In response to the lack of coal miners that were drafted into the armed forces during WWII, a large group of men called Bevin Boys were used in order to meet the demand in coal exports. The name Bevin Boys originated from the Minister of Labour and National Service, Earnest Bevin. Bevin addressed the drop in coal exports in the beginning of the war by creating this new coal mining workforce, dubbed 'Bevin Boys' by the press. A Bevin Boy was selected by Bevin's secretary, who drew numbers out of a hat. If a man's National Service number matched the last digit of the number drawn, then he was sent to work in the mines.

Conditions in the mines were dangerous and often treacherous, especially for those who never even worked in the mines, like Mr. Sinclair in Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy, who described swapping the Bevin Boy job for Seamus' RAF position, because of his childhood fear of dark enclosed cave-like spaces (pgs. 273-274).

Bibliography

Livesey, Margot. The Flight of Gemma Hardy. HarperCollins, 2012.

Information source: "5 Things You (probably) Didn't Know About the Bevin Boys." historyextra.com. History Extra. 6 May 2018. Web. Date Accessed, 1 Oct. 2019. https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/5-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-the-bevin-boys/

Image source: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205202857