Hello, My name is Bob and I have just registered. I am tracing my Father's history through WW2 and and have now found out that he became a Bevin Boy after being discharged from the Royal Navy with Rheumatic Fever in 1943. Can anybody advise me where to start on tracking down who went to which mine etc, if such records exist that is please. Thanks.
you could try here, although the contact details may not be quite in date any more; [ARCHIVED CONTENT] Bevin Boys - BIS Also here is probably your next best start point; http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/...&CATLN=6&Highlight=,BEVIN,BOYS&accessmethod=0 Also this may be of interest; http://www.wartimememories.co.uk/bevinboys.html Hope it helps, and welcome to the forum
From your account, I am doubtful whether your father was a 'Bevin Boy'. Although not a legal or official term, it was a technical one, and applied to a particular scheme devised by Ernest Bevin, as Minister of Labour and National Service, to meet a shortage of coalminers partly caused by calling up some of them to the armed forces. The scheme comprised drawing a digit, 0-9, from a hat each week, and all the men due for call-up that week whose registration numbers ended in the digit so drawn would be diverted to the mines (subject to exclusion of some on specific health grounds, and others who had skills too precious to lose for other purposes). As a man already discharged from the navy on health grounds, your father would not have been liable for call-up again, and therefore his number would not have been entered in a draw. However, as a civilian he would have liable to direction of labour, meaning being required to enter certain categories of employment, among which could well have been coalmining. In this sense, to some extent your father probably chose the work from the range given, rather than being directly ordered into it. This means that, even if records survive specifically of Bevin Boys, your father is unlikely to be among them. Either way, your father would have had paperwork relating to his obligations, but I presume he did not preserve it for your benefit.
Thanks for the replies. I will check out the links, at least it's somewhere to start. Yes, I did question myself on being sent down the mines because of his health problem. It's just what I have been told. Thanks again.
There is a common assumption that all men who worked in the mines in WW2, other than "ordinary" miners, were Bevin Boys, but this is wrong, as I have explained. There were quite a number of other men who went into the mines in WW2.
Yes, Thank you. it is very encouraging for me that people are taking the time. Would anybody know?.... I have my father's service number, but would this be of any use to me once he was discharged in order for me to fill in the gaps? Thanks.
No. Your father's service number would be useful in tracing his navy record and any pension entitlement, but it would have no relation to any civilian work to which he was directed after his discharge from the navy. Such matters were handled directly by the Ministry of Labour and National Service. I would be very doubtful whether such directions to individual people have survived. In any case, directions were normally to a category of work, and it was up to the person concerned to obtain a job fulfilling that requirement. Advice on finding such a job could also be provided by the local Employment Exchange, but, again, I doubt whether any records of advice to individual job seekers have survived.
