Influential Head of ‘Enfeebled’ Mines Department

Abstract

Shortly after the First World War ended, Ernest Gowers began an association with coal that was to ‘claim many years of his labours’.¹ In 1919 he was appointed Director of Production in the Coal Mines Department within the Board of Trade, becoming Permanent Under-Secretary for Mines when a new Mines Department was established by Act of Parliament in September 1920. He held this position through seven tempestuous years for the coal industry, only moving on for a brief respite in Inland Revenue after the end of the painful and protracted miners’ strike in 1926. Altogether, however, Gowers was involved with the troubled coal industry for 30 years. His respite as Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue came to an end in 1930 when he was appointed Chairman of the Coal Reorganization Commission, and he did not sever the connection totally until coal was nationalised after the Second World War. Despite the heavy demands of running London’s civil defence during the war, Gowers combined this task with his Coal Commission responsibilities.