Four miners with the NCB flag, 1946

Four miners with the NCB flag, 1946. A photograph of four miners from the Montague Pit, near Newcastle, holding the new National Coal Board flag, taken by Johnston for the Daily Herald newspaper on 30 December, 1946. The pit was due to be nationalised on 1 January, 1947. The Coal Industry Nationalisation Act came into force in 1946 with the National Coal Board charged to administer the industry by a Labour government keen to give miners better working conditions and encourage higher productivity. This photograph has been selected from the Daily Herald Archive, a collection of over three million photographs. The archive holds work of international, national and local importance by both staff and agency photographers. ©SSPL/NMeM/Daily Herald Archive