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Councillor Frank Robinson

Wartime college boy Frank Robinson blew his top when he got his call-up papers to go down the mines.

The then 18-year-old was one of Britain's 48,000 Bevin Boys who had no choice but to serve "a dark sentence" underground, keeping the country country supplied with coal during the Second World War.

"It was either that or go to prison. We had no say in it," said 80-year-old Mr Robinson, who now lives in Thornbury and is a ward councillor for nearby Calverley.

Councillor Robinson, who is about to be made the next Lord Mayor of Leeds, will have his contribution to the war effort finally recognised in May when he and other Yorkshire Bevin Boys - named after the wartime Minister of Labour and National Service Ernest Bevin - are presented with commemorative badges.

Earlier this week at Downing Street Prime Minister Gordon Brown presented commemorative badges to 27 former Bevin Boys, including TV and radio presenter Sir Jimmy Savile.

Coun Robinson said: "We were told it was a fair selection process who went down the mines and who went to war but it was just a lottery.

"There were 48,000 Bevin Boys chosen at random from the conscript registration numbers ended in the number four.

"I blew my top. I'd just got a diploma in PDE and was expecting to go into the Army.

Coun Robinson as a 'Bevin Boy' during the Second World War

"Going down the mine was a culture shock. It made no difference whether you were a lord's son or from a mining family, if your number came up - that was it.

"It was a dark sentence being plunged underground in a cage and having to walk a mile before starting work and coming home covered in dust as black as night. We were condemned to that way of life, it was like prison.

"We were forgotten conscripts and since then have been treated abominably."

Coun Robinson worked for four years down a mine at Birkenshaw, surfacing coal which was used for heat and power in homes, factories, trains and ships.

"I'm pleased that at last we have got the recognition we deserved," he said. "Better late than never but at the same time I'm sad that those who have now died were not considered entitled for a badge."

The Yorkshire Bevin Boy presentations are at the National Mining Museum, near Wakefield, on Friday, May 2.

e-mail: kathie.griffiths@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

5:24am Thursday 27th March 2008

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