Peter Heathfield (2 March 1929 – 4 May 2010)

Geoffrey Goodman Geoffrey George Goodman (2 July 1922 – 5 September 2013Mike Molloy"Obituary: Geoffrey Goodman" theguardian.com, 6 September 2013.) was a British journalist, broadcaster and writer. Following periods on the ''News Chronicle'' and the '' Daily He ...

br>Obituary: Peter Heathfield
''The Guardian'' (website), 4 May 2010Paul Hast
Obituary
, '' Morning Star'', 4 May 2010 was a British

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

ist who was general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) between 1984 and 1992, including the period of the

miners' strike Miners' strikes are when miners conduct strike actions. See also *List of strikes References {{Reflist Miners A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two ...

of 1984/85. He was born in

Somercotes Somercotes is a village and civil parish in the district of Amber Valley in the English county of Derbyshire, close to the border with Nottinghamshire. It is a former mining village and was once surrounded by more than five pits. The village has ...

, near

Alfreton Alfreton ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. The town was formerly a Norman Manor and later an Urban District. The population of the Alfreton parish was 7,971 at the 2011 Census. The villages of Ir ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...

, moving to

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituenc ...

with his family as a child. After leaving school he worked in a colliery drawing office, before starting underground work at the Williamthorpe

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron fro ...

. He became active in the North Derbyshire region of the NUM, and the local Labour Party, and attended education courses at

Sheffield University , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

's extramural department. He also became a local councillor in Chesterfield, and unsuccessfully sought nomination as a Labour candidate in the

1964 General Election The following elections occurred in 1964. Africa * 1964 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1964 Central African Republic parliamentary election * 1964 Central African Republic presidential election * 1964 Dahomeyan general election * 1964 Gabo ...

for

Ilkeston Ilkeston is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Derbyshire, England, on the River Erewash, from which the borough takes its name, with a population at the 2011 census of 38,640. Its major industries, coal mining, iron working and lace making/texti ...

. In 1966, he was elected to a full-time post in the NUM, rising to become vice-president of the Derbyshire NUM in 1970 and Derbyshire area secretary in 1973. Although tipped to become national president of the NUM in 1981, he stood aside to support the younger

Arthur Scargill Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984–85), a major event in the history of ...

as the left-wing candidate. In January 1984, he was elected general secretary of the NUM, taking over the post in March, five days before the strike began. He backed Scargill's handling throughout the dispute, retiring from the position of general secretary in 1992.

Personal life

He was married to

Betty Heathfield Betty Heathfield (30 March 1927, Chesterfield – 16 February 2006) was a leading figure in the Miners' Wives Support Groups during the UK miners' strike (1984–1985). Her papers are located at the Women's Library, London School of Economics ...

, but they separated in 1989 and later divorced. He remarried in 2001.

Death

Peter Heathfield died in 2010, aged 81. He was survived by his second wife and his four children from his first marriage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heathfield, Peter 1929 births 2010 deaths Councillors in Derbyshire English miners General Secretaries of the National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain) Labour Party (UK) councillors People from Chesterfield, Derbyshire People from Somercotes