At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, despite many difficulties
and falling manpower, coalmining was the most important industry in
Great Britain. It employed around a million persons in well over
3,000 pits ranging from small hillside drift mines with a few hands
to substantial collieries with workforces and pit communities the
size of villages and small towns. A few months into the conflict,
Lloyd George in a patriotic speech to a coal conference proclaimed
that coal was 'everything for us, the country's life and blood, its
international coinage'. As well as digging coal for the war effort,
often in dreadful and dangerous conditions, miners demonstrated
'their old work in a new guise' when serving in huge numbers during
the Great War. Thousands voluntarily swapped the pit for what many
thought would be a better and safer option, around a quarter of a
million enlisting by 1915; and about one in five of all military
volunteers came from the coalfields of England, Scotland and Wales,
an astonishing proportion. The massive response to the Call for
Arms was most obvious in industrial areas where the so-called 'Pals
battalions' were established and it was these recruits who suffered
so heavily during the disastrous Somme offensive of 1916. The sheer
number and range of gallantry awards including several VCs - also
testify to the immense contribution of former miners. The many
thousands of pitmen who paid the ultimate price are inscribed on
public war memorials in coalfield communities, often dominating the
listings. Such was the response from large pits that many others
are commemorated on memorials specially erected by colliery and
coal companies, one the earliest in the village of Brampton in
South Yorkshire on behalf of Cortonwood Colliery. Whether working
below and above ground at collieries or as part of the armed
forces, miners played a very significant role during the Great War
of 1914-18, a total contribution that deserves to be told.
General
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