My friend Harry Haines, who has died aged 95, was a coalface worker, social worker and writer who was happy to be labelled the Miner Poet.
Born in Portsmouth, Harry was an aircraft engineer in the RAF during the second world war, serving in the Middle East and Italy. After the war he spent 20 years in the Leicestershire coalfield, working at Donisthorpe colliery and living in the pit village.
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