The Bevin Boys Association

Please note that the official Bevin Boy Association is still active despite notices to the contrary on other sites.

In 2019 it was agreed that we would keep the newsletters, website and Remembrance Books going, we have a full management committee and conduct our virtual AGM on Zoom each year. We also hold a Social Zoom, please contact me if you would like to attend either Zoom meeting.

All official enquiries should be addressed to one of the Committee listed on this site and notifications of deceased Bevin Boys should also be sent to the Membership Secretary to be included in the Official Book of Remembrance. We are still trying to trace any Bevin Boys, again please send details to the Membership Secretary. Any archives can be sent to the Archivist and these, after being added to the inventory, will be lodged at the Imperial War Museum or at Caphouse Colliery, National Coal Museum for England, Wakefield, near Leeds, for future generations.

There is no guarantee that this will be the case if sent to other locations and non Committee members.

Chairman
Anne Lane

In 1943 this country faced a crisis in coal production as coal stock became low because we were short of 78,000 miners, this jeopardised the country’s war effort.

Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour and National Service had the responsibility of resolving this problem and in December 1943 the Bevin Boy scheme started whereby 10% (and some months 20%) of those who were about to be called up for the armed forces were instead, by means of a ballot, conscripted down the mines. Any refusal to go meant imprisonment.

In all 21,800 Bevin Boys were conscripted this way but others could volunteer to go down the mines and as the war ended some young men opted to finish their national service in mining, which brought the total to 48,000. In time many of the volunteers and optants called themselves Bevin Boys, but those conscripted by ballot had no choice and only those were part of the Bevin Boy Scheme.

The scheme did not end until 1948, when the last Bevin Boys were released.

SECRETARY D.Elizabeth Todd [Mrs], “The Chalet”, 24 Oldfield Way, Heswall, Wirral, Merseyside CH60 6RG. Tel. 0151 342 3703