Miners' strike union leader Des Dutfield dies aged 81

Des Dutfield led a strike after the National Coal Board announced the closure of the Lewis Merthyr colliery

Tributes have been paid to former miners' union leader Des Dutfield, who has died at the age of 81.

Mr Dutfield was the last president of the south Wales area of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

He came to the fore when he led a "stay down" strike after the National Coal Board announced the Lewis Merthyr colliery's closure in February 1983.

Shavanah Taj, general secretary of the Wales TUC, described Mr Dutfield as an "inspiring" figure.

The strike received support from 23,000 miners across the south Wales coalfield, but a subsequent national ballot of the NUM in March that year failed to get the required 55% majority.

After the dispute at Lewis Merthyr, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, the 450 miners were transferred to other collieries, with Mr Dutfield moving to work in Abercynon.

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Mr Dutfield pictured with Arthur Scargill, who was president of the NUM from 1982 to 2002

The fight over Lewis Merthyr foreshadowed the widespread miners' strike a year later.

Margaret Thatcher's government had been stockpiling coal and in March 1983, the prime minister appointed controversial industrialist Sir Ian McGregor to take on the NUM.

Throughout the 1984-85 strike, Mr Dutfield, of Trebanog, Rhondda Cynon Taf, was one of the the most prominent figures in the NUM in south Wales and opposed a return to work.

He was later elected president of the South Wales Area NUM in December 1985, succeeding Emlyn Williams.

He told BBC Wales at the time that the "blows" of the miners' strike had been "hard" but Welsh miners were "tenacious, and we will come back at them".

Pickets during the Lewis Merthyr colliery strike led by Des Dutfield

He held the post until it was abolished in 1991 as more pits were closed and membership fell.

Mining historian Dr Ben Curtis said he would be remembered as a "formidable and tenacious" miners' leader.