Peter Heathfield
British trade unionist (1929-2010)
Peter Heathfield (2 March 1929 – 4 May 2010) was a British trade unionist who was general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) between 1984 and 1992, including the period of the miners' strike of 1984/85.
He was born in Somercotes, near Alfreton in Derbyshire, moving to Chesterfield with his family as a child. After leaving school he worked in a colliery drawing office, before starting underground work at the Williamthorpe coal mine. He became active in the North Derbyshire region of the NUM, and the local Labour Party, and attended education courses at Sheffield University's extramural department. He also became a local councillor in Chesterfield, and unsuccessfully sought nomination as a Labour candidate in the 1964 General Election for Ilkeston.
In 1966, he was elected to a full-time post in the NUM, rising to become vice-president of the Derbyshire NUM in 1970 and Derbyshire area secretary in 1973. Although tipped to become national president of the NUM in 1981, he stood aside to support the younger Arthur Scargill as the left-wing candidate.
In January 1984, he was elected general secretary of the NUM, taking over the post in March, five days before the strike began. He backed Scargill's handling throughout the dispute, retiring from the position of general secretary in 1992.
Personal life
He was married to Betty Heathfield, but they separated in 1989 and later divorced.
“Peter Heathfield” enters the record as british trade unionist (1929-2010). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Peter, Heathfield and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Peter Heathfield” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Peter, Heathfield and British provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q7174602. VIAF identifies the subject as 4461132. The Library of Congress control number is nb2007026617. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929, 2010, 1984 and 1992.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Peter Heathfield”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Peter Heathfield primary sources, Peter Heathfield archive and Peter research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Peter Heathfield”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Peter Heathfield” 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.