WHEN David Hewetson turned 18 he graduated from public school to work in a coalmine – and became a star of the silver screen in the process. The lifelong Southport resident owed his unusual journey to a freak of chance, namely a wartime conscription number ending in zero.
Instead of entering training to be a soldier, sailor or airman in the fight against Nazi Germany, David became one of the first wave of Bevin Boy recruits.
Named after Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin, the programme sought to redress a loss of manpower from the mines to the armed forces by enlisting recruits to work there instead.

Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin

Now 82, David spoke in his home at Viceroy Court of how his status as the first public school-educated Bevin Boy ensured appearances in the press and on cinema newsreels.
Yet far from being overwhelmed, he described his attitude to his posting as: “When in Rome do as the Romans do.”
He said: “It was a great experience. Instead of fighting on the front you were fighting on the coal face.”
Born in Princes Street, David attended Terra Nova independent school in Lancaster Road and then St Bees school in Cumbria.
He had initially intended serving in the Army on turning 18, but a random ballot selected him to be among the first intake of Bevin Boys and, in January 1944, was told to attend a training centre in Swinton near Manchester.
“At Swinton they told us what to expect,” said David.

From there he was posted to carry out hard and dirty work in Bickershaw Collieries in Leigh, travelling nine miles everyday to work from his lodgings in Pemberton near Wigan.
Like his fellow Bevin Boys, David did not hew coal himself but worked in haulage and other duties.
“There were around six Bevin Boys and 30 colliers on my coalface,” he said.
He said: “There were some from Wigan but no-one else from Southport. They were lads from all different backgrounds but had all been called up at 18. I wasn’t unhappy there. We had quite a lot of fun between us.”

Working weekday shifts of 8am to 3.30pm or 4pm, David was transported up to half a kilometre underground to help operate the haulage system that ensured a flow of fresh coal from the pit.
That was interrupted in winter 1946, when he contracted dermatitis and spent a number of months underground collecting samples of stone dust – a necessary task to help ward off explosions.

Mining was then a particularly dangerous occupation, and although he knew of only one fatal accident in his pit, there were plenty of near-misses.
“I could have been done two or three times,” David remembered of the times coal had collapsed around him.
After the close of hostilities in 1945, Bevin Boys continued to help power Britain’s reconstruction and David did not leave the pits until September, 1947.

He later trained in horticulture and forged a career as a manager for market gardening firms, living in Trafalgar Road for 46 years.
David has now applied to receive a unique veterans’ badge honouring the service of the Bevin Boys – the first of which of will be issued next month to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the demobbing of the last Bevin Boy.

He said: “We felt we did our job. We felt we were playing our part. We didn’t feel we were failing by not going into the forces.”
Do you have an interesting wartime experience you would like to share with LookBack readers? If so, phone reporter Robert Alcock on 01704-398287, email robert.alcock@southportvisiter.co.uk or let us know below.

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