Hitler.

[Gofer Blue]

Thank you. Yes it is fascinating. Mine focuses upon the Ebbw Fach valley - Abertillery area - where I was born and lived until a few years ago. My dad was a miner and a local councillor. He would have been a mine of info (no pun intended) but he died when I was quite young. His and your dad's generation were very special and deserve to be honoured.

OK! I guess it is pretty odds-on that any man of working age in the Valleys during that period was a coal miner! My ancestors came from Wiltshire (agricultural labourers) and Devon (copper miners) in the 1850's when the Valleys were like the Klondyke i.e. for coal rather than gold.

Dad was the youngest of four brothers and the two oldest became miners. He and his next oldest brother “got on their bikes” (literally) and set off for a new life. WW2 intervened and, as for countless others, it changed the course of my Dad's life completely.

He eventually came back to Mountain Ash but it's a very long story which I am in the (very slow) process of writing up in the form of a biography of my Dad. This is primarily for my grandchildren who never knew my Dad and know nothing of life in the Valleys.

I know most people think their Dad is a hero, but as you say these particular men were special. They grew up in relative poverty, endured the General Strike and then WW2. I know I couldn't hold a candle to them!

My dream is to write a novel about our ancestors along the lines of “How green was my valley” but rather less sentimental I think. It would make a good TV serial too. Sadly time is running out for me so I doubt it'll ever materialise!