501008 Hugh Campbell Bevin Boy from:Scotland My father who will be 90 on June 2nd was a Bevin Boy. This article was published in our community newspaper "The Oakville Beaver" on May 17/08.
A Bevin Boy finally gets his war medal
He heeded his country's call and toiled in the darkest depths of the earth for years facing fires, floods and cave-ins. When it was all over he did not even get a thank you, until now. Oakville resident Hugh Campbell, 89, has finally been recognized for the role he played for England during the Second World War. He did not fire a rifle, pilot a plane or drive a tank, but what he did was just as important to the war effort and, at times, just as dangerous.
Campbell, a native of Scotland, was conscripted by England to mine coal.
"I was underground for more than two years," he said. "We were stationed in a place north of England near the ocean on the east coast. So, I worked under the sea."
Mining coal was not what Campbell had intended for his wartime experience and even today does not like to talk about it for fear listeners will find his stories boring. With the outbreak of war in September of 1939, Campbell, then 21, was initially drafted into the Highland Light Infantry where he was trained as a soldier.
"We were trained to do everything," said Campbell. "To fight and shoot and kill."
While he was never deployed to a battlefield, Campbell saw plenty of the enemy with Glasgow becoming a regular target for German bombers during the Battle of Britain.
"When an air raid broke out, we reported for duty and we went out with our guns," said Campbell. "You could see the German bombers at night time because our guns were firing and lighting up everything."
Campbell's regiment was also stationed in the English community of Chelston, which it was ordered to defend against a possible German land invasion or parachute drop. All this soldiering came to an end in 1943 when Campbell and around 48,000 other men were ordered to the mines.
This strange shift in professions was the result of a terrible mistake made by the British government at the start of the war when thousands of experienced coal miners were conscripted to fight with the armed forces.
This decision eventually had devastating consequences. As the war dragged on, England became desperate for coal, not only for the war effort, but to heat homes during the winter. The solution to this problem was a lottery in which soldiers whose service numbers ended in a particular digit were sent to replace the miners. These new mining recruits were called Bevin Boys after Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour and National Service, who invented the conscription program. For Campbell, having to move from being a soldier to a miner was a terrible shock.
"I was mad the whole war and it was because I was a Bevin Boy," he said. "I was trained as a soldier and I thought I was going to finish the war as a soldier and I wasn't." Despite his objections, Campbell knew he had no choice in the matter and went to work. With no uniform or badge for this job, Campbell would arrive at the mine every day in the oldest clothes he had and descend by elevator around 1,000 feet underground before reaching his station level. From there, Campbell said he had to walk another 1,000 feet to get to his work area.
"It was hot as hell in there," he said. "The only light was from our helmets." As much as Campbell and many of the other Bevin Boys wanted out of the mines, there were those who wanted them out even more. Not all of the experienced miners had been sent to war, and those who remained did not appreciate their mine being flooded with amateurs.
"There was one man who really didn't like me," said Campbell. "He was a real miner from that part of the country and he didn't want me there in case I did something stupid that would cost him his life." The man's name was John Graham. As it turned out, having Campbell around actually saved Graham's life one day during one of the mine's all too frequent cave-ins.
"The ceiling came down and I had to do a bit of digging to get him out," said Campbell. "After that I was invited to his house and I met his wife and his family, and they all acted like I did something heroic. It meant a lot to them." For the remainder of his time in the mine, Campbell and Graham worked together and even survived other cave-ins together.
During one particularly bad cave-in, both Campbell and Graham became trapped underground and with all lights going out there was nothing for them to do, but wait in the pitch-blackness for either rescue or death.
"John said, 'Do you remember when I told you that you would get to like this place so much you wouldn't want to leave it? Well, now you're not going to leave the bloody thing,'" said Campbell.
"I told him to shut his big mouth." Fortunately, a safety crew broke through moments later and took Campbell and Graham to safety. Other Bevin Boys would not be so lucky.
"One day I was talking to this guy in the cage (elevator) named Jimmy Edwards and halfway through the day I heard there'd been a fall-in and people had been killed and he was one of them," said Campbell. "I don't know how many Bevin Boys lost it."
Besides cave-ins, fire was another an ever-present danger in the mine, however, Graham taught Campbell an unusual way to escape with the help of the small ponies that were used to carry materials throughout the subterranean labyrinth. On one terrifying occasion, Campbell had to put this theory into practice.
"We were down there one day, and there was smoke and fire and we were choking and coughing," said Campbell. With little air and unable to find their way out due to the blinding smoke, both men could have perished had it not been for two nearby ponies.
"I had no idea what I was doing," said Campbell.
"I turned to John and said, 'What the hell do we do now,' and he said, 'The ponies will get us out. Grab it by the tail and give it a whack in the ass.'" Campbell said the ponies ran all the way to their stables at the foot of the surface elevator with the two men in tow. Campbell reported the fire and the situation was brought under control.
While the war ended in 1945, Campbell was not discharged from the mine until 1946, at which point he discovered that his entire underground experience was the result of a clerical error -- his serial number did not contain the proper digits to designate him as a Bevin Boy. "That really bugged my bum," he said. Although Campbell was able to return to his prewar job, many Bevin Boys found that their old positions had been given away.
They also received no medals or any other form of recognition until 2007 when the British government issued the Bevin Boy Veterans Badge, which Campbell received in the mail recently.
"I don't know whether I like it or whether I don't," said Campbell. "I survived and that's all I can say. I don't really need a medal."
Recognition of a different sort took place shortly before he was released from the mine when Campbell was invited to march in a parade during a professional miner's convention.
"A union guy came to me and asked me if I would carry their banner," said Campbell. "I was overwhelmed."
Campbell would later immigrate to Canada where he practiced real estate for many years in Oakville. He married, fathered three children and is now a grandfather of five.
Article by David Lea, The Oakville Beaver on May 17/08
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