Norman Pentland
British politician (1912-1972)
Norman Pentland (9 September 1912 – 28 October 1972) was a British politician and coal miner who was the Labour Member of Parliament for Chester-le-Street from 1956 until his death.
Background
Pentland was born in Fatfield, educated at Fatfield County School, and in 1926 became a miner, based at the Harraton Colliery. In 1937, he married Ethel Coates, and they had two sons.
Political career
In 1949, Pentland was elected as a checkweighman, and by this time, he was heavily involved in the Durham Area of the National Union of Mineworkers, and the local Labour Party.
Pentland served on Chester-le-Street Rural District Council, and became its chair in 1952. That same year, he was elected to the executive committee of the Durham Miners. He won a seat in Parliament at the 1956 Chester-le-Street by-election. Described as a political moderate, he held ministerial office as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions from 1964 to 1966, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Social Security from 1966 to 1968, Under-Secretary of State for Social Services from 1968 to 1969, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications from 1969 until 1970.
In both 1971 and 1972, Pentland stood unsuccessfully to become Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party. On 28 October 1972, some two weeks after his second attempt to become chair, he died at his home in Great Lumley at the age of 60.
“Norman Pentland” enters the record as british politician (1912-1972). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Norman, Pentland and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Norman Pentland” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Norman, Pentland and British provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7052690. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1912, 1972, 1956 and 1926.
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This entry incorporates text from “Norman Pentland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.