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Roy Lynk
He went down the pit aged 14 at Teversal Colliery in 1947. He left mining in 1979. He was Branch Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers at Sutton Colliery from 1958-79.
OBE
He married in 1978 in
OBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(born 9 November 1932) was a leader of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers
The Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM) was a British trade union for coal miners based in Nottinghamshire, England, established in 1985, after the 1984–85 miners' strike, when the Nottinghamshire Area of the National Union of Mineworker ...
.
Early life
He was born in Chesterfield where his parents had married in 1932. He grew up inSutton-in-Ashfield
Sutton-in-Ashfield is a market town in Nottinghamshire, England, with a population of 48,527 in 2019. It is the largest town in the district of Ashfield,
four miles west of Mansfield, two miles from the Derbyshire border and 12 miles north ...
, attending Station Road Higher School and Healdswood School in Skegby
Skegby is a village and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Sutton in Ashfield, in the Ashfield district of Nottinghamshire, England, located two miles west of Mansfield and one mile north of Sutton-in-Ashfield, close to Stanton ...
. He would later receive a Certificate in Industrial Relations from the University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...
.
Career
He went down the pit aged 14 at Teversal Colliery in 1947. He left mining in 1979. He was Branch Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers at Sutton Colliery from 1958-79.
UDM
At the start of theUK miners' strike (1984–85)
The miners' strike of 1984–1985 was a major industrial action within the British coal industry in an attempt to prevent colliery closures. It was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Bo ...
on 6 March 1984, following a dispute at Cortonwood
Cortonwood was a colliery near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The colliery's proposed closure was a tipping point in the 1984-85 miners' strike. The site is now a shopping and leisure centre.
History
Cortonwood colliery was sunk in 1873, ...
, Nottinghamshire's coal mining industry was second only to that of Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
, with 32,000 miners; during the strike around 2,000 of those Nottinghamshire miners went on strike. On 12 March 1984, Yorkshire striking miners massed at Harworth Colliery
Harworth Colliery was a colliery near the town of Harworth Bircotes in Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire, England.
It was abandoned in 2006 due to troubles at the seam. UK Coal, who owned and maintained the mine, were waiting for a contract to make ...
to picket, and also on 14 March 1984 at Sutton Colliery.
He replaced Henry Richardson as General Secretary of the Nottinghamshire area of the NUM in March 1984. The Nottinghamshire area left the NUM on 7 July 1985. The UDM was formed in December 1985, by him (aged 52) and David Prendergast (aged 37). It received financial assistance from David Hart.
He was on a committee of the European Coal and Steel Community
The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a European organization created after World War II to regulate the coal and steel industries. It was formally established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris, signed by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxemb ...
from 1988-93.
UK coal mining industry
In October 1992Michael Heseltine
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, (; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician and businessman. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket. Heseltine served ...
announced the closure of 32 of the UK's 53 remaining pits. British Coal
The British Coal Corporation was a nationalised corporation responsible for the mining of coal in the United Kingdom from 1987 until it was effectively dissolved in 1997. The corporation was created by renaming its predecessor, the National Co ...
, formed in 1987 from the NCB, was privatised by the Coal Industry Act 1994
The Coal Authority is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). On behalf of the country, it owns the vast majority of unworked coal in Great Br ...
and in England the pits became RJB Mining RJB may refer to:
* Radio Bernese Jura
* Rajbiraj Airport
Rajbiraj Airport is a domestic airport located in Rajbiraj serving Saptari District, a district in Madhesh Province in Nepal.
After eleven years of complete shut down, the airport res ...
, later UK Coal
UK Coal Production Ltd, formerly UK Coal plc, was the largest coal mining business in the United Kingdom. The company was based in Harworth, in Nottinghamshire. The company was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The successor company that co ...
. In 1991 the UDM had plans to buy British Coal
The British Coal Corporation was a nationalised corporation responsible for the mining of coal in the United Kingdom from 1987 until it was effectively dissolved in 1997. The corporation was created by renaming its predecessor, the National Co ...
. In October 1992 he held a week-long hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
protest at Silverhill Colliery.
Personal life
He was appointed anOBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in the 1990 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 1990 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countrie ...
list.He married in 1978 in
Mansfield
Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market t ...
and had three sons and three daughters.
See also
*Coal Authority
The Coal Authority is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). On behalf of the country, it owns the vast majority of unworked coal in Great Brit ...
, headquartered in Mansfield
Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market t ...
References
1932 births Living people National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain) Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Chesterfield, Derbyshire People from Sutton-in-Ashfield Presidents of British trade unions {{England-bio-stub