Norman Pentland (9 September 1912 – 28 October 1972) was a British

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

. Pentland was educated at

Fatfield Fatfield is an area of Washington, Tyne and Wear, England. The southern part of the village by the River Wear is popular for country walks and the three public houses and working men's club on the banks of the river. The site of the original vil ...

County School, then in 1926 became a miner, based at the

Harraton Harraton is a former civil parish and now a suburb in the unparished area of the town of Washington, in the City of Sunderland metropolitan borough, in Tyne and Wear, England. Harraton is near the River Wear and is 3 miles north-east of Chester- ...

Colliery. In 1949, he was elected as a checkweighman, and by this time, he was heavily involved in the

Durham Area of the National Union of Mineworkers The Durham Miners' Association (DMA) was a trade union in the United Kingdom. History The union was founded in 1869 and its membership quickly rose to 4,000, but within a year had fallen back to 2,000. In December 1870, William Crawford becam ...

, and the local Labour Party. Pentland served on

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street (), also known as Chester, is a market town and civil parish in County Durham, England, around north of Durham and also close to Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the River Wear, which runs out to sea at ...

Rural District Council Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the a ...

, and was its chair in 1952/53. Also in 1952, he was elected to the executive committee of the Durham Miners. He won a seat in Parliament at the 1956 Chester-le-Street by-election, and held ministerial office as

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions was a junior Ministerial office at Parliamentary Secretary rank in the British Government, supporting the Minister for Pensions. Establishment and history The office was established in 1916 ...

from 1964 to 1966, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Social Security from 1966 to 1968, Under-Secretary of State for Social Services from 1968 to 1969, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications from 1969 until 1970. In both 1971 and 1972, Pentland stood unsuccessfully to become

Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in Parliament, i.e. Labour MPs as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour P ...

. He died in October 1972, aged 60.

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* 1912 births 1972 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970 People from Fatfield Politicians from Tyne and Wear {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub