ABSTRACT
The government was clearly concerned to ensure that the war effort would not be hampered by the lack of coal during the Second World War as it had been during the First. At the outbreak of war the government took a range of powers designed to secure the position of coal supplies. The Schedule of Reserved Occupations, 1 the Armed Forces (Conditions of Service) Act 2 and the National Service (Armed Forces) Act 3 were used to protect manpower in the industry; the government took over control of the marketing of coal by appointing Coal Supply Officers in all regions to oversee the industry’s centralised selling schemes; and rationing was introduced for domestic consumers through the Fuel and Lighting Order 4 (domestic and small industrial consumers were required to restrict their purchases of coal to 75 per cent of what they had been in the corresponding quarter of the previous year). The first part of the war, however, was an unstable period for the coal-mining industry. Between the outbreak of war and the middle of 1941 demand for coal fluctuated violently, and government policy followed in a similar fashion.
