Derek Agnew, HB, 140pp, George Allen & Unwin Ltd 1947.
Born into a troubled world, Smith reached manhood at a time when his fellows were off to fight in the war. One day he stood on a mine, stepped forward and dropped into the bowels of the earth, and it was thus that John Smith made history. He was the first youth to be directed to work in a coal mine under the National Service Acts. He became a joke and called "Bevin Boy" but he was not alone.