power Statistical Digest, 1938-1947.

[142] Dean Forest Mercury 7 March 1945.

[143] Dean Forest Mercury 11 May 1945.

[144] Gloucester Citizen 11 June 1945.

[145] Gloucester Citizen 18 June 1945.

[146] Dean Forest Mercury 27 July 1945.

[147] Sylvester is a coal mining jacking device which comprises a ratchet bar with a handle (and attaching block), chain and hook.

[148] Gloucester Citizen 25 January 1946.

[149] Dean Forest Mercury 21 December 1945.

[150] Ibid.

[151] Foley, No Pipe Dreams for Father, 35.

[152] Dean Forest Mercury 21 December 1945.

[153] Maurice Bent, The Last Deep Mine of Dean (Forest of Dean: Self-Published, 1988) 128-129

[154] Ministry of Fuel and Power Statistical Digest, 1938-1947.

[155] South Wales Miners’ Federation, Silicosis and Pneumoconiosis Annual Returns, Area 9 in 1945.

[156] R Page Arnot, The Miners, One Union, One Industry, 125-127.

[157] Dean Forest Mercury 30 August 1946. Horner was replaced by Alf Davies as General Secretary of the South Wales Area of the NUM which included the Forest of Dean.

[158] Gloucester Journal 1 February 1947.

[159] Gloucester Citizen 21 February 1947 and Dean Forest Mercury 21 February 1947.

[160] Dean Forest Mercury 21 February 1947.

[161] Dean Forest Mercury 21 February 1947 and Dean Forest Mercury 14 March 1947.

[162] Dean Forest Mercury 21 February 1947.

[163] Western Mail 21 November 1947.

[164]

[165]Western Daily Press 24 December 1947.

[166] Western Mail 26 January 1954.

[167] https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-inflation-calculator-value-money-changed-1900.html

[168] Dean Forest Mercury 5 September 1941.

[169] Dean Forest Mercury 17 October 1941.

[170] Dean Forest Mercury 17 October 1941.

[171] Dean Forest Mercury 24 October 1941.

[172] Dean Forest Mercury 24 October 1941.

[173] Dean Forest Mercury 24 October 1941.

[174] Dean Forest Mercury 14 November 1941.

[175] Dean Forest Mercury 14 November 1941.

[176] Dean Forest Mercury 26 December 1941.