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Important role: Bevin Boy John Gowan with his commemorative award.

A BEVIN Boy who helped keep the home fires burning during the Second World War said he was shocked that he and the other "forgotten lads" had finally been recognised.

John Gowan, 82, of Jackson Crescent, Stourport, received his Bevin Boys veterans badge in the mail this week as a reward for his vital wartime efforts in the mines securing coal.

He said: "To be recognised after 60 years was something. I was quite shocked that we had finally got this. We were the sort of forgotten lads."

Mr Gowan was conscripted in 1944, aged 18, and sent to train for four weeks in Sheffield before starting work in a colliery in Longwith in Nottinghamshire.

He said: "At that time, the war in Europe was coming to an end and I would have been sent out to the Far East.

"When I thought to myself, Would I rather be digging coal or fighting the Japanese', I might have to say the mining would win. "

Mr Gowan said the work was arduous and although the mine was made as safe as possible there was always the danger of a rockfall.

He said: "Conditions were exactly as you would expect in that kind of place and we just had to get used to it."

He added: "There was a good camaraderie. On the whole, miners are a nice, ordinary bunch of folks and they didn't treat us any differently to one another. We mucked in together and everything was amiable."

Mr Gowan has a wife, Betty, 82, and one son, Ian, 45, and after the war worked at a steel factory ordering and buying metal.

He said he was glad the "Land Girls" were also finally being recognised for their work on British farms helping to ensure food was supplied during the war.

He added: "They needed coal badly during the war and we helped to provide it. That was our contribution to the war effort."

He explained: "I think what we did was very important. I know I did my part and I'm proud to have done it."

Do you remember the Bevin Boys? Leave your comment in the box below.

2:05pm Friday 28th March 2008

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