General Strike miners’ leader honoured in ceremony at Castleford cemetery
Heritage campaigners in Castleford organised the event at the town’s cemetery in honour of Herbert Smith.
A ceremony has been held to celebrate the life of a Yorkshire-born union leader who led miners during the 1926 General Strike.
Heritage campaigners in Castleford organised the event at the town’s cemetery in honour of Herbert Smith.
Smith was secretary of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain at the time of the General Strike, in which was more than two million British workers downed tools, and led negotiations with then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.
He was born in Kippax and in 1862 and began working at Glasshoughton pit when he was just ten years old before becoming a union activist.
Castleford Civic Society arranged the event to re-dedicate Smith’s grave in Healdfield Road Cemetery on May 12 to mark the centenary of the strike.
A service was led by Rev Kerry Tankard, district chair of Yorkshire West Methodist Circuit, and was attended by Smiths’ relatives, councillors, as well as representatives from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Unite the Union and Leeds Trades Council.
In October last year, the civic society launched an appeal to find the old Glasshoughton Colliery banner so it could be displayed at the ceremony.
Kathryn Stainburn, the society’s heritage lead, said the standard had still not been located but the Yorkshire NUM banner was instead used at the event.
The ceremony took place after one of Smith’s relatives was traced and gave permission for it to go ahead.
Smith was known as the “grand old man” of British mineworkers and known to hundreds of Yorkshire miners as “Our Herb.”
He died in 1938 at his desk in the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) offices in Barnsley and was buried in Castleford.
At the time of his funeral, crowds thronged Healdfield Road and a brass band played as his cortège approached the cemetery.
Ms Stainburn said: “Herbert rose from very humble beginnings as an orphan in the Great Preston Workhouse and started work at Glasshoughton pit in 1872.
“Herbert was active in Castleford civic life as an elected member of a school board, a Poor Law Guardian and a county councillor.
“Herbert never forgot where he was born and at meetings often referenced being in a union all his life.
“He always spoke up on behalf of the most vulnerable in society.
Smith’s grave also forms part of a heritage trail which explores the unique history of Healdfield Road Cemetery.
The trail features the graves of 17 people at the burial ground, which dates back to 1857.