the bevin boys were named after the wartime minister of labour ernest bevin, who had been charged with of the young men who'd signed up to go to war would instead go down the mines to replace those who were fighting abroad. the number of serious accidents increased as pressure grew on the mines to extract more and more coal. it was done on a ballot system. so, they had the numbers nought to nine in a hat and bevin's secretary picked out a number, randomly, every fortnight — and if your registration ended with that number, you were conscripted to the mines. so, you had men who would have been training to go into the air corps or to the air force, and they ended up being conscripted to work underground. well, we never had a uniform. we had to buy our own gear, clothes, and boots and helmets... ..when we worked at the pit. you were going into... whatever the danger was, you had to do it. you were a conscript and so you did what you were told. this is a nerve injury... miners were five times more likely to have an accident than other workers on the home front. my grandfather treated more t

instead, like almost 50,000 men, he was conscripted as a bevin boy, as they were known.ated every day of going to the pit. to start with, i was frightened to death, because we knew, being in a mining area, that, i think it was 1,000 men killed every year working in a coal mine. but if we didn't go, it was on pain of imprisonment. because i was a conscript, i felt i should be fighting for my country and i wasn't allowed to do that. miners were five times more likely to have an accident and other workers on the home front. my grandfather treated more than 1,000 a year at the local hospital. where did you go that he worked? my mother vividly remembers going on hospital visits with him. every saturday morning, we went to mansfield general hospital to do a ward round. and he would put on his white coat and would sweep in. and he was made such a fuss of. and then we went all round all the patients, chatting to each one. after the war, ernest nicoll carried on his work with miners. he spent the rest of his life working as an orthopaedic surgeon in the nhs. and playing the piano