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Bevin Boys    As Britain was unable to import Coal during World War II, the production of coal from mines in Britain had to be increased. There was an extreme shortage of labour for the British Coal Mines, because most of the miners had been conscripted by the Government for active duty. The Government made a plea to Servicemen to volunteer for this vital service, but few did. The program, The Bevin Boys, was named after the Minister of Labour and National Defence, Ernest Bevin. In December 1943, due to the urgent need for coal for the War Effort, it was decided that a certain percentage of the conscripted men would have to be assigned to the mine. This caused a great deal of upset as the many of the young men wanted to join th efighting forces and many felt that they were not valued. In his speech to the conscripted miners, Bevin referred to them as his boys, hence the name, “Bevin Boys”. Many suffered taunts as they wore no uniform and were wrongly assumed to be avoiding serving in the armed forces. Many were not released from their work until several years after the war ended, long after their counterparts in the armed forces had returned to civilian life. In a speech, made by the Queen, in 1995, fifty years after the end of the war, the contribution of these men was finally recognized. In 2007, the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, announced that a special honour would be presented to all conscripts who served in the mines. The first badge will be presented in March 2008. This will be the sixtieth anniversary of the last Bevin Boy being demobbed. This commemorative badge can be applied for by calling:- The Service Personnel and Veterans Agency helpline on 0800 169 2277 or by visiting www.veterans-uk.info If you or your relative served as a Bevin Boy, please get in touch, we would love to add your recollections and any photos you may have to this page. If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here. Those known to have served with Bevin Boys during the Second World War 1939-1945. Abrahams Allan Wolf. Betts Derek Lewis. Bown Ronald. Brinsmead John. Callister John. Campbell Hugh. Carrrington Richard Joseph. Carter Charles William. Cason Henry. Crouch Bruce Alan. Cutner Derek Isaac. Dunsmuir John R. Edwards James. Emerson Maurice. Forbes Denis Blanchard. Graham John George. Gray Alexander John. Halliwell Kenneth. Harris Donald. Herrington Robert Josiah. Horsley Denzil James. Howes Harry Augustus. Kilburn Cyril. Leggett William John. Lewis Peter John. Mallard Lawrence Joseph. Marchant Walder. McAuley Edward Joseph. McDonald John. McRobert John Glendinning. Moss Norman John. O'Neill James. Pearson John Henry. Pearson John Henry. Potter Walter Henry. Reynolds John. Smith Frank. Smith William Kenneth . Stewart Andrew. Trott Kenneth Austen. Watson Ralph. Whincup Grafton. Wood Percy William. Wright Percy. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List Records of Bevin Boys from other sources. The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website. Announcements The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web. 10th April 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 263893 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible. Looking for help with Family History Research?   Please read our Family History FAQ's The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation. Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. We are now on Facebook. Like this page to receive our updates. If you have a general question please post it on our Facebook page. Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations. Want to know more about Bevin Boys ? There are:1318 items tagged Bevin Boys available in our Library   These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. John George Graham Instructor I have just found out that my grandad, John George Graham, taught the Bevan Boys. He taught from 1940 till end of the war. He came from Coxlodge Newcastle. I am not sure where he taught as my mum can't remember. I just wondered if anyone can remember him and fill in any gaps,as I trace my ancenstors. I would love to get a reply. Janette Hart Add to this record. John R Dunsmuir My father (now deceased) served as a Bevin Boy in Scotland during WWII. I don't what pits he worked at. His name was John R. Dunsmuir. Originally he was scheduled to join the navy, but was conscripted into the mines. When we were kids he used to tell us stories of some of the "hi-jinks" they would get up to and the dangers from gas and so on. He remembered playing Cowboys and Indians on the pit ponies which was forbidden. He did radio repairs in his spare time. David Dunsmuir Add to this record. Donald Harris My brother-in-law, Donald Harris, was born 9 February 1926 at Stockwell and educated at the Farningham Home for Boys, Kent. Don was called up for Service in December 1943 but was balloted into the Bevin Coal Mining Scheme. After training at Chesterfield he worked at the Newstead Colliery. After a few months he was injured in a hauling accident underground and spent the best part of two years having treatment and skin grafts to his right hand at Mansfield Hospital. He recovered sufficiently to be employed again at the mine but in the telephone exchange underground. After the war he returned to live with family in Battersea. Donald passed away at Wimbledon on 14th September 2009. He never married. Marjorie Harris Add to this record. Percy William Wood My dad, Percy, who sadly passed away almost 8 years ago, was a bevin boy in County Durham. Tracy Rennie Add to this record. Maurice Emerson My Dad, Maurice Emerson, went to join the Navy with his best friend Revvie Brown who lived next door to him in a small terraced house in Stanhope in the heart of Weardale, County Durham. Revvie was taken on by the Navy but for some reason related to his age Dad was sent into the mines. He was unhappy about this and hated his time in the mine. The only good thing was he met Mam, Sylvia Sanderson, while he was working the Horden mine, they married in 1954 and were married 58 years until Mam's death in 2012. Dad sadly died this year aged 87. I wish I knew more about his years in the pits but he wasn't happy to talk about it. Editor's note: Men joining up were selected to be Bevin Boys if their enlistment number ended in the number 9, it was simply by chance that Maurice was selected, like so many others who would rather have served in uniform. Lyn Emerson Howdill Add to this record. Cyril Kilburn My dad, Cyril Kilburn, was a Bevin Boy at Newstrad Colliery and sadly passed away on 26th july 2014. During his final days he was reminissing about being down the coal mines and about a rude poem that someone had written on the back of a toilet door. He recited it word for word and made all his family laugh, but unfortunately none of us can remember it.. Sandra Horne Add to this record. James O'Neill My father James O'Neill, who is still alive, served as a Bevin boy from start to finish. Although he was an air cadet and wanted to join the RAF as a rear gunner, he was dismissed and sent down the mines. He did his initial training at Humber Hill and Victory mines in County Durham where he lived and then went onto Bettshanger Collery in Kent for the remainder of the war. He was one of the last to be demobbed in 1948. If anyone has any records that I can pass on to him of people, places and names that would help him to remember I would be eternally grateful. Mary Nah Add to this record. Frank Smith My late father Frank Smith was a Bevin Boy. I think he was called up in 1944. He would have been 21 on the 19th of September that year. He did his training at Pendlebury near Manchester from where he was posted to Hapton Valley near Burnley Lancs. He left the mining industry in 1947 just before the Pits were nationalised. Ian Smith Add to this record. Ralph Watson My aunt who lived in Gateshead met and married a Bevin boy, Ralph Watson, who had been enlisted from the London area and sent up north to work in a coal mine near Hetton le Hole. After the war they moved back down south to the Slough area, where they brought up a family of four boys and one girl. I thought it would be a good gesture to have his name added to the list of Bevin boys who all did a good job in time of need. Add to this record. Grafton Whincup My father, Grafton Whincup, who has recently turned 81, is a surviving Bevin Boy. He often relates his stories of working down the pit to myself and my children. Susan Horgan Add to this record. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices. Called Up, Sent Down: The Bevin Boys' War Tom Hickman Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour, sought service volunteers - and compulsorily sent 20,000 18-year-olds, who'd expected to fight for their country, down the mines with them. Some were so angry that they preferred to go to prison. The majority went to do their best. But some were psychologically and others physically unsuited to such dangerous and arduous work. Many were injured; some died. "Called Up, Sent Down" paints a picture not just of the arduous life below ground but as the Bevin Boys found it in the tightly-knit mining communities, which in some cases welcomed them but in others treated them with hostility. "Called Up, Send Down" is an enthralling oral and social history of an episode of the Second World War that has never been fully told. More information on: Called Up, Sent Down: The Bevin Boys' War Bevin Boy - A Reluctant Miner Reg Taylor The personal story of a Bevin Boy, one of the band of boys recruited by Ernest Bevin during the Second World War to work in the coal mines. Explore with him the experience of this subterranean life: the vagaries of the mining technology of the time, the back-breaking work, the hazards and the discomforts. His frequent amusing anecdotes together with his engaging observations of work mates serve as relief to this account of industrial slavery. The description of various episodes both above and below ground level reveal his wry sense of humour. Although a release scheme for the Bevin Boys was finally introduced, the author's escape comes about in an unexpected way and he eventually enters a more suitable professional area. Personal reminiscences of a by-gone age are always both fascinating and instructive, and these memoirs are no exception. More information on: Bevin Boy - A Reluctant Miner The Forgotten Conscript: A History of the Bevin Boy Warwick Taylor Sixty years ago, the arrival of the buff envelope explaining that their 'number had come up' changed the expectation and lives of many young men preparing to join the Services. The call applied to an entire cross-section of society. They were not allowed to say 'no'. This book tells the tales about a largely unknown and almost forgotten army which played a key role in winning the Second World War - from far below the surface of the earth and in daily danger. The Bevin Boys lived on site - mainly in hostels - worked underground and had difficulty in being released back into civilian life at the end of the war. More information on: The Forgotten Conscript: A History of the Bevin Boy Links

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