As a Bevin Boy (February 1944 - September 1947 I am interested in news of any Bevin Boys who served from the end of 1943 right up to 1948.
My full story will be posted in the near future.
At the age of 17 and a half +, I volunteered for the ROYAL MARINES at a temporary recruiting office in Aldershot Hampshire, there were 12 of us lads all keen to become members of the Marines, we had a complete Medical, sat a written exam paper after which only four were selected to go forward to the Selection Board of Officers, there we were subjected to a grilling by four of them.
We now waited outside the office for the word from the four wise men, where upon we were then informed 鈥淵OU ARE NOW ROYAL MARINES鈥 GO HOME AND WAIT FOR FURTHER ORDERS., on asking the question 鈥淗ow long might that be sir鈥 (Keen what) I was informed two weeks lad, however after four weeks with no news I attended the Reading Berks Recruiting office to get some answers, the officer in charge said 鈥淲ell lad I can鈥檛 tell you much but because your National Registration number ends with a 0, we have orders not to proceed with any recruits with 0 or 9 at the end of registration numbers, why is that Sir? I asked, to which he replied 鈥淭his is the Military lad they tell us WHAT not WHY, you go home I am sure you will be advised in due course.
OHMS letter arrives and puts the question would I like to volunteer for UNDERGROUND Mining as an alternative to Military Service, my answer to that was to file it in the BIN!
However a short time latter I received yet another OHMS letter this informed me I had been SELECTED by BALLOT for Coal Mining after training in Yorkshire.
The only grounds of appeal were MEDICAL, this after passing A1 fit for the Royal Marines however I appealed as an 鈥淎cute Claustrophobic鈥, at the appeal I met 24 other Acute Claustrophobic鈥檚 and we all got the same answer 鈥淏ad luck lad you are in the Mines
Why had this come about? The answer was that the then Coalition Government had failed to make Mining a reserved occupation, as a direct result miners had leached away into the Munitions Factories for better pay with others called up for military service, a state of affairs which left the whole country鈥檚 coal supply down to just three weeks only.
The then Minister of Labour Mr Ernest Bevin was set the task of finding 50,000 workers to replace the missing miners who were valuable where they were now doing their bit, his first attempt was to contact all Headmasters of Senior Schools to enlist their help in persuading the boys to go Coalmining instead of joining the military, he had of course NOT A HOPE IN HELL, lads saw nothing attractive about that prospect, his PA then came up with the lottery idea so into his Bowler Hat went numbers 0 to9 and lo and behold out came 0 and9 as the first groups to be called, the only lottery I have ever won.
To put this into context, we were diverted from the services we were about to enter That would have been:- The Army, Navy, Air Force and in my case Royal Marines, one thing we were not, was Conscientious Objectors only 40 of them were down the pits, to our 50,000 conscripts
My time as a Bevin Boy commenced at Askern Colliery Nr Doncaster Yorkshire .
More on page two.
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