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Bevin Boys

I begin by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Mr. Jones) on securing this debate—the last but not the least before the summer recess—on the important topic of recognition for the Bevin Boys. I would like to express my gratitude to other hon. Members who have brought the matter to public attention, not least to my hon. Friend the Member for Ochil and South Perthshire (Gordon Banks), who has been a great advocate for the Bevin Boys. We all agree that although my hon. Friend has been in the House only for 18 months, he has already found a powerful voice in the Chamber, representing his constituents with great potency. I would also like to thank two other people who helped me prepare for this evening’s debate. Rather unconventionally, I would like to thank Jeremy Williams and Group Captain Barrie Thomson from my private office. Sadly, they are leaving me at the end of the week, but they have spent many sleepless nights preparing for this and other debates. I want to put on record my appreciation for their support. I also pay tribute to the Bevin Boys Association, which works tirelessly to raise awareness and educate the wider public about the cause. The association has more than 1,800 members from the United Kingdom and overseas. Both my hon. Friends have already congratulated the Sunday Express on its vigorous efforts to bring the Bevin Boys to a wider audience, and I would like to add my tribute. The fact that its readers have been so enthusiastic in supporting the campaign is greatly encouraging. It shows that the contribution of all those who strove to defeat our enemies in Europe and the far east is not forgotten. There are still people out there who want to honour our veterans and the contribution that they made in their own personal way. The matter was raised in a question to the Prime Minister on 15 February, and again in the well supported early-day motion tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Ochil and South Perthshire earlier this year. He will know that the Prime Minister has given a personal undertaking to look into the subject. Both the Prime Minister and other ministerial colleagues are doing so. As my hon. Friends are well aware, the Bevin Boys played a crucial role in contributing to the ultimate allied success in the second world war. They both mentioned that coal mining—essential to the war effort—was suffering from a severe shortage of manpower by 1943. In December that year, following an inadequate response to an optional scheme, Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour at the time, decided to select men of call-up age for the mines by conscription. The system was to some extent arbitrary: one in 10 men aged 18 to 25 were selected by means of a ballot. If the last number of their national service registration number matched one of those drawn out of a hat at the Ministry of Labour headquarters, they were destined to become conscript miners—““Bevin Boys””. If anyone thinks that the contribution of the Bevin Boys was any less than that of other forces, they should look at the release from the Minister of Labour dated 2 December 1943:"““I want to say that the Government would not have resorted to this scheme of compulsion had it not been for the most urgent national necessity. There is no form of service which at this stage of the war is in greater need of young active recruits. Those who are chosen for transfer to coalmining will be doing their war service in a form that is as important as any, and I am sure that they will do their best to make a success of it.””" Well, they certainly did that. During those bleak years of the war, the Bevin Boys worked in the unpleasant and potentially hazardous conditions of the mines to supply Britain’s coal—the driving force behind much of the war effort. Without their hard work in dangerous conditions, the struggle against the enemy would have quite literally ground to a halt.