Presiding Officer recognises contribution of Welsh Bevin Boys to war effort

16 July 2013

The National Assembly for Wales’s Presiding Officer, Rosemary Butler AM, has welcomed the Bevin Boys of south Wales to the Senedd.

She invited them to the Assembly in recognition of their contribution to the war effort during the Second World War.

“Nearly 48,000 men performed essential but largely unrecognised service in the coal mines of Wales and the rest of the UK during the war,” said the Presiding Officer.

“And many of them were not released from service until years after the war ended in 1945.

“For some there was a stigma attached because they didn’t go off to foreign fields to fight.

“I invited the surviving Welsh Bevin Boys here today to recognise the sacrifices they made in working, in often dangerous conditions, to fuel the war effort.

“Their efforts were as important in defeating Nazi Germany as those who fought on the frontline, and we should never forget that.”

From 1943 to the end of the war, it is estimated that one conscript in ten was sent to work in the mines.