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Alf Robens

The Right Honourable
The Lord Robens of Woldingham
PC
Alfred Robens, Baron Robens of Woldingham.jpg
Robens in 1947
Shadow Foreign Secretary
In office
14 December 1955 – 22 July 1956
Leader Hugh Gaitskell
Preceded by ???
Succeeded by Nye Bevan
Minister of Labour and National Service
In office
24 April 1951 – 26 October 1951
Prime Minister Clement Attlee
Preceded by Nye Bevan
Succeeded by Walter Monckton
Member of Parliament
for Blyth
In office
23 February 1950 – 1960
Preceded by Constituency established
Succeeded by Eddie Milne
Member of Parliament
for Wansbeck
In office
5 July 1945 – 23 February 1950
Preceded by Donald Scott
Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born (1910-12-18)18 December 1910
Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK
Died 27 June 1999(1999-06-27) (aged 88)
Chertsey, Surrey, England, UK
Political party Labour (Before 1979)
Conservative (1979–1999)

Alfred "Alf" Robens, Baron Robens of Woldingham, PC (18 December 1910 – 27 June 1999), was an English trade unionist, Labour politician and industrialist. His political ambitions, including an aspiration to become Prime Minister, were frustrated by bad timing; but his energies were diverted into industry: he spent a decade as chair of the National Coal Board, and later headed a major inquiry which resulted in the Robens Report on health, safety and welfare at work. His outlook was paternalistic, but in later life, he moved away from his early socialism towards the Conservative Party. His reputation remains tarnished by his failure to have foreseen and prevented the Aberfan disaster, followed by actions widely regarded as insensitive during this disaster's aftermath.

Robens was born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, the son of George Robens, a cotton salesman and Edith Robens née Anderton. He left school at 15 to work as an errand boy but his career truly began when he joined the Manchester and Salford Co-operative Society as a clerk, becoming a director when he was 22, one of the first Worker/Directors in the Country. He was an official in the Union of Distributive and Allied Workers from 1935 to 1945 and, being certified medically unfit for military service in the Second World War, he served as a Manchester City Councillor from 1941 to 1945. He married Eva Powell on 9 September 1936 and the couple adopted a son, Alfred (born 1935).


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