Clifford Beevers was General Manager of the NCB Small Mines and Mine Drainage unit, taking over from Harold Saul from 1948 until 1961 when he retired. Mr Sydney Clifford Brown then took over, before Bob Ditchfield 1965-82.

Born in Bolsover on 19th August 1893, attending Staveley Grammar School. In 1908 he was articled to H.P. Houfton, the general manager at the Bolsover Colliery Company, serving at Creswell Colliery in 1912 before being appointed surveyor at Brodsworth Colliery in 1913.

Beevers studied at the University of Sheffield Mining Department, and in January 1914 passed the Mine Surveying certification after which time he was employed as Chief surveyor to the Doncaster Collieries Association on its formation in 1919. In 1934 he was appointed Chief Surveyor and Estates Manager to Doncaster Amalgamated Collieries which controlled 6 large modern collieries.

It was in that capacity that in 1938 he was elected to the South Yorkshire Mines Drainage Committee, and from then until 1944 was closely familiar with the body’s work prior to nationalisation. From vesting day in 1947 he worked for the North-Eastern Division of the NCB as Chief Surveyor, in the Production Department based at Westfield House in Rawmarsh, as well as being General Manager of the Small Mines and Drainage unit.

He became a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in 1954 and a member of the Mining Qualifications Board examiners panel for Mines Surveyors Certificates. He served as Vice-chair of the Association of Drainage Authorities in England in 1961 after twelve years as Chairman of the North-Eastern branch. In 1959 he was honoured with the M.B.E. Civil Division and retired in 1961. He died at Scarborough on 24th December 1967.

See also: Small Mines and Mines Drainage in 1951