North Wales Miners' Association

The North Wales Miners' Association was a trade union representing coal miners in Wales.

The union was founded in 1891 as the Denbighshire and Flintshire Miners' Federation. In 1903, it was renamed as the "North Wales Miners' Association", while in 1935 it became the North Wales and Border Counties Mineworkers' Association.^[1]

Never a large organisation - the Association had only 7,500 members in 1945 -^[2] its General Secretary also served as its Agent, and that post was even left vacant from 1932 until 1934; Edward Jones was appointed shortly before the Gresford disaster.^[3]

The Association affiliated to the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB). In 1945, the MFGB became the National Union of Mineworkers, and the Association became its North Wales Area, with less autonomy than before.^[1]

By the time of the 1984-85 strike, the region had only two pits operating. Its then Secretary, Ted McKay, opposed the strike, but the Bersham Colliery was heavily picketed by miners from other areas and did not work until November 1984.^[4]

The Area was dissolved in 2011.

Secretaries

1891: Ioan T. Williams

1897: Edward Hughes

1925: Hugh Hughes

1934: Edward Jones

Jos Ellis

Ted McKay

1987:

Les Kelly

2005: Rosemarie Williams

Bibliography

Keith Gildart, North Wales Miners: A Fragile Unity, 1945-1996
Ted McKay, Edward Hughes and the History of Coal Mining in North Wales

References

1 2 "National Union of Mineworkers (North Wales Area) MSS", Archives Wales
↑ Arthur Ivor Marsh and Victoria Ryan, Historical Directory of Trade Unions, Vol.2, p.198
↑ Stanley Williamson, Gresford: The Anatomy of a Disaster, p.179
↑ "Former NUM officer's fears in 1984/85 miners' strike", BBC News, 5 March 2010

Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)

Presidents	1889 Pickard 1904 Enoch Edwards 1912 Smillie 1922 Smith 1929 Richards 1931 Ebby Edwards 1932 Lee 1934 J. Jones 1939 Lawther 1954 Ernest Jones 1960 Machen 1960 Ford 1971 Gormley 1982 Scargill 2002 Lavery 2012 Wilson

Vice-Presidents	1889 Woods 1909 Smillie 1912 Harvey 1914 House 1917 Smith 1922 Walsh 1924 Richards 1929 Ebby Edwards 1931 Lee 1932 J. Jones 1933 Davies 1934 Lawther 1939 Bowman 1950 Ernest Jones 1954 Edward Jones 1960 Collindridge 1963 Bullough 1969 Schofield 1973 McGahey 1987 Thompson 1989 Vacant 1992 Cave 2002 Stanley 2010 Wilson 2012 Thomas

General Secretaries	1889 Ashton 1919 Hodges 1924 Cook 1932 Ebby Edwards 1946 Horner 1959 Paynter 1968 Daly 1984 Heathfield 1992 Scargill 1992 Vacant? 2002 Kemp 2007 Kitchen

Treasurers	1889 Enoch Edwards 1904 Abraham 1918 Robson 1921 Richardson

MFGB affiliates	Bristol Cleveland Cokemen Cumberland Derbyshire Durham Forest of Dean Kent Lancashire and Cheshire Leicestershire Midland Counties Northumberland North Wales Nottinghamshire Scotland (Ayrshire Fife and Kinross Lanarkshire Mid and East Lothian Mid and West Lothian Stirling) Somerset South Derbyshire South Wales Yorkshire

Strikes	1893 1912 1926 1969 1972 1974 1984–1985

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