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 and 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.