Will Paynter

William Thomas Paynter (6 December 1903 – 11 December 1984) was a Welsh trade unionist and miner who served as General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1959 to 1968. Born in Cardiff and raised in the Rhondda Valley, Paynter began working in the coal mines at age fourteen and became a prominent figure in the British labour movement.

Paynter was actively involved in the political upheavals of the 1920s and 1930s, joining the Communist Party of Great Britain and participating as a leader in the hunger marches of 1931, 1932, and 1936. In 1937, he volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War with the British Battalion of the International Brigades. He later became President of the South Wales Miners' Federation in 1951 before his appointment as NUM General Secretary, where he focused on preventing pit closures during the industry's decline. After retiring from union leadership, he wrote his autobiography My Generation (1972) and remained active in workers' education and labour history through his involvement with Llafur, the Welsh Labour History Society.