Obituary: Bevin Boy Warwick Taylor MBE

Warwick worked with passion and determination to ensure the history of the Bevin Boys, who often thought of themselves as the forgotten conscripts, took its rightful place in Great Britain’s wartime history and heritage.

Born in August, 1926 at Harrow, Middlesex, and schooled at Watford Grammar School, Warwick went on to work as a junior clerk in the City of London.

During the Second World War, leading up to his national service in 1944, Warwick joined the Air Training Corps in preparation for his military call up into the Royal Air Force, but this was not to be.

In late-1943, a directive by Ernest Bevin, at the time the Minister for Labour and National Service, ended Warwick’s dream of joining any branch of the Armed Forces.

Britain was short of coal, and even shorter of manpower to mine it, so Warwick found himself compulsorily balloted into the coal mines, with 22,000 other eighteen-year-olds, with little or no chance of appeal.

These young men became known as the Bevin Boys – and if any Bevin Boy refused to go down the coal mine, they were sent to jail to serve a three-month sentence. .

In total 48,000 young men were sent to the coal mines. Not all were compulsorily balloted like Warwick; many had volunteered or opted into this civilian occupation when they were offered the choice prior to the compulsive ballot in December 1943.

Warwick found himself training to be a coal miner at Oakdale Colliery, South Wales, in August 1944, and he loathed it as did most other balloted Bevin Boys.

Often accused as being conscientious objectors they wanted nothing other than to fight for their country not dig for it, but Warwick was stubborn and resolute.

He began an eighteen month campaign to get himself out of the coal mines he so detested, and into the Royal Air Force. He eventually succeeded.

Warwick married in 1949 and soon after began a career with the British Overseas Corporation, later British Airways, before joining HM Customs. In 1986 his wife died leaving behind two children.

His mining experience never left him, and in 1988 on an off chance conversation with a signalman who also happened to be an ex-Bevin Boy, Warwick began what was to become his lifelong ambition, and that was to get the Bevin Boys the recognition they deserved.

He decided to write about the forgotten conscripts and began putting feelers out for ex-Bevin Boys to get in touch, unaware that a newly formed Bevin Boys Association had come into being in 1989.

Warwick soon joined this organisation, and before long became the association’s archivist, press, publicity and public relations officer.

Along with arranging annual reunions and local reunions, Warwick campaigned tirelessly for the Bevin Boys to take their rightful place on the Remembrance Day parade in London.

This led to more than seventy Bevin Boys marching past the cenotaph in London as part of Remembrance Sunday parade in 1998. It was the first time in sixty seven years non service National Service conscripts were allowed to participate.

Warwick received an MBE in 2000 for his commitment to the plight of the Bevin Boys and for his dedicated service to The Bevin Boys Association as vice president.

His ultimate goal was for the Bevin Boys to receive official recognition from the Government in the form of either a medal or a badge which would acknowledge the vital part the Bevin Boys played during (and after) the Second World War.

In 2008, a Bevin Boy Veteran Badge was officially awarded to all surviving Bevin Boys, many of which, including Warwick, received from the Prime Minister at No 10 Downing Street.

Warwick attended as many reunions as he possibly could, but his heart always remained firmly with the Southern Counties Bevin Boys Group in Bournemouth, which he used to organise every autumn without fail, until 2017, when his health began to suffer and he announced it would be the last reunion.

On his retirement from The Bevin Boys Association, Warwick went on to form The Bevin Boys Veterans, and carried on undertaking interviews, giving talks and even went on to advise and submit substantial material for the only fully comprehensive website on the internet about the Bevin Boys and their story – www.theforgottenconscript.co.uk. Warwick was always thrilled with how many hits the site received, and to date it has been visited more than 120,000 times.

Warwick’s funeral will take place at 2pm on Friday, November 2 at Long Barrow Ceremony Hall, Harbour View Crematorium, Randalls Hill, Lytchett Minster, BH16 6AN.

Family flowers only. Donations, if desired, for Stroke Association and Dementia UK may be made online or via the funeral directors on the day.