The funeral and wake for Dave Temple will take place on the afternoon of Tuesday 7 October.

A service at Durham Crematorium will begin at 1.30pm, followed by a wake at Redhills – Durham Miners Hall.

All are welcome.

If you are unable to attend the funeral at Durham Crematorium in person, a link can be provided to enable you to watch online. If you would like to be provided with this link, please send your name and email address to: admin@durhamminers.co.uk

If you wish to attend the wake at Redhills, please complete a quick online registration to assist us in our planning. You do not need to register to attend. All are welcome. But registering will help us plan for the numbers attending. Please register here:

Please note that parking on site at Redhills is very limited and will be restricted to family and close friends only, with a small number of places for blue badge holders. Everyone else attending is asked to please park elsewhere. There is metered on-street parking close by including on Flass Street. 

The family ask that in lieu of flowers people join Dave’s band of Marras by subscribing to the Friends of Durham Miners Gala – the organisation that Dave founded and which has kept his beloved Big Meeting going. Anyone already a Marra is asked to please make a donation. You can join or donate online here: https://www.friendsofdurhamminersgala.org/join_us

We hope you’ll join us on October 7 to remember Dave and to celebrate the character and life of a truly wonderful man.

Dave Temple 1944-2025

Everyone at the Durham Miners Association (DMA) is deeply saddened at the passing of Dave Temple. All parts of the DMA family are devastated. We know many, many others will be too. This is a great loss. 

Dave was a truly wonderful and kind man and a man of great integrity. He contributed an enormous amount throughout a life well lived and was working for the greater good until the very end. During our recent history, Dave founded the Friends of Durham Miners Gala, bringing together the trade unions and the DMA, which has raised the money to keep the Big Meeting going since the closures of the collieries. It was Dave’s vision that initiated the project to secure the future of the Miners Hall and his skill and determination behind the scenes kept the project afloat through difficult times. He was pleased to visit the reopened Redhills. The image of Dave is from a recent interview he gave for a film to be shown there.

Dave, who worked at Murton colliery, was a great historian of the Durham coalfield and author of several books on the subject, editor of the Gala brochure, director of the DMA, and so much more…

We will have more to say in tribute to Dave and will update you with funeral details. For now our thoughts, solidarity and love are with Dave’s family and all who loved him.

And to Dave, we say: thank you so much for everything. Our gratitude is eternal.

Alan Mardghum, Secretary of the DMA, said:  “The news of the loss of Dave Temple came as a terrible shock. With his passing, not only have we lost a dear comrade and marra but we have lost another giant of the trade union and labour movement. 

“A committed revolutionary socialist, Dave continued to fight and argue for a fair and just society until the end. He was a man with great integrity and very strong principles and will be sadly missed by all of us who had the privilege to know him. His unwavering work in ensuring the Durham Miners Gala could continue by setting up the Friends of the Durham Miners Gala to finance the event plus his tireless work to deliver the Redhills project as well as his unswerving commitment to his class will be Dave’s legacy going forward. 

“Hand your tokens in old miner your shift is done marra. My sincere condolences are extended to Jean, Corina, Sean and the family.”

Stephen Guy, Chair of the DMA, said: “Dave will be sorely missed. Unlike most trade union leaders he was never one to look for publicity. His mind was a galaxy. His world view was amazing. On a personal note, he supported me when my dad died.

 “I recall Dave telling me that the 2025 Gala Speakers were exceptional. No doubt due to the international theme as he was an internationalist. He cared for workers regardless of where they lived in the world . Anyone who questioned the international relevance of the Big Meeting should read his book “The Big Meeting: A history of the Durham Miners’ Gala”. They will learn that international speakers have spoken from the platform since its early years . Dave knew that for the working class to win, the workers of the world needed to unite. That is what the Big Meeting is about.”

Dave Anderson, chair of the Friends of Durham Miners Gala, said: “I’m struggling to come to terms with this. Dave and I worked together in the NUM, at the same pit, on the same union branch and for the last seven years in the Marras.His passing leaves a great hole in our movement and in our lives. He was an absolute one off and he is frankly irreplaceable. Rest well marra. You really do deserve it.”

Andrew McIntyre, Chief Executive at Redhills, said: “Not everyone will have known or met Dave. But his legacy benefits us all. As founder of Friends of the Durham Miners Gala, he not only ensured that we keep the Big Meeting going for generations to come, but that it’s become the world’s largest celebration of working class culture.

“As the visionary behind the recently completed restoration of Redhills Durham Miners Hall, he’s left us far more than a magnificent building, he’s given it back to the communities whose labour paid for it and re-dedicated it as Durham’s working class cathedral. He’s provided our movement with a place to meet, celebrate our living culture and empower coalfield communities to take back control of their own future.

“Dave worked at Murton Colliery and earned huge respect for his leadership, not least in the 1984-85 strike. He had vast knowledge, writing untold histories of the Durham miners. He was a wise thinker, a clever strategist and an irrepressible force for progress. In the days before his death, he was enthusiastically planning how to inspire students to become volunteers for the newly opened Redhills. Simply put, no one better embodied the miners’ motto “The Past We Inherit, The Future We Build”.

“Despite never seeking personal publicity, he was a towering influence, a man of great integrity with an unshakable moral compass and a very dry wit. Dave was incredibly generous, sharing his knowledge and experience with younger activists, ensuring we learned the lessons of the past while making us all keep our eyes on the prize. But, above all, he was a lovely man. In the many tributes to Dave that have been shared this week, it’s the personal comments that stand out: those he supported through hardship, bereavement, those who relied on his wise counsel.

“He was a titan of our movement and his death is a great loss. We remain inspired by him as we look to the future, conscious that we can see further because we’re standing on his shoulders.”