Vernon Hartshorn

A childhood friend recalls him spending one term at Oliver's Mount, a Quaker School in Scarborough, Yorkshire where he "was good at arithmetic and could solve problems off hand which the masters found tricky".

The proving ground for many young men and boys in the South Wales valleys was work at the 'pit bottom' in the local colliery, and Hartshorn was no exception.

He started underground, probably at the age of 14, and we have found a record of him working at the coal face of the Black Vein Seam of the Risca Colliery for about a year between 1892 and 1893.

He was later elected Checkweighman at the Risca Collieries, a position rendered vacant by James Winstone, a prominent founder member and future president of the South Wales Miners' Federation.

He represented – with another prominent early leader, Alfred Onions – the Tredegar District of the South Wales Miners' Federation.

He had shown that he had a good deal of perseverance, a keen insight into mining and political matters, and a determination to do what he considered to be right however heavy the odds against him.

He was recommended for the post by the principal leaders of the South Wales Miners' Federation at the time, including William Abraham(Mabon), William Brace and James Winstone, all of them speaking of his "unblemished moral character, his keenness, tact and ability, his knowledge of economic problems, and his good executive abilities".

During the National Coal Strike of 1912 there are references to Hartshorn in the press as a militant, an extremist, a socialist, as pugnacious, uncompromising and out for trouble .

That said, he was not one of the group of young socialists from the Rhondda who published the Syndicalist manifesto, 'The Miners Next Step', with its sustained critique of the style of union leadership shown by the likes of William Abraham.

A key player in the negotiations that took place in London, Hartshorn was less than enthusiastic about the Wage Bill, and he made it clear that it could not be accepted as a final solution to the problem.

He reasoned that there would be a lack of public support for a strike while the country was at war, and naval defence depended on coal.

During the War Hartshorn visited the Western Front with other miners' leaders, ostensibly to assess morale and conditions among the troops.