Peter Heathfield

Peter Heathfield (2 March 1929 – 4 May 2010)^[1]^[2] was a British trade unionist who was general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) between 1984 and 1992, including the period of the miners' strike of 1984/85.

He was born in Somercotes, near Alfreton in Derbyshire, moving to Chesterfield with his family as a child. After leaving school he worked in a colliery drawing office, before starting underground work at the Williamthorpe coal mine. He became active in the North Derbyshire region of the NUM, and the local Labour Party, and attended education courses at Sheffield University's extramural department. He also became a local councillor in Chesterfield, and unsuccessfully sought nomination as a Labour candidate in the 1964 General Election for Ilkeston.^[1]

In 1966, he was elected to a full-time post in the NUM, rising to become vice-president of the Derbyshire NUM in 1970 and Derbyshire area secretary in 1973. Although tipped to become national president of the NUM in 1981, he stood aside to support the younger Arthur Scargill as the left-wing candidate.

In January 1984, he was elected general secretary of the NUM, taking over the post in March, five days before the strike began. He backed Scargill's handling throughout the dispute, retiring from the position of general secretary in 1992.^[1]

Personal life

He was married to Betty Heathfield, but they separated in 1989 and later divorced. He remarried in 2001.

Death

Peter Heathfield died in 2010, aged 81. He was survived by his second wife and his four children from his first marriage.

References

1 2 3 Geoffrey Goodman Obituary: Peter Heathfield, The Guardian (website), 4 May 2010
↑ Paul Haste Obituary, Morning Star, 4 May 2010

Trade union offices
Preceded by Herbert Parkin	General Secretary of the Derbyshire Area of the National Union of Mineworkers 1973–1984	Succeeded by Gordon Butler
Preceded by Lawrence Daly	General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers 1984–1992	Succeeded by Arthur Scargill

Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)

Presidents	1889 Pickard 1904 Enoch Edwards 1912 Smillie 1922 Smith 1929 Richards 1931 Ebby Edwards 1932 Lee 1934 J. Jones 1939 Lawther 1954 Ernest Jones 1960 Machen 1960 Ford 1971 Gormley 1982 Scargill 2002 Lavery 2012 Wilson

Vice-Presidents	1889 Woods 1909 Smillie 1912 Harvey 1914 House 1917 Smith 1922 Walsh 1924 Richards 1929 Ebby Edwards 1931 Lee 1932 J. Jones 1933 Davies 1934 Lawther 1939 Bowman 1950 Ernest Jones 1954 Edward Jones 1960 Collindridge 1963 Bullough 1969 Schofield 1973 McGahey 1987 Thompson 1989 Vacant 1992 Cave 2002 Stanley 2010 Wilson 2012 Thomas

General Secretaries	1889 Ashton 1919 Hodges 1924 Cook 1932 Ebby Edwards 1946 Horner 1959 Paynter 1968 Daly 1984 Heathfield 1992 Scargill 1992 Vacant? 2002 Kemp 2007 Kitchen

Treasurers	1889 Enoch Edwards 1904 Abraham 1918 Robson 1921 Richardson

MFGB affiliates	Bristol Cleveland Cokemen Cumberland Derbyshire Durham Forest of Dean Kent Lancashire and Cheshire Leicestershire Midland Counties Northumberland North Wales Nottinghamshire Scotland (Ayrshire Fife and Kinross Lanarkshire Mid and East Lothian Mid and West Lothian Stirling) Somerset South Derbyshire South Wales Yorkshire

Strikes	1893 1912 1926 1969 1972 1974 1984–1985

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 4461132

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, February 26, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.