AN annual service of remembrance to honour the founder of the first miners' union takes place on Saturday.
Thomas Hepburn was born in 1795 in Pelton, County Durham and began work at Urpeth Colliery at the age of eight to support his widowed mother's family.
After becoming a Primitive Methodist lay preacher and agitator in the coalfields, he went on to become leader of the Colliers' United Association of Durham and Northumberland, which formed in 1825.
He led a strike in 1831 which prompted the coal owners to smash the union and Hepburn and other prominent leaders were victimised.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) still pays tribute to his achievements and his portrait is carried on the banners of Sacriston, Easington, Westoe, Wearmouth, Murton and Blackhall Lodge banners, as well as the North-East NUM's area banner.
The service takes place at St Mary's Church, Heworth, Gateshead, at 11am.
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