Here are two letters from Bevin Boys to their old headmaster, which I found in the school archives (Reigate Grammar).
Date: 25th March 1945
"Dear Mr. Clarke,
I am writing to inform you that after two and a half weeks mining in Durham I have been released on Medical Grounds. At the moment I am waiting to go before another Medical Board and in the meantime I have restarted work with my old firm. During my short stay in the mines I had rather an uneventful time. We had to rise at six-thirty in the morning and start work at eight after a walk of two miles across the wild wind-swept Durham coast.
Our day’s work consisted of an hour and a half of physical training and an hour and a half of lecturing on the various aspects of mining. The rest of our time was spent either down the mine or on the surface. Down the mine we spent most of our time on the haulage systems used down the pit. On the surface you are employed as a general navvy. Whilst I was there I had to empty two trucks of house bricks, load a truck with coke and I also shifted a large quantity of pit props about.
I was told by the local inhabitants that I was unable to speak English and that English was only spoken in Durham. So I have been under a false impression all my life because I thought I was taught the language at school.
I would like you to give any of the boys at school who wish to take up mining a warning that they will have to do quite a quantity of hard work.
Yours faithfully
A.K. Harding"
and
Date: 28th March 1945
"Dear Mr Clarke
As you may well imagine, during the short time I have been working in a coal mine, I have experienced a very different kind of life from what I led before. At the training centre at Dunfermline, however, we had quite a good time in some ways, and were instructed in all the jobs likely to be given us later on. The work many Bevin Boys get is on the haulage system, and that is amongst the better underground work in a coal mine. During our stay at Dunfermline we visited the coal face which was but 2’9” high there, so we had to crawl along on our hands and knees. It is difficult to see how men work on considerably smaller seams than this, especially when the coal face is the worst ventilated part of a mine.
But for some outstanding exceptions, most of the Scottish coal mines are not so modern as those in England and Wales; moreover water is steadily rendering many Lanarkshire mines useless and to a lesser degree affects a few mines in Fifeshire, including the one at which I am now working.
What more than offsets the comparatively unfavourable conditions of work is the fact that I am staying with relatives and not in a hostel, so I am able to continue my studies more effectively than would otherwise have been the case. This, together with the ample spare time we get, is a very great advantage. Our hours of work here are from 6:15am to 2:15pm, and so far I have been lucky in not having a tiring job. As I have finished training I am now working on the surface, though very likely an underground job will soon be given to me.
Incidentally I have lately realised what an absorbing and interesting career coal-mining could be, but for myself I wouldn’t take it up until I see an artistic coal mine!
I’ll close now, hoping that all events connected with the school have been as successful as usual. Please remember me to the staff of R.G.S.
I am yours sincerely,
Andrew Renville"