William Thomas Paynter was a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 miners' leader involved in the hunger marches

Hunger marches

The Hunger marches were a series of marches held in the 1930s during The Great Depression in the United Kingdom to protest against hunger and unemployment in the United Kingdom....

 of the 1930s.

Paynter was born in Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

, where he had a basic education before going to work at a colliery at the age of fourteen. By the age of eighteen, he was working on the coal-face, and soon joined the Communist Party. He was instrumental in setting up the National Unemployed Workers' Movement

National Unemployed Workers' Movement

The National Unemployed Workers' Movement was a British organisation set up in 1921 by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. It aimed to draw attention to the plight of unemployed workers during the post World War I slump, the 1926 General Strike and later the Great Depression, and to...

, and in 1937 he joined the International Brigade to fight in the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

. In 1951 he became President of the South Wales Miners' Federation

South Wales Miners' Federation

The South Wales Miners' Federation , nicknamed "The Fed", was a trade union for miners in South Wales.The union was founded on 24 October 1898, following the defeat of the South Wales miners' strike of 1898...

, and from 1959 to 1969 he was General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers. He was also a member of Acas

Acas

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service is a Crown non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to improve organisations and working life through the promotion and facilitation of strong industrial relations practice...

.

He featured in a programme in the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television series All Our Working Lives, which was broadcast in the year of his death and discussed the changing nature of the coal industry.

Publications

• Trade Unions and the Problems of Change (1970)
• My Generation (autobiography) (1972)