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However, he eventually volunteered as a Bevin Boy, one of the group of men who carried out their national service as coal miners during the Second World War.

When sent down the mines as a Bevin boy, he realised that by turning up in a suit, working naked, then washing his hands and feet while at the bottom of the pit, he might come back up to leave the mine after a day's work as immaculate as when he arrived.

Former Bevin Boy Harry Parkes, from Nottinghamshire, has campaigned for official acknowledgement for decades.

"The Countess of Wessex name has given this memorial, I feel, credence, and it's given the Bevin Boys the right to stand tall and say I was a Bevin Boy," said Mr Parkes.

Bevin Boy Arnold Hilton told his son "I'm not going to make it" when he was found collapsed at his home in Upholland after the attack on 20 March.