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Charles Lees (1860-1936) was born in Cinderford the son of a blast furnace worker and iron miner. He started work at an early age at Old Leather Pit. He then worked at Duck Pit owned by Crump Meadow company.  After a short period at Lightmoor colliery, he moved to Crump Meadow colliery.

He married Minnie Penn in 1881 and had twelve children one of whom died as a baby.

Charles Lees was a trustee and committee member of the Forest of Dean Free Miners’ Association.  He was a committee member of the Cinderford Co-operative Society and represented the mining community on welfare organisations such as the Forest of Dean General Accident and Health Insurance Society.

During World War One Charles Lee’s son George applied for exemption from military combat on the grounds of consciousness objection but this was rejected.

In March 1916, George Lees, Charles’s son, and the brothers Howard and William Nelmes were arrested for being absentee under the Military Service Act, having failed to report to barracks on receipt of their call-up papers. They all worked together as woodmen for the Crown Estate. They were brought before Littledean Petty Sessions chaired by George Rowlinson. Lees argued that he was a conscientious objector and asked to be exempted from conscription based on his Methodist religious beliefs. Rowlinson told him that he could have appealed before a military tribunal if he had made an application on receipt of his call-up papers but that it was too late now. They were all fined and handed over to the military.[1] Lees was drafted to the Gloucestershire Regiment and was seriously wounded at the front in October 1916.[2]

Charles Lees presented the following motion to a mass meeting of Forest of Dean Miners in August 1917 which was passed with a near-unanimous majority and triggered a series of events that led to the removal of George Rowlinson as the agent for the FDMA in 1918.

“That we, the Forest of Dean miners, call upon the various Trade Unions of this country to take the necessary steps with the view to ascertaining the views of the workers of all countries to negotiate an immediate and honourable peace.”

One of Charles Lees’ other sons, Oliver, was killed in Flanders in October 1918.

In 1921, he is listed as an  overman at Crump Meadow and he worked there until it was closed in 1929.

 

[1] Gloucester Journal 1 April 1916.

[2] Gloucester Journal 14 October 1916.

William Stanley Wintle (1881-1971) was born in Yorkley. His first job was at New Fancy colliery. He started his railway career in 1899 working as an engine cleaner in Lydney engine sheds. He was promoted to a fireman (engine stoker)  in November of the same year and then served as a fireman at Gloucester and Trowbridge. In July 1902 his finger was crushed while attempting to put a lump of coal in the bunker resulting in an amputation of the top of his finger.

He married Frances Howells in 1906 and had one child.   In 1911 he was appointed as a driver at Llantrisant and then returned to Lydney in that capacity the same year. In 1919, he was elected as the secretary of the Lydney branch of ASLEF. In 1922 he was elected as secretary of the Locomotive Men’s Department Committee holding both positions until 1940 when due to his approaching retirement he resigned.   He retired in October 1941.

James Edward Holford (1877-1957) was born in Lydney, the son of a railway guard. In 1901 at the age of 24 he was working as a railway brakeman and by 1911 he was working as a general foreman at Lydney docks. Finally in 1939 was working as a railway traffic foreman. He married Bessie Minnie Beatley in 1899 and had three daughters. He was an active member of ASRS and by 1907 was representing Lydney ASRS at regional and national meetings.

In 1905, he was elected to the committee of Lydney cooperative society. In 1906 he was elected as president of the Lydney Trades and Labour Association and was a member of the Independent Labour Party. He was made a magistrate in 1924 and continued in this role until 1928

The National Union of Railwaymen came into being on 29th March 1913, the result of the amalgamation of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS), the General Railway Workers Union (GRWU) and the United Pointsmen’s and Signalmen’s Society UPSS).

The new union immediately attracted new members – with membership rocketing from 159,261 at the time of amalgamation to 267,611 by the end of 1913.

Discussions on amalgamation grew out of the 1911 national railway strike, which saw four key railway unions: the ASRS, GRWU, UPSS and the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF)) combine in a dispute for the first time. ASLEF was also involved in the first post-strike discussions on fusion, but left the talks after its proposals for a looser federation were not adopted.

For the duration of the First World War and its immediate aftermath, the railways were removed from the control of private companies and managed by the National Government. During the war, the NUR and ASLEF negotiated jointly with the government to win wage increases for railway workers, although at levels below the high rate of inflation. In March 1919 the government announced its plans to standardise and reduce the wartime rates of pay and, after failed negotiations with the unions, the second national rail strike began at midnight on 26-27 September 1919.

A key feeling during the strike was that sacrifices made during the war had not been acknowledged by the government – in the words of the NUR General Secretary, J.H. Thomas,

“the short issue is that the long made promise of a better world for railwaymen which was made in the time of the nation’s crisis, and accepted by the railwaymen as an offer that would ultimately bear fruit has not materialised”.

After nine days of strike action by the NUR and ASLEF, the government agreed to maintain wages at existing levels for another year. Subsequent negotiations resulted in the standardisation of wages across the railway companies and the introduction of a maximum eight-hour day.

The following is a list of some of the main characters in the early years of the ASRS and NUR in the Forest of Dean. Most of them are from Lydney which was a railway and port town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The National Union of Railwaymen came into being on 29th March 1913, the result of the amalgamation of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS), the General Railway Workers Union (GRWU) and the United Pointsmen’s and Signalmen’s Society UPSS).

The new union immediately attracted new members – with membership rocketing from 159,261 at the time of amalgamation to 267,611 by the end of 1913.

Discussions on amalgamation grew out of the 1911 national railway strike, which saw four key railway unions: the ASRS, GRWU, UPSS and the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF)) combine in a dispute for the first time. ASLEF was also involved in the first post-strike discussions on fusion, but left the talks after its proposals for a looser federation were not adopted.

For the duration of the First World War and its immediate aftermath, the railways were removed from the control of private companies and managed by the National Government. During the war, the NUR and ASLEF negotiated jointly with the government to win wage increases for railway workers, although at levels below the high rate of inflation. In March 1919 the government announced its plans to standardise and reduce the wartime rates of pay and, after failed negotiations with the unions, the second national rail strike began at midnight on 26-27 September 1919.

A key feeling during the strike was that sacrifices made during the war had not been acknowledged by the government – in the words of the NUR General Secretary, J.H. Thomas,

“the short issue is that the long made promise of a better world for railwaymen which was made in the time of the nation’s crisis, and accepted by the railwaymen as an offer that would ultimately bear fruit has not materialised”.

After nine days of strike action by the NUR and ASLEF, the government agreed to maintain wages at existing levels for another year. Subsequent negotiations resulted in the standardisation of wages across the railway companies and the introduction of a maximum eight-hour day.

The following is a list of some of the main characters in the early years of the ASRS and NUR in the Forest of Dean. Most of them are from Lydney which was at the time primarily a railway town with docks on the River Severn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The National Union of Railwaymen came into being on 29th March 1913, the result of the amalgamation of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS), the General Railway Workers Union (GRWU) and the United Pointsmen’s and Signalmen’s Society UPSS).

The new union immediately attracted new members – with membership rocketing from 159,261 at the time of amalgamation to 267,611 by the end of 1913.

Discussions on amalgamation grew out of the 1911 national railway strike, which saw four key railway unions: the ASRS, GRWU, UPSS and the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF)) combine in a dispute for the first time. ASLEF was also involved in the first post-strike discussions on fusion, but left the talks after its proposals for a looser federation were not adopted.

For the duration of the First World War and its immediate aftermath, the railways were removed from the control of private companies and managed by the National Government. During the war, the NUR and ASLEF negotiated jointly with the government to win wage increases for railway workers, although at levels below the high rate of inflation. In March 1919 the government announced its plans to standardise and reduce the wartime rates of pay and, after failed negotiations with the unions, the second national rail strike began at midnight on 26-27 September 1919.

A key feeling during the strike was that sacrifices made during the war had not been acknowledged by the government – in the words of the NUR General Secretary, J.H. Thomas,

“the short issue is that the long made promise of a better world for railwaymen which was made in the time of the nation’s crisis, and accepted by the railwaymen as an offer that would ultimately bear fruit has not materialised”.

After nine days of strike action by the NUR and ASLEF, the government agreed to maintain wages at existing levels for another year. Subsequent negotiations resulted in the standardisation of wages across the railway companies and the introduction of a maximum eight-hour day.

The following is a list of some of the main characters in the early years of the ASRS and NUR in the Forest of Dean. Most of them are from Lydney which was a railway and port town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

William Darters (1858-1931) was born in Whitercroft. As a young man, he gained work on the railways in Gloucester as an oiler and became involved with the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS). He married Emma Scrivens in 1883 in Gloucester and had nine children. He moved to Lydney and was elected as secretary to the ASRS and, in 1887, helped set up the Lydney Co-operative Society. He then started working as a manager for the Lydney Co-operative Society and continued in this role until his retirement. However, he continued to contribute to the ASRS remaining as secretary for about 17 years. Emma died in 1917 and in 1920 he married Rachel Eade. For many years he served on Lydney Parish Council.

William Harry Parsloe (1879-1963)

William  Parsloe was born in Alvington, the son of a General Labourer. He worked as a boy in the paper mill in Alvington, and later for a short time at Lydney tinplate works. He then joined the service of the Great Western Railway Company at Lydney.

Parsloe spent five and a half years working in the London area before returning to Lydney. He then served at Chippenham where he was promoted to the position of engine driver and also at Gloucester.

He married Maria Price in 1904 and had two daughters, Winfred and Dorothy. For one period during the War, he was a member of the Lydney Rural District Council. Parsloe was also Secretary of the Lydney Trades and Labour Association and was Secretary of the Lydney Branch of the Independent Labour Party. He was an active member of Lydney NUR serving both as Secretary and President.

He later served as Vice-Chairman of Lydney Parish Council. He was a founder member of the now defunct Men’s Own Brotherhood. During his 42 years of railway service, Parsloe was an energetic member of the N.U.R. At different times he has been Chairman and Secretary of the Lydney branch and later as the Secretary of the N.U.R Approved Society (Lydney section). He for several years was actively connected with the Lydney Co-operative Society.

Edwin Rennolds (1879 – 1954) was born in Bedminster, Bristol, the son of a beer retailer. After leaving school he started work as a cleaner and then as a fireman on the Great Western Railway. He married Edith Kear in 1905 and they went on to have three children. He moved to Lydney in 1907 when he was promoted to engine driver and became active within the Lydney branch of the railway union. In 1911 he was elected as treasurer of Lydney Trades and Labour Association. He was appointed as a magistrate in April 1921.

 

Arthur Holder (1862-1932) was born in Randwick, the son of a gardener. He started work as a woollen clothworker and then got a job as a guard on the railways and moved to Gloucester. He married Alice Young in 1906 and had three children. He was President of the local Triple Alliance Strike Committee and Gloucester NUR during the 1921 lockout.

James Collins Birt (1886 – 1935) was born in Lydney, the son of a railwayman. His first job was working at a bakery and then he gained employment as a signalman on the railway. He married Jessie Barron in 1913 and had three children. He became active within the NUR and by 1918 was elected to the role of Secretary. In 1918, he was appointed as agent for the Forest of Dean Labour Party and was instrumental in getting James Wignall elected as a Labour MP in December 1918. At this time, he was also elected as a County Councillor. In October 1922, he emigrated to Canada with his family.