Lawrence Daly was born 20th October1924 his father James was a foundation member of the CPGB and a victimised miner after the strike of 1926.
In 1939 Lawrence worked in Glencraig Colliery and was an active trade unionist and rising star of the Young Communist League. Like many others he broke with the Communist Party over the Soviet Union’s crushing of the Hungarian uprising and the servile position of the British Party to these events. He quickly established himself as an important figure in the New Left and has been eulogised by people like distinguished historian Professor E P Thomson.
Unlike many of his colleagues he did not make the change to the Labour Party. In 1957 he founded the Fife Socialist League and in the General Election of 1959 Daly took 10% of the vote seen as a humiliation of the Communist candidate.
Lawrence Daly joined the Labour Party in 1964. He was elected General Secretary of the NUM in 1968 establishing a formidable working relationship with NUM President Joe Gormley. This leadership was tested in the 1974 miners strike and the outcome was one of the greatest victories the miners ever achieved.
In retirement Lawrence Daly now lives in Hemel Hempstead but has always been proud of his Fife roots and the Glencraig village which he had represented on Fife County Council.