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Enos Cooper Taylor

Enos Cooper Taylor (1862 – 1941) was born in Cinderford, the son of a miner. When he started work, he was trained to operate the engines at Foxes Bridge colliery. He was elected secretary of the Cinderford Lodge of the FDMA in 1897. He married Annie Baker in 1897 and had five children. He was appointed as checkweighman at Foxes Bridge  in 1901. In 1907 he also took on the role of the landlord of the Colliers Arms in Cinderford and his wife helped to run the pub. He was a board member of Cinderford Medical Aid Association and Cinderford Co-operative Society. He represented Foxes Bridge on the FDMA Executive from 1897 to 1926.

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William Wilkins

William Wilkins (1898-1980) was born in Cinderford the son of a miner. He married Evelyn Carpenter in 1920 and they had two boys one of whom died at the age of eight. Like most young boys in the Forest at the time, he obtained work in the mines. In 1921 he was working at Foxes Bridge colliery and then he worked at Waterloo colliery. In the 1920s, he was a member of the Miners Minority Movement.

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

 

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Albert Wilding

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

 

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Leslie Sayes

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

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George Rowlinson

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

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Timothy Ruck

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

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Holton Douglas (Elton) Reeks

Holton Douglas (Elton) Reeks (1904 – 1974) was born in Bream, the son of a miner. In 1921 he was working at Princess Royal as an underground assistant roadman. He married Dulcie Miles in 1928 and had two daughters.  He continued working at Princess Royal and  was an active member of the FDMA.

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Thomas Phillips

Thomas Phillips (1886-1950) was born in Aberdare and started work at the age of 13 at the old iron ore mine at Brockhollands, near Bream. Two years later he went to Flourmill Colliery and worked for the Princess Royal Company. He married Rosa Pearce in 1910 and had two children. In 1921 he was working for Norchard colliery as a pumpman. He then moved back to Princess Royal. He was elected treasurer of Bream Labour Party in 1920. He was treasurer of Bream FDMA Lodge during the 1926 lockout and was elected secretary in 1928.

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Martin Perkins

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

 

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John William Partridge

John William Partridge (1889 – 1944) was born in Ruspidge, the son of a miner from a family of thirteen children. He started work in the mines as a labourer working above ground at Eastern United. He married Mildred Scrivens in 1915 and had two children. He worked his way up to become a colliery fitter.  He was a member of the FDMA Executive from 1924 to about 1931.