Alfred Robens, Baron Robens of Woldingham

The Right Honourable Alfred (Alf) Robens, Baron Robens of Woldingham (18 December 1910 – 27 June 1999) was a British Labour politician and, later, chaired the National Coal Board.

Robens was an official in the Union of Distributive and Allied Workers from 1935. He served as a councillor on Manchester City Council 1942-47. He was elected Member of Parliament in 1945 to represent the mining constituency of Wansbeck in Northumberland, moving to the adjacent seat of Blyth, later Blyth Valley in 1950. He served as MP for Blyth until 1960, when, unexpectedly, he became the chairman of the National Coal Board and was created a life peer as Baron Robens on 28 June 1961.

Amongst those who were less than complimentary about this sudden elevation were his successor Eddie Milne. As Chairman of the NCB, Robens was associated with serious cuts in the mining industry, many of them a reflection of market forces and government policies which originated before he assumed the post, but his reputation undoubtedly suffered. The largest single blow to his reputation arguably came about when he was responsible for the NCB refusing to fund work to remove the remaining spoil heaps from the village of Aberfan after a 1966 disaster which engulfed Pantglas school in a landslide of slurry, killing 116 children and 28 adults. Robens' refusal to postpone his installation as Chancellor of the University of Surrey to attend the scene, so that he did not arrive until the following day, and the insistence that the disaster fund be raised from charitable donations is seen by some as compelling evidence that Robens was either insensitive or an extraordinarily hamfisted politician [1].

Robens at first claimed that the disaster had been caused by "natural unknown springs" beneath the tip, but evidence soon emerged that the existence of these springs was common knowledge. The Tribunal that sat to consider the reasons for the disaster was highly critical of Robens, but he did not lose his position as Chairman of the Coal Board.

Robens became a director of the Bank of England in 1966. He joined the board of Times Newspapers Ltd in 1967, and in 1969 he was selected by Barbara Castle to chair the committee whose deliberations led to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. He became Chairman of Vickers Ltd in 1971.