Bertie Louis Coombes

Bertie Louis Coombes, or B. L. Coombes (1893–1974), was a Welsh coal miner, notable for his autobiography "These Poor Hands: The Autobiography of a Miner in South Wales" (1939) which became an instant best seller. He also produced short stories, dramas and other autobiographical works about the lives of coalminers and the communities in which they lived.

Early life

Coombes was born in Wolverhampton, England on 12 January 1893. He was the only child of James Coombs Griffiths, at that time a grocer, and Harriet Thompson.

A few years after Bertie's birth, the Coombes family dropped the surname Griffiths and moved to Treharris in South Wales where his father took work at the Deep Navigation Colliery and Bertie attended elementary school. In 1905 or 1906 his parents took a tenancy of a small farm in Madley, Herefordshire and Bertie left school to work as a farm labourer. He later became a groom for a local doctor but his family always struggled to pay the farm rent and in 1910, he left home and moved to South Wales to become a miner.

In the mines

Coombes settled in Resolven in the Vale of Neath and started work as a collier's helper in an anthracite mine. In 1913 he married Mary Rogers, the daughter of the secretary to the local lodge of the South Wales Miners' Federation. They had one daughter, Rose, born the following year, and a son, Peter, born ten years later. Their union was to last fifty-six years. He spent forty years working underground.

Writing

Coombes realised that those outside the coal-mining industry had little idea of the activities of miners and the dangers they faced. Despite his limited education, Coombes felt the urge to inform the general public about the mining industry and mining communities. When in his forties, he started doing this, writing in the evenings after a day in the pit. At first his manuscripts were rejected by publishers but eventually he encountered John Lehmann, the publishing editor of New Writing. This literary magazine sought to break down social barriers and published works by working-class authors as well as by educated middle-class writers.

He published Coombes' short story, "The Flame", which gave a detailed description of the terrifying ordeal of a miner, lying prone in an eighteen-inch coal seam, when seeping methane is ignited by his carbide lamp while he is packing dynamite into a hole. The story was much acclaimed and brought invitations from other publishers. More short stories followed, mostly based on real-life events he had experienced.

Some of the best known of his longer works include These poor hands: the autobiography of a miner working in South Wales and These clouded hills. Another book is Miners Day in which Coombes recounts the everyday activities of a miner inside and outside the pit, the grievances, attitudes and camaraderie.

There are two recent editions of his work:

• "With Dust Still in his Throat - The Writing of B. L. Coombes, The Voice of a Working Miner", (2014), ISBN 9781783161492, published by the University of Wales Press, edited by Bill Jones, Chris Williams.
• "These Poor Hands: The Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales", (2002), ISBN 978 0-7083-1563-7, University of Wales Press

Other notable works

• Miner's day()
• The life we want(published in 1944)
• I am a miner( published in 1939)
• With dust still in his throat : an anthology of writing
• Those clouded hills(published in 1944)

Critical reception

In 1974, the Times Literary Supplement wrote that Coombes was "one of the few proletarian writers of the 1930s who were impressive as writers rather than proletarians." The Social History Bulletin wrote, "Covering the 1930s and 1940s, and thus encapsulating a way of life that has disappeared, Bert Coombes's concern for the reality of the miner's lot provides a record of great interest to the social historian."