8:59pm Thursday 1st May 2008
A SELECT band of Tendring men who worked down the mines during the Second World War have been honoured.
Bevin Boys were conscripted to do manual work from December 1943 until the conflict ended.
About 48,000 performed the vital tasks.
The 5,000 that are still alive were finally honoured by the Government with a lapel badge and medal last month.
Tendring Council chairman Peter Balbirnie also wanted to recognise the Bevin Boys living in the district and staged a reception in his parlour yesterday.
A total of 13 men accepted his invitation.
Mr Balbirnie said: "This is one of my last duties in my year of office, and it is truly a great honour for me to receive you in the parlour and get the chance to meet you.
"We are very proud of you and all the other Bevin Boys who contributed so much to the war effort."
The Bevin Boys inherited their name from Ernest Bevin, the wartime Minister of Labour and National Service.
He introduced a scheme in 1943, where ten per cent of conscripts aged 18 to 25 were picked to go into coal and tin mines because of worker shortages.
Luke Berriman, of Great Bentley, who worked in tin mines in Cornwall, said: "It's nice to have our work recognised.
"Now there is a record of all the people that helped the war effort in this way."
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