A DWINDLING band of the heroes who kept Britain’s coal industry working during World War Two held their reunion at a Bournemouth hotel.

The Bevin Boys Association held its ‘final’ reunion in the town two years ago – but the surviving members did not want to let the tradition lapse.

Bevin Boys – named after Ernest Bevin, the wartime minister of labour and national service – were the 48,000 conscripts selected by lottery to work in the coal mines.

Warwick Taylor, of Poundbury, who organised the reunion at the Hotel Miramar, said they had been unprepared. “It was hard work for three pounds and two shillings a week,” he said.

He had been keen to join the RAF as a young man but found himself sent instead to a coal mine in South Wales.

Some locals mistakenly believed the Bevin Boys were conscientious objectors and shunned them.

“They were also frightened we were taking the jobs from miners who wouldn’t have a job to come back to,” aid Mr Taylor.

He said he would keep asking members whether they wanted to carry on with the reunions, but expected them to continue. He said the veterans loved sharing their stories.

“More coal got moved today than we ever moved as Bevin Boys,” he said. The Bevin Boys struggled for years for proper recognition before 27 of them – including Mr Taylor – were honoured with a commemorative badge from Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street in 2008.