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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.

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.

Harry Morgan (1894 -1967) was born in Yorkley. He spent all of his working life working at Princess Royal. He married Millicent Morse in 1923. He was at times both chairman and treasurer of the Bream FDMA lodge, a member of the Pit Committee and the Miners’ Welfare Association District Committee.  Morgan was a West Dean Parish Councillor, chairman of Lydney Hospital Contributory Groups Committee, a well-known St. John Ambulance worker, and an official of the Baptist Church, Parkend. He was Co-chairman of the Forest of Dean Coal Production Committee during World War Two. In 1947 he was Support Economy Officer at the Princess Royal Colliery and was awarded the British Empire Medal.[1]

[1] Gloucester Citizen 12 June 1947.

David Organ (1876 – 1954) was born in Oldcroft in West Dean, the son of a farm labourer. He started work in one of the Parkend collieries at the age of thirteen. Organ married Kate Phipps, the daughter of a local stonemason in September 1896. Soon after their marriage, they moved to Derby where Organ worked as a railway porter. They then moved to Rotherham where their first two children were born. However, in 1900, the family returned to the Forest and moved into a small cottage in Pillowell and Organ gained work at Norchard Colliery in Lydney as a coal hewer. The family supplemented their income by selling confectionary and fish and chips. In 1911, Organ was working as a checkweighman at Norchard Colliery and remained in this post until he retired from colliery work in 1939. In the December 1913 election of officers for the FDMA Executive, Organ was elected Vice President, a role he held until 1919.  In 1917, his family moved to a larger house just down the road from their old one. By this time the family had grown to ten children. He was elected President of the FDMA in 1919, a post he held until 1939.[1]

[1] These biographical details have been taken from David M Organ, The Life and Times of David Richard Organ, Leading the Forest Miners’ Struggle, (Cheltenham: Apex, 2011).

Jesse Miles (1894-1971) was born in Bream the son of a miner. He worked at Princess Royal colliery. He married Ruth Davies in 1915 and had four children.

Albert Meek (1898 -1984) was born in Cinderford the son of a miner who died at the age of 50 from silicosis. On leaving school at 13 years of age he went to work as a hodder at Crump Meadow colliery. He worked his way up to be a picker-up and then a filler and finally as a hewer working on an 18-inch seam. In 1921 he was working as a hewer at Foxes Bridge and then as a colliery timber cutter on the surface at Waterloo and then returned to work at Crump Meadow.

He married Rose Elton in February 1922. In 1924, he joined the Miners Minority Movement. He was joint secretary, with Jesse Hodges, of the Cinderford Strike Committee during the 1926 lockout. After the lockout, he was backlisted for seventeen months before returning to work at Waterloo. He then returned to work at Crump Meadow and when it closed in 1929, he went to work at Foxes Bridge which was also coming to the end of its life. Within a year or two he was laid off again and decided to give up pit work. He then took up work as a civil servant in the department of employment.[1]

[1] Interview with Albert Meek by Elsie Olivey on 6 April 1983, Gage library.

Frank Matthews (1878 – 1946) was born in Coalway, the son of a carpenter. He married Alice Burford in 1904 and had six children. In 1901 and 1911, he was working as a hewer in the mines and was living at Broadwell. By 1919, he was working at Cannop colliery as a checkweighman and was elected as the Cannop representative on the FDMA Executive and continued in this role during the 1926 Lockout. He was expelled from the FDMA in October 1926 after returning to work before the end of the strike. However, the expulsion was rescinded and he continued in his role as a checkweighman at Cannop  until his retirement.

Charles Mason (1889-1945) was born in Brierley and started work in the mines soon after leaving school. He married Margaret Daniels in 1909 and had seven children, including the celebrated Forest author Winifred Foley. In 1922 he was elected to East Dean District Council and in 1923 he was elected as a Poor Law Guardian on the Westbury Board of Guardians. He was elected to the FDMA Executive Committee in 1919.  He was killed in an accident at Northern United colliery in 1945.

See a more detailed biography under Charlie Mason under the section on People.

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

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

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

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

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