Frank Cave - Misplaced Pages

British trade unionist

Frank Cave (17 December 1942 – 7 January 2002) was a British trade unionist and political activist.

Cave was born in Edlington in Yorkshire and grew up in nearby Brodsworth. He became a coal miner on leaving school, and quickly became active in the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). As a committed socialist, he became a key ally of Arthur Scargill, then a member of the branch committee at a nearby pit.

Cave rose through the ranks of the NUM, becoming the Brodsworth pit's delegate, then gaining election to the executive of the Yorkshire Area and, in 1982, becoming Agent for the Yorkshire Area, then a full-time post. Yorkshire was the largest area of the NUM, so he played a key role during the strike of 1984/5.

In 1990, Cave was elected as Vice President of the NUM, but the national programme of pit closures had reduced the importance of this role, and Cave had time to devote to other political activities. In particular, he was a strong support of Fidel Castro, and arranged aid convoys to Cuba, as a result of which he travelled to the country and met Castro. He also joined Scargill's Socialist Labour Party, and was elected as its President in 1997, serving until his death in 2002. In this role, he stood on the party list in the 1999 European Parliament election in Yorkshire and the Humber, but was not elected.

Scargill and Cave were removed as trustees of the Yorkshire Miners' Welfare Trust Fund Scheme and the Yorkshire Miners' Welfare Convalescent Homes in 1997, after the High Court found that they had ignored rules on the transfer of funds, in an attempt to avoid them becoming subject to partnership funding schemes, which they opposed. The Court agreed that the two had not attempted to profit from this transfer.

References

^ Martin Wainwright, "Obituary: Frank Cave", The Guardian, 17 January 2002
"1999 Election candidates; Yorkshire and the Humber". UK Office of the European Parliament. Archived from the original on 28 August 2009. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
"1999 Election Results: Yorkshire and Humber". UK Office of the European Parliament. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
"Scargill 'mismanaged' charities", BBC News, 22 December 1997

v t e Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)
Presidents	1889 Pickard 1904 En. Edwards 1912 Smillie 1922 Smith 1929 Richards 1931 Eb. Edwards 1932 Lee 1934 J. Jones 1939 Lawther 1954 E. Jones 1960 Machen 1960 Ford 1971 Gormley 1982 Scargill 2002 Lavery 2012 Wilson
Vice-Presidents	1889 Woods 1909 Smillie 1912 Harvey 1914 House 1917 Smith 1922 Walsh 1924 Richards 1929 Eb. Edwards 1931 Lee 1932 J. Jones 1933 Davies 1934 Lawther 1939 Bowman 1950 E. Jones 1954 T. Jones 1961 Collindridge 1963 Bullough 1969 Schofield 1973 McGahey 1987 Thompson 1989 Vacant 1992 Cave 2002 Stanley 2010 Wilson 2012 Thomas
General Secretaries	1889 Ashton 1919 Hodges 1924 Cook 1932 Eb. Edwards 1946 Horner 1959 Paynter 1968 Daly 1984 Heathfield 1992 Scargill 1992 Vacant? 2002 Kemp 2007 Kitchen
Treasurers	1889 En. Edwards 1904 Abraham 1918 Robson 1921 Richardson
Affiliates and areas	Bristol Cleveland Cokemen Colliery Officials and Staffs Cumberland Derbyshire Durham Forest of Dean Kent Lancashire and Cheshire Leicestershire Midland Counties (Cannock Chase North Staffordshire Old Hill Pelsall Shropshire Warwickshire West Bromwich) Northumberland North Wales Nottinghamshire Scotland (Ayrshire Fife and Kinross Lanarkshire Mid and East Lothian Mid and West Lothian Stirling) Somerset South Derbyshire South Wales Yorkshire
Strikes	1893 1912 1926 1969 1972 1974 1984–1985

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