THE BRITISH OVERSEAS RAILWAYS HISTORICAL TRUST
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Managers, board members, etc (second file)
The arrangement is alphabetical (surnames beginning):
Ba | Br | Ca | Co | Da | E | F | Ga | Gr | Ha | Ho | I | J | K | L | M | Mi | N | O | P | Ra | Ru | Sa | Sm | T | U | W | Wo |
Aberconway, Lord
Charles Benjamin Bright McLaren was born in Edinburgh on 22 May 1850.
Died in London on 23 January 1934. He was educated at Edinburgh University
then at the Univerisities of Bonn and Heidelberg. He became a Liberal MP
and became Chairman of several industrial companies including the Metropolitan
Railway (between 1904 and 1933). There is an
ODNB entry by Trevor Boyns. Memorial
see Humm J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc.,
2015, 38, 252
Aldenham, 4th Baron (Walter Durant Gibbs).
Born 11 August 1888; eldest son of 1st Baron Hunsdon Herts; died 30
May 1969. Educated Eton; Trinity College, Cambridge. Served WW1, Herts Yeomanry,
Gallipoli, Palestine, Persia, Mentioned in despatches. Director: Antony Gibbs
& Sons (Chairman, 193965); Westminster Bank (Chairmam., 195061);
English Scottish Australian Bank, etc; President, British Association of
Bankers, 1954, 1955 . Director of LMS in 1947.
Allan, Henry
Served on LMS Local Committee in Scotland: former chairman Caledonian
Railway. Mullay's London's Scottish
railways .
Allen, T.I.
Superintendent of the Line on Great Western Railway retired end 1903
after 47 years service: played major role in gauge conversion.
Locomotive Mag., 1903,
9, 297.
Aman, Frank
Frank Aman wished to develop Totland Bay and advanced the South Western
& Isle of Wight Junction Railway from a junction off the Lymington branch
to a Y-junction with the Freshwater Yarmouth & Newport Railway via a
tunnel under the Solent. See
Backtrack, 2012, 26, 688.
Anketell, W.R.
Lived at Ballynahinch. Chairman of the County Down Railway Company.
Coakham and Internet.
Anstruther, Henry Torrens
Born at Whitechurch, Aylesbury on 27 November 1860; died 5 April 1926.
Educated at Eton and Edinburgh University. Scottish advocate. MP for St.
Andrews 1886-1903. Alderman London County Council 1905-1923. Member Conseil
d'Administration Suez Canal Company. NBR Board member in 1913. See Simpson,
NBR Study Group J., 2000, (78), 27.
plus Wikipedia and other online sources.
Arkle, Edward
He had been a traffic apprentice on the LNER during the 1920s.
Pearson Man of the rail notes
that Arkle was a commercial specialist. At nationalisation he was Goods Manager
of the LNER Scottish Area. He became Commercial Superintendent of the North
Eastern Region and then Director of Traffic Services, London Midland Region.
Suggested names for Peak class diesel locomotives. Keen mountaineer; retired
to Galloway. Andrew Dow Memories
of a railway childhood
Arnott, Thomas
Station master at Edinburgh Waverley. See Farish.
NBRSG Journal, 2012 (115)
41-3.
Austin, William
Deputy Chairman of Rhymney Railway since 1880: Chairman from 1899:
see Rly Mag., 1899, 4, 96..
Backhouse, Jonathan
Died 7 October 1840. Member of Darlington family which helped
to finance Stockton & Darlingon Railway. Dawn
Smith.
Bain, Andrew
Glasgow steel merchant. Joined Board of Great North of Scotland Railway
in 1899 and became chairman in 1919 (until 1922).
Vallance
Baird family
Scottish ironmasters. Business founded by Alexander Baird who moved
from farming in the Monklands area of Lanarkshire to coal mining to iron
smelting (performed at Gartsherrie from 1828). Alexander Baird had eight
sons and two daughters; he died at High Cross farm, in 1833.. Eldest son
William became MP for Falkirk Burghs, director of the Forth &
Clyde Canal and chairman of Caledonian Railway (joined board in 1852)
see Vamplew in Reed. In 1852,
the company was the first to introduce the cylindrical furnace in Scotland
and experimented with blast heaters, raising the heat to 800°F. Gartsherrie
Ironworks gained a reputation for technical sophistication and attracted
visitors from England, Europe and America. The Bairds provided schools, churches
and recreational institutes for their work force but opposed trade unionism.
The Baird brothers also had considerable interests in banking and held 29
railway company directorships and 5 chairmanships. Later in century a further
William Baird became chairman of the NBR..
Baldwin, Alfred
Born 4 June 1841. Educated Wesleyan Collegiate Institution, Taunton.
Joined family firm of Baldwin & Sons of Stourport which grew from a local
business to become an industrial giant with tine plate works in South Wales.
Became a director of the Great Western Railway and Chirman in 1905, but died
from a hear attack at his London home following a Board meeting on 13 February
1908. ODNB Trevor Boyns.
Ballantyne, John
Divisional General Superintendent LMS Scotland. Had started as a clerk
at Beattock and rose to be Goods Manager of the Caledonian Railway.
Mullay's London's Scottish
railways.
Bamwell, J.
Superintendent passenger services, Midland Railway. Appointment:
Locomotive Mag., 1910,
16, 5
Bantock, Thomas
Born in 1823 in Golspie, the son of Benjamin Bantock, a gamekeeper.
Though a prize-winning schoolboy, he left school at 16. He was taken into
the employ of the Trustees of the Duke of Bridgewater, who had large interests
in collieries and canals. Perhaps it was in connection with the Caledonian
canal, which had recently been built by Telford and opened in 1822 but closed
for extensive repair from 1843 to 1847, that Bantock gained his employment.
Whatever the case, he was sent to Wolverhampton as an agent of the Trustees
in 1849 at the age of 26. Here he soon saw that the transport of goods in
the future would be by railway and that the canal traffic was bound to decline.
By 1858 he had a valuable contract in his own right with the Great Western
Railway. By 1861 he was the Trustees' district agent, though he also worked
for the Great Western Railway. He then set up in business as Thomas Bantock
& Company, resigning thereby from his former employers. In his own right
he became an ironmaster, mined coal at Springvale in Bilston and built boats
and wagons at Millfields, Ettingshall. It was as head of Thomas Bantock &
Co. that he escorted Queen Victoria on her visit to the town in 1866. He
had strong Christian principles which led him into politics as a Liberal
and he was elected in 1861 to represent St Mary's Ward, which was one of
the poorest areas of the Town. He served this ward for 33 years. Thomas was
liberal in his politics and a devoted free churchman in his religion - he
belonged to Queen Street Congregational Church. So he was the "wrong" sort
of Christian, which his supporters thought the reason why he was not a JP
until after 1887. He belonged to a group of men from Queen Street Congregational
Church who thought that their children were at a disadvantage in education
and in 1862 they formed Tettenhall College as a school for able sons of men
with slender means. In 1867 he contributed generously to the rebuilding of
Queen Street Church on the site of the old one. This was a fine commodious
building designed by George Bidlake. By now Bantock had the means to move
into Merridale House which he eventually purchased from the Petits. Bantock's
political career had its challenges. In 1869 he was proposed as Mayor by
Alderman Underhill and was to have been seconded by Sir John Morris. Morris
had in the meanwhile learned that not only was Bantock the wrong sort of
Christian, he intended to hold the Mayor's Sunday Service at his own Church
and not at St Peter's Church of England. This was hardly surprising, since
Bantock was a Scotsman, a Presbyterian and the Senior Deacon in a brand new
and splendid town centre church. His Tory opponents saw a chance to bar him,
claiming "ancient custom" and he had to wait in another room whilst the matter
was thrashed out. The Wolverhampton Chronicle reports the uproar in detail.
Thomas, of course, thought he was out of the room as a formality, expecting
to be called in a few minutes for warm congratulation. He was dismayed, when
he eventually came into the room, that the matter should have created such
dissension. But the "ancient custom" had been shown to be no more than seven
years old and it had been recalled that a Catholic mayor had never entered
St Peter's. Bantock had been elected and his position as Mayor was secure.
During his year of office Wolverhampton was one of the first towns to implement
the Education Act of 1870. This was despite concern in the papers "that working
men will get into the Town Council" and a prophecy of revolution! In the
same year the Free Library was started in the town and weekly issues reached
2,000 per week and in 9 months borrowings totalled 58,251. Only three books
had been lost, 18 damaged, and total fines were £29 16s 7d "which with
slight exceptions had been cheerfully paid". As mayor Thomas Bantock showed
both compassion and common sense. The weather in the first few months of
1870 was frosty so that many of the poor were unable to work. From his own
pocket he paid for oatmeal and bread to relieve immediate distress and he
persuaded his fellow councillors to "aid him by liberal subscription to the
fund raised for the purpose". Presiding over the Police court he heard the
case against "a person summoned for riding a bicycle in the Cleveland Road".
It was claimed that such swift and silent movement was likely to frighten
horses and knock down unwary pedestrians. He dismissed the summons saying
that the inhabitants "had as much right to ride the bicycle as they had to
ride on horseback or to ride in a carriage - the road was for all". And that,
as a contemporary wrote, settled the matter as far as Wolverhampton was
concerned. Thomas had married Mary Anne Dickenson in 1852 and by the time
of the move to Merridale House had ten children, three sons and seven daughters,
the oldest fourteen year old Mary Janet and the youngest baby Walter Thomas.
He died on 20th July 1895 and was remembered as "invariably found honourable,
straightforward and honest in all his transactions".
Barker, H.P.
Educated Oundle; Managing Director of Parkinson Cowan (manufacturer
of kitchen equipment). Part-time member of the British Transport Commission.
Bomavia says that he had a restless
inquiring mind and deep involvement in modern technology and chafed
at the narrow conservatism of the Railway Executive and contributed several
papers on new technology. He considered that there was an obsession with
equipment rather than operation.
Bartholemew, Charles
Engineer and General Manager of South Yorkshire, Doncaster & Goole
Railway: see also
son.
Batson, Thomas Richard
Born in 1783; died in carriage accident on buried on 25 March 1845
at Chollerton in Northumberland. Banker (North of England Joint Stock Bank)
and industrialist (extensive ironworks at Ridsdale. Lived in Reedsmouth and
Newcastle. Director of Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. Rennison, R.W. The
Newcastle and Carlisle Railway and its engineers; 18291862.
Trans. Newcomen Soc., 2001,
72, 203-33.
Beevor, Miles
Born on 8 March 1900 in Hendon; died 9 September 1994 in Wolverhampton).
Educated at Winchester College, and graduated from New College, Oxford University
in 1921 with a Bachelor of Arts. He qualified a solicitor in 1925, and latterly
held the office of Justice of the Peace for Hertfordshire. At the outbreak
of WW2, he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and gained the rank
of Flight Lieutenant in 1941. He became chief legal advisor for London and
North Eastern Railway in 1943, a post he held until the LNER was nationalised.
In light of his service, on 1 November 1947 the LNER named an LNER A4 Pacific
after him. Just before nationalisation, Beevor was acting chief general manager
for LNER in June 1947, after which he became Chief Secretary and legal advisor
for the British Transport Commission between 1947 and 1951. Beevor was Managing
Director of Brush Group Ltd between 1954 and 1958, as the company pushed
into producing diesel locomotives for the newly founded British Railways,
to replace their steam fleet.
Beharrell, John George
Born in 1873 at Almondbury, near Huddersfield; died Harpenden,
Hertfordshire on 20 February 1959. He was an authority on transport matters,
spent many years in the rubber industry and, during both world wars, occupied
important posts in Government service. Began his education at King James's
School, Almondbury. He left there aged fifteen to join the clerical department
of the North Eastern Railway at York, a post which he later relinquished
in order to study at Leeds University. He subsequently returned to the North
Eastern Railway Company and, by 1914, was assistant goods manager and commercial
agent at York. In the following year, Sir George was appointed to the Ministry
of Munitions as director of statistics and requirements and shortly afterwards
went to France as assistant director-general of transportation. In the later
stages of the first world war, Sir George was transferred to the Admiralty
as director of statistics, his work being primarily concerned with the U-boat
menace to British shipping. After the war, Sir George (who was created a
knight in 1919) joined the newly-formed Ministry of Transport as director-general
of finance and statistics and in 1921 served as financial adviser to the
Geddes committee on national expenditure. Sir George left the Civil Service
in 1922 to join the Dunlop Rubber Company. He became managing director of
the company in 1923, chairman in 1937, and from 1949 until 1957 was the company's
president. During the second world war, Sir George was director-general of
raw material controls at the Ministry of Supply Obituary via Graces
Guide
Bell, [Sir Isaac] Lowthian
Director of North Eastern Railway. Born in Newcastle upon Tyne on
15 February 1816, son of Thomas Bell (1774-1845) chemical and iron manufacturer.
Educated at Bruce's academy, Edinburgh University and the Sorbonne as well
as doing practical work on alkali manufacture in Marseilles. Taught himself
about a wide range of techniques in heavy chemical engineering and iron
production and started both chemical plants, including the manufacture of
alumnium via the French Deville system, and operating the Wylam ironwaorks
at Port Clarence on the Tees. This last led to the construction of the Cleveland
Railway. When the West Hartlepool Harbour & Railway Co. was acquired
in 1865 Bell became a North Eastern Railway director . He was deputy chairman
between 1895 and 1904. He used his skills to rid the Cleveland iron ore of
phosphorus so that it could be used for rails. He also advanced scientific
management techniques to railway operation. He published extensively. He
died at his home of Rounton Grange Northallerton on 20 December 1904.
Geoffrey Tweedale ODNB.
Benson, Robert
1814-1875: merchant banker; Board member LNWR. .
Braine: The railway
Moon.
Bickersteth, John Pares
Born in Liverpool in 1827; died 1909. Most of Bickersteth family appear
to have become bishops in the Church of England. Elected to LNWR Board in
1867. Chairman of Locomotive Committee, but according to Braine appeared
to have little influence upon either Webb or what went on at Crewe, Subsequently
director of London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. Extremely wealthy.
Braine: The railway Moon.
Son Edward was Outdoor Superintendent at
Crewe.
Birt, William
Born 19 May 1834; died 18 April 1911. Educted Mercers School. Joined
Eastern Counties Railway in 1848. Became Goods Manager in 1866 and Genreral
Manager of GER on 1 January 1881. He received a Knighthood in 1897 and retired
on 17 May 1897, He was Hon. Colonel of the Engineer and Railway Staff Volunteer
Corps; Director, Great Eastern Railway, formerly General Manager; Deputy
Chairman of the Metropolitan Railway. Who's Who and
Rly Mag., 1899, 4,
574..
Boyle, John
Chairman of Rhymney Railway since 1858: retired in 1899 when aged
78: see Rly Mag., 1899, 4,
96.
Bradford, J.H.
Last District Passenger Superintendent Birmingham (LNWR)
Dawn Smith
Brandling, Charles John
Born 1769; died 1826. Member of Nortumberland mining family. Member
of Parliament for Newcastle 17981812 and for Northumberland
18201826. He married Henrietta Armitage, heiress of Middleton, near
Rothwell, West Yorkshire. In 1815 he chaired the committee set up to establish
the remuneration to be paid to George Stephenson for the invention of his
safety lamp. His mining interests included Felling, Gosforth (where a deep
mine was sunk in 1825), Heworth, Coxlodge, Kenton and Middleton. At Middleton
he employed John Blenkinsop who in 1812 converted the wagonway from Brandling's
collieries into a rack and pinion steam railway, the Middleton Railway. However
he overindulged in coal speculations which led to financial difficulties
and the sale of many of the family's estates: Shotton in 1850, and Gosforth
and Felling in 1852. Thereafter the family seat was Middleton Lodge, Middleton,
West Yorkshire. Mainly Wikipedia 2013-07-10; also
Dawn Smith and
Rly Wld, 1958, 19,
225.
Broughton, John
General Manager of the Wrexham Mold & Connah's Quay Railway: appointed
6 August 1868; resigned 28 April 1877. Dawn
Smith. Leigh Jones in Archive, 20113,
(80), 39-40 quoyes him as comparing it to working on the Ghats on the Great
Indian Peninsula Railway..
Brown, A.E.H.
General Manager Scottish Region: predecessor of James Ness
(Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev.,
1955, 61, 213)
Burkitt, S.
A quaint passenger train, Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Ry.
(Locomotive Mag., 1927, 33, 31)
notes that S. Burkitt of King's Lynn owned a small locomotive to travel from
his corn mill in King's Lynn (where the locomotive was built by
Dodman) and another mill in
Chesterfield.
Burrows, Sir Robert (Abraham)
Born 17 March 1884; died 14 August 1964). Educated Leys, Cambridge.
After other business experience, started with Fletcher, Burrows and Co. Ltd,
1904, which became part of Manchester Collieries Ltd, 1929; one of the founders
of the Lancashire and Cheshire Coal Research Association, 1918, and was its
first President, 191828; Member of the Fuel Research Board, 192327;
Chairman, LMS Railway, 194647. High Sheriff of Cheshire, 1940; JP County
of Lancaster. KBE 1952; Kt 1937. JP; Director: District Bank, Ltd (formerly
Deputy Chairman); National Boiler and General Insurance Co. Ltd (Chairman);
Alliance Assurance Co. Ltd; Yorkshire Bank (formerly Chairman)
Burtt, Philip
Born in 1862. Joined NER as a junior clerk in Goods Manager's Office.
In 1882 moved to General Manager's Office eventually becoming Chief Clerk.
From 1897 was Superintendent of the Line, Sent to America with other officers
and was Deputy General Manager before Grouping (mainly
Dawn Smith). Lecturer at London School
of Economics and author of several books on railway management. On board
of Channeln Tunnel Company which envisaged a 7ft gauge London to Paris railway
and a 36 mile long tunnel.. The chairman of this venture was William Collard
of Collard, Parsons & Co. (mainly National Archives). See review of The
principle factors in freight train operation
in Locomotive Mag., 1923,
29, 284
Byrom, Charles Reginald
Born 7 November 1878; son of Rev. J.W. Unwin
BA; name changed to Byrom by Deed Poll 1907 died 26 February 1952. Educated
Shrewsbury School. Joined LNWR in 1896; passed through sections in
the Traffic Operating Department; Assistant Superintendent of the Line of
LNWR, 1918; on amalgamation of Railways in 1923 appointed General Superintendent
(Passenger Commercial) of LMS; Assistant Chief
General Superintendent 1924; Chief General Superintendent 1927; Chief Operating
Manager, 193238 CVO 1938; OBE 1918; Lt-Col (retd) Engineer and Rly
Staff Corps (RE) (TA). Mainly Who Was Who.
Mentioned many times by Jenkins in
his biography of Lemon.
Byrom, T.C.
Travelled with No. 6100 Royal Scot on its North American tour
in 1933 as Liaison Officer. Locomotive
Mag., 1934, 40, 20 or
Backtrack, 2015, 29,
134.
Caird, Patrick
Chairman of Glasgow & South Western Railway: member of a Greenock
shipbuilding family taken over by Harland and Woolf
for which see McConnell and Rankin.
Caillard, Sir Vincent Henry Penalver
Born 23 October 1856; died 18 March 1930. Educated Eton and Royal
Military Academy Woolwich. Commissioned into Royal Engineers in 1875. Served
on Montenegrin Commision and several international finacial iniatives. Wrote
on Imperial Financial Reform and widely. Director of Metropolitan Carriage,
Wagon and Finance Co., and of Southern Railway. Who's Who. Resigned
from Vickers Ltd. for whom he had served for 27 years on 1 September 1927
(Locomotive Mag., 1927,
33, 306)
Calder, James
Born Blackhill station on 15 June 1869 (son of station master). Joined
North British Railway on 10 April 1883 at Peacock Cross station in Hamilton.
He then was moved to Lennoxtown and Craigendoran stations before being
transferred to the District Superintendent's office in Glasgow in August
1887 and then to General Manager's office on 22 June 1892 (copy states 1882).
Appointed Assistant to General Manager on 1 November 1903, and Assistant
General Manager on 1 Januqary 1913 and General Manager from April 1918.
See North British Rly Study Gp J.,
2004 (93) 30 and Souther Scottish Area General Manager, LNER: see paragraph
in NBRSG Journal (102)
20
Campbell, Frederick Archibald Vaughan
Third Earl Cawdor; until he inherited the earldom he was known as
Viscount Emlyn.: born on 13 February 1847 at Windsor. Educated at Eton College
and Christ Church, Oxford. He sat in parliament as Conservative MP for
Carmarthenshire from 1874 to 1885. In 1890 Emlyn became a director of the
Great Western Railway and a year later deputy chairman. From July 1895 to
March 1905 he was chairman, and in this role presided over a significant
period of growth and restructuring in the company's activities. The radical
change from broad to standard gauge, undertaken by his predecessor, F.G.
Saunders, made possible the numerous reforming measures introduced during
his tenure of office, measures whose aim was to maximize growth as well as
efficiency; most significant was the laying of new lines, including a direct
route to south Wales in 1903. The improvements destroyed the legend of the
GWR as the Great Way Round. Cawdor's success as chairman of the
GWR owed less to any extensive experience of the railway business than to
innate management qualities. He was quick to spot a good idea, and imaginative
and determined in pursuing its implementation. He was a persuasive advocate
and a good manager of people. In 1903 Joseph Chamberlain referred to his
reputation as the best chairman now living. Such qualities had
helped the GWR to become increasingly competitive and profitable by 1905.
They had also led Cawdor to be considered for the post of war minister in
the Conservative government of A.J. Balfour in 1903. In the event he was
not called on, but in March 1905 he was offered and accepted the post of
first lord of the Admiralty in succession to Lord Selborne. Cawdor died
in London on 8 February 1911 of pneumonia following a short illness, and
buried in Stackpole church, Pembrokeshire. Rhodri
Williams ODNB entry.
Cawkwell, William
Both Hodgkins and
Reed state Cawkwell rather than Cawkell.
Joined Manchester & Leeds Railway at Brighouse as station clerk in 1840.
By 1849 he was the goods manager of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway
and by 1853 he was in effect general manager. Joined the LNWR as general
manager in 1858 in succession to Huish.
He retired in 1871. Eventually elected to Board and became deputy chairman
in 1881 until his death in 1897. Braine:
The railway Moon.
Carlow, Charles
Born in Methilhill, Fife in 1849; died in Edinburgh on 27 January
1923. .Joined NBR Board in 1893; eventually serving as Deputy Chairman. Managing
Ditrector of Fife Coal Company; colliery engineer and manager. See Simpson,
NBR Study Group J, 2000, (78),
27.
Chanter, Frank
Manager and engineer Lynton & Barnstaple Railway at time of opening.
See Rly Arch., 2012 (35),
62 for portrait..
Chaplin, William James
Born in Rochester in 1787 and major coach proprietor and by 1836 had
over ninety coaches in service earning £500,000, but astutely saw the
impending railway threat to his business and invested in the London &
Southampton Railway. By 1840 he was Vice Chairman of the London and South-Western
Railway, and Chairman from 1843-58, with a one year gap. The man, who, by
his influence and financial backing, made the original London and Southampton
Railway a great success when it was heading for failure, catastrophically,
before any trains had commenced to run. After this initial success, piloted
the gradual extension of the South-Western into the West of England; and
by these extensions, on the standard gauge, virtually checked and stifled
the advance of Brunel's broad gauge. The final stage of the expansion, which
connected the eastern group of lines with those owned by the LSWR in Devonshire
the Salisbury-Exeter section was not completed until after his death in London
on 24 April 1859. Chaplin was also a director of the Paris and Rouen, Rouen
and Havre, and Rhenish railways, and was involved in a cross-channel steamship
company, which were together intended to form part of a direct link between
London and the continent. He was MP for Salisbury from 1847 until 1857.
ODNB biography by Dorian Gerhold.
Nock, O.S. Railway enthusuast's
encyclopedia
Charles, A.L.
Secretary of Midland Railway from 1899. Left Derby Grammar School
in 1865 and joined Midland Railway as junior clerk in the accounts department.
Flann. Backtrack, 2010, 24,
646.
Charlesworth, Joseph
Chairman of the East & West Yorkshire Union Railwayand proprietor
of J. & J. Charlesworth collieries situated at Lofthouse and Stanley
near Wakefield: see Loco. Rly Carr.
Wagon Rev., 1933, 39. 98. Listed
by Dawn Smith.
Christie, John
Worked for the North British Railway as station clerk, relief
staionmaster, etc; then worked on Indian railways for a time before returning
to North British. He became Chief of the Excursion Department and was greatly
involved with troop specials for the Royal Review in Edinburgh. He then became
District Superintendent for the Glasgow District. Early in 1918 he became
Assistant Chief Goods Manager and upon the death of J. Wilkinson in 1919
Goods Manager. Listed by Dawn Smith
Christison, Alexander William Crow
Born in Berwick in 1823 where his father was an alderman and grocer.
He joined the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway as a booking clerk at
Gateshead. Appointed manager of the YN&B passenger department in January
1850 and was General Passenger Superintendent of the North Eastern Railway,
based at York from 1854 to 1890. He was a passenger (with T.E. Harrison and
former NER Secretary John Cleghorn) on the 17.30 King's Cross to Leeds which
was one of the trains involved in the January 1876 Abbot's Ripton accident.
Christison sustained slight injuries; but on his death it was reported that
he had never really recovered from the effects of this accident. He died
at Bridlington Quay on 7 September 1890 and was buried in Berwick on 11 September
1890, his body being brought by special train from York which also conveyed
the mourners. Neil Mackay states that he surveyed the North Eastern on a
line-by-line basis to establish the work involved in installing the block
system (these surveys are in the National Archives. He was also grandfather
of A.W.H. Christison, Locomotive
Superintendent at Newton Abbot from 1927.
Clayton, John
Born 1792; Died 14 July 1890 at Chesters, Northumberland. Town Clerk
of Newcastle, 1822-1866. Clerk to Tyne Improvement Commission, Scotswood
Road and Bridge Co, and N&CR. Partner Newcastle Fire Office. Responsible
with Richard Grainger for much of the redevelopment of Newcastle. Director,
Newcastle and Gateshead Subscription Water Co, 1837. Director Newcastle &
Carlisle Railway. Rennison, R.W. The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway
and its engineers; 18291862.
Trans. Newcomen Soc., 2001,
72, 203-33.
Clear, E.A.
Began his carreer on Great Northern Railway. In 1898 moved to Great
Central where he became first District Supetrintendent on London Extension.
In 1905 delegate to International Railway Congress in Washington and travelled
widely in USA and Canada. In 1919 appointed Assistant General Manager GCR.
Dawn Smith
Cleghorn, John
Secretary North Eastern Railway between 1856 and 1870. He became
a Director on 17 February 1871 and resigned from the Board in January 1904;
died aged 91 at his home in Ealing on 24 September 1907.
Listed by Dawn Smith
Cobb, Jeremy
Son of Robert (below). Management trainee in Stoke Division of London
Midland Region. Moved to Euston then to Birmingham as Customer Relations
Manager
Cobb, Robert
Son of Allan Cobb; joined Southrtn Railway as a Cadet in 1936. Rose
to Stores Superintendent, subsequently Assistant General Manager, Technical
and Commercial. Southern Ways,
Issue 13
Cockburn, Charles E.
Superintendent of the Line Glasgow & South Western Railway from
January 1895 to 26 July 1921; formerly with LCDR (joined in 1878). He held
several positions on that line and became fluent in French and German. According
to Dawn Smith his father was Superintendent
of the Line on the LCDR. See Rly Mag.,
1899, 4, 22-8 for his involvement in resigalling St. Enoch
Station.
Cockshott, Francis P.
Superintendent of the Line, Great Northern Railway, 1865-95. In his
30 years of office, made the G.N.R. the fastest line in the world. He held
the belief that speed brought traffic; and in competition with the Midland
to Leeds, and in partnership with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire,
between King's Cross and Manchester, established highly competitive services.
His greatest success was during the summer of 1888, during the first Race
to the North, between the 10 a.m. departures for Edinburgh from King's Cross
and Euston, when he kept the East Coast service consistently faster than
the rivals.
Nock, O.S. Railway enthusuast's
encyclopedia
Copus, George
Manager and Engineer of the Colne Valley Ry. from 1882 to 1903, died
on 27 October 1914 at his home at Southampton,
Locomotive Mag., 1914,
20, 283.where he had lived since his retirement.
Locomotive Mag., 1903,
9, 199.
Creed, Richard
Former army agent who seved as the London Secretary for the London
& Birmingham Railway from its inception until Sepetember 1848. He was
subsequently a director. Reed and
J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2003,
34, 210.
Crowe, T.A.
Chairman of North British Locomotive Co. from 1955; also President
of the Locomotive Manufacturers' Association
Cusack, Sir Ralph Smith
Born in Dublin in November 1822; died 3 March 1910. Educated Trinity
College, Dublin. Irish Barrister, 1845; Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper,
185881. Chairman Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland, 18651905.
Knighted when MGWR opened its Spencer Dock. Who Was Who.
Dale, (Sir) David
Born on 11 December 1829 at Murshidabad, Bengal; Dale at York on 28
April 1906, but buried in Darlington, where he had been brought up. Dale
was educated privately at Edinburgh, Durham, and Stockton, and worked in
the office of the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company. In 1852, at the
age of twenty-three, he was appointed secretary to the Middlesbrough and
Guisborough section of the line. In 1858 Dale entered into partnership with
William Bouch and became lessee of the Shildon locomotive works; the partnership
ended in the early 1870s. He was concerned with the formation of the Consett
Iron Company, of which he was appointed inspector in 1858, subsequently becoming
managing director in 1869 and chairman in 1884. In 1866 he embarked on extensive
shipbuilding enterprises in co-operation with the firms of Richardson, Denton,
and Duck of Stockton, Denton and Grey of Hartlepool, and Thomas Richardson
& Sons of Hartlepool, who combined together with a view to amalgamation.
In 1881 he became a director of the North Eastern Railway Company, having
previously served as director of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, and
on the formation of the Sunderland Iron Ore Company in 1902 he was appointed
chairman. He was an active member of the Durham Coal Owners' Association
and of the Cleveland Mine Owners' Association. He became high sheriff for
Durham in 1888. Created a baronet in 1895. ODNB
entry by by L. P. Sidney, revised Ian St John
Daryngton, Lord (Herbert Pike Pease), 1st Baron
Daryngton
Born 7 May 1867; died 10 May 1949). British politician. Pease was
born into a wealthy family, the son of the politician Arthur Pease. His brother
was Arthur Francis Pease. Both were educated at Brighton College. Pease attended
Trinity Hall, Cambridge.and served as Liberal Unionist then Unionist MP for
Darlington 1898-1923. For some years he was a party whip. From 1915 until
1922 he was Assistant Postmaster General. He was created a Privy Councillor
in 1917. In 1923, he was created Baron Daryngton. For 25 years he was either
Chairman or Vice-Chairman of the House of Laity of the Church Assembly (a
predecessor of the General Synod) of the Church of England. He was on the
Board of Robert Stephenson & Son & Co.
Davidson, George
Born in Aberdeen in 1871; died on 18 August 1928 Last General
Manager of GNSR. Son of a granite merchant, educated at Robert Gordons
College. Following that he trained as a Solicitor and joined the GNSR in
1894 on the creation of a separate Law Department. Here he acted as assistant
to James Ross before succeeding him as Solicitor to the Company in 1905.
It was decided once again to separate the posts of Secretary and General
Manager and Davidson was appointed to the latter on 2 April 1906. During
his time in office he also acted as Legal Advisor, thus retaining a firm
grip over the Companys affairs. He was able to build on the good work
done by his predecessor and his years in office were marked by continued
expansion in services as well as the reconstruction of the Joint Station.
The traumas resulting from the Great War placed heavy burdens on his shoulders
and these were not eased by having to give considerable help to the hard-pressed
Highland Railway. Added to the work needed in the aftermath of war came the
problems associated with the Grouping. When the Great North became part of
the LNER, George Davidson was appointed Solicitor for Scotland in the new
Company and moved to Edinburgh. However he did not really enjoy being separated
from traffic work and was delighted when he was given the post of Divisional
General Manager of the North Eastern Area, based at York, in June 1924. He
set about his new job with considerable vigour, in particular simplifying
what he considered a too complex management structure. While at York he found
himself responsible for arranging the 1925 Railway Centenary celebrations
and carried these through with great success, the occasion being marked by
the award of a CBE. One result of the exhibition was increased public awareness
of, and interest in, railway relics and he gave his full support to the early
days of the York Railway Museum. He was a man with a very human heart and
took great personal interest in his staff at whatever level. His favourite
area for relaxation was the Aberdeenshire coast and it was while on holiday
at Cruden Bay that he was suddenly taken ill and died on 18 August 1928 (GNSR
website). Bonavia noted that the LNER
was somewhat embarrassed by the fact that the 'Great North' had paid
Davidson's salary, a fine one for those days, free of income tax. One of
the two final locoomotives built at Inverurie was No. 45, George
Davidson, .
Davies, Evan Robert
Born in Llannor in 1870; died from a stroke in 1934. Secretary of
the Festiniog Railway and Welsh Highland Railway and North Wales Narrow Gauge
Railway. Successful manager of the Festiniog from 1931 until his death.
Festipedia
Davies, John
Late general manager 'of the government railways of Western Australia,
had been appointed to a similar position on the Midland and South Western
Junction Ry., in succession to the late James Purkess in 1903.
Locomotive Mag., 1903,
8, 45.
Devaux, Charles Pierre
Chance Internet discovery (one relating to Dulwich where he
lived for a time in mid-nineteenth century) indicates Deveraux was a major
investor in Victorian railways both in Europe and America. Before that
Woodcroft listed two possibly relevant
patents.
GB 6901 Apparatus for preventing the explosion of boilers or generators
of steam. 8 Oct. 1835 .
GB 7210 Apparatus for preventing the explosion of boilers or generators
of steam. 13 Oct. 1836
Dix, J.R.
General manager Corris Railway
(Rly Mag., 1899, 4, 544 when
had been in post for more than twenty years and had seen 34 years of railway
service including some on Cambrian Railways)
Dorrington, W.E.
Member of LMS Board; formerly LNWR Board Member.
Nock A history of the
LMS
Doughty, William George (Bill)
Anecdote and photograph of Bill on SNFC locomotive in
Hardy Steam Wld, 1996 (106)
26-30. Began his railway career at Melton Constable and then moved to
Doncaster. Came into contact with Hardy via his activities on behalf of ASLEF.
Eventually became the principal of railway staff training college.
Douglas, C.S.
Assistant (Purchasing & Sales), British Transport Commission Central
Services, retired in late 1955 after nearly 49 years' service with the railways
and the British Transport Commission; he has been responsible to the Chief
Stores Officer for the supervision of the Central Purchasing organisation
of British Railways. Mr. Douglas began his railway career with the former
L.N.W.R. in 1907 and joined the Purchasing Office set up at Euston in 1910.
During WW1 Douglas served with H M. Forces and later resumed duty in the
Purchasing Office. In 1931 he was appointed Deputy Resident Storekeeper,
Crewe Works. and in 1934 became Assistant Stores Controller (Locomotives).
He returned to Headquarters of the L.M.S.R. in 1936, and took control of
a Purchasing Section of the Stores Superintendent's Office, and during WW2
was active on many committees. In 1950 he was appointed Assistant (Purchasing
and Sales), Stores Department, Railwav Executive Headquarters when the Central
Purchasing Organisation was set up. He retained this position when the Stores
Department was transferred to the B.T.C. Central Services under the new
organisation which came into operation on 1 January 1955.
(Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev.,
1955, 61, 215.
Duffus, Alexander
Aberdeen lawyer. Member of LNER Scottish Area Local Committee; former
member of Great North of Scotland Railway Board.(from 1915) and Chairman
in 1922, Mullay London's
Scottish railways and
Vallance
Dunnell, Robert Francis
Born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk on 26 July 1868; died Nairobi, Kenya
on 16 July 1960. Educated at Rossall School. He was admitted a solicitor
in 1891 and joined the Solicitor's Department of the North Eastern Railway
Company. He became assistant solicitor to the company in 1900, solicitor
in 1905, and also secretary to the company in 1906. In 1917 he was appointed
Assistant Secretary to the Admiralty and the following year served as secretary
to the British Naval Mission to the United States under
Sir Eric Geddes. At the end of the First World War
he became secretary of the demobilisation section of the War Cabinet and
in 1919 first secretary and solicitor to the new Ministry of Transport. In
1919 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB). In
1921 he returned to his old company, which amalgamated into the London and
North Eastern Railway Company in 1923, as chief legal adviser. In December
1921 he was created a baronet for his services to the Ministry of Transport.
He retired in 1928, but in April 1930 was appointed a Railway and Canal
Commissioner. In 1947 he moved to Kenya, where he died.
Dykes, R.
Manager of the Bourne & Lynn Joint Railway from 1866 to 1876 when
he moved to the Somerset & Dorset Railway: he was originally with the
Midland Railway. See P.C.D. Locomotive
Mag., 1921, 27, 276.
Earle, Hardman
Born in Liverpool on 11 July 1792 and died at Allerton Tower in Childwall
on 25 January 1877. Liverpool cotton broker. One of promoters of the Grand
Junction Railway. Director of LNWR. Name led to Earlestown.
Braine: The railway
Moon.
Ebbisham, Lord (Rowland Blades, 1st Baron Ebbisham)
Born in Sydenham 15 April 1868; died 24 May 1953; educated at King's
College School. In 1886 joined the family printing business, Blades, East
& Blades Ltd, which had been founded by his grandfather, rising to become
its chairman. In 1913 he was elected to the Corporation of London. He served
as Sheriff of London from 1917 to 1918 and during his term of office was
knighted when the King and Queen visited the City of London to celebrate
their silver wedding. He was Lord Mayor of London from 1926 to 1927.
On 23 April 1918 he was co-opted as a member of the London County Council
for the Municipal Reform party. In 1918 he was elected to Parliament for
Epsom and held the seat until 1928, when he resigned by taking the Chiltern
Hundreds. He was created a Baronet in the 1922 New Year Honours and appointed
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in September
1927. In 1928 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Ebbisham, the old name
of Epsom. He was a Director of the Southern Railway. (mainly Who's Who, except
last )
Eborall, Cornelius Willes
Born in Birmingham in 1820; died 16 December 1873. He was the son
of Lieutenant Eborall, R.N., for many years Goods Manager of the Grand Junction
Railway, which post he retained after amalgamation with the London and
Birmingham. Cornelius received his early education in railway matters in
his father's office. About 1847 he was appointed Goods Manager to the Sheffield
Company, and succeeded James Meadows as General Manager of that line in 1849.
In 1850 he became the General Manager of the East Lancashire Railway Company,
the fortunes of which at that time were at a very low ebb. Under Eborall,
however, the property materially improved, and in 1858 it was amalgamated
with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway upon equal terms. In 1856, he was
appointed General Manager of the South-Eastern Railway where he was active
in promoting the link into Charing Cross. Appointed as arbitrator in the
dispute between the Caledonian and the North British Railways. Eborall was
elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on the 5 December,
1865, and frequently joined in the discussion on Papers connected with the
working of railways. He was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Engineer and Railway
Volunteer Staff Corps. Reduced from Grace's Guide
Edwards, Earle.
District Traffic Superintendent, Orpington, Southern Region.
See R.H.N. Hardy. Attention to detail. Part 4.
Steam Wld., 1995, (96)
27
Ellis, Edward Shipley
Sonn of John Ellis (below) and chairman of Midland Railway 1873-9.
Simmons Oxford
Companion.
Ellis, John
Born at Sharman's Lodge near Leicester on 3 August 1789 and died on
26 October 1862. Promoter of Leicester & Swannington Railway. Chairman
of the Midland Railway from 1849 until 1858; had been deputy chairman since
the company's formation in 1844 and a director of the Midland Counties Railway.
Instrumental in the Midland Railway's acquisition of the Bristol & Gloucester
Railway in 1846. Liberal MP for Leicester 1848-52. Son Edward Shipley Ellis
also a chairman of the Midland Railway.
Simmons Oxford Companion.and
ODNB entry by Miller Christy rev. Alan R.
Griffin.
Ellis, R.P.
Superintendent of the Line Great Eastern Railway retired in 1910
(Locomotive Mag,, 1910,
16, 182): had been in post since c1890 (Dawn Smith)
Ellis, Sir William Henry
Born Rotherham 20 August 1860; died 4 July 1945. Master Cutler of
Sheffield, 191418. Colonel Engineer and Railway Staff Corps. President
of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1926; President of the Iron and Steel
Institute, 192425; Member of National Physical Laboratory and Cambridge
University Appointments Board; Member of the Privy Council Committee of the
Depart of Scientific and Industrial Research, 192526; Who Was
Who
Emerson, Sir Ralf
Died 30 January 1965; born in 1897. Educated at Bradfield and the
Royal Military Academy: commissioned in the Royal Enqineers in 1918 and served
until 1927 when he was posted to the Great Indian Peninsula Railway and became
acting General Manager. He was Chief Commissioner of Railways in India, 1946-47,
when he retired. After experience with the Dowsett group he became Chairman
and General Manager of the Nigerian Railway in 1953. He was Knighted in 1956.
On his return from Nigeria in 1961 Sir Ralf was elected to the board of what
was then Metropolitan-Cammell Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd. and became
chairman. He was elected a Member ILocoE in 1961. ILocoE obituary..Discussion
on H.F. Brown paper Proc. Instn
Mech. Engrs, 1961, 175,
277-8.
English, William
First manager of the Cheshire Lines Committee. Formerly with South
Yorkshire Railway. See Dow's
GCR history V.2 pp. 143 (portrait) and 146.
Evans Bevan, [Sir] David (Martyn)
Born 4 March 1902, died 9 September 1973. Probably director of LMS
in 1947. Educated Uppingham. Director of: Barclays Bank Ltd, 193872;
Phnix Assurance Co. Ltd, 194072. Governor of London House; Member,
Shipwrights Company. JP 193267; DL Glamorganshire; High Sheriff of
Breconshire, 192930, of Glamorganshire, 195152; Freeman of Neath,
1949; Freeman of Port Talbot, 1952;
Falconer, James
Born in 1856 in Carmyllie; died 21 April 1931. Educated at Arbroath
High School and Edinburgh University. Chairman of the Mersey Railway when
redeemed financially and electrified. Member of Parliament from 1909-18 and
1922-4. Who Was Who and A.
Jarvis. Rly Wld., 1986,
47, 211.
Falkner, John Meade
Born 8 May 1858 in North Newnton, Wiltshire; died 22 July 1932. Educated
Marlborough; Hertford College, Oxford University. Chairman of Sir W. G.
Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltd, 191520 during time that firm
re-entered locomotive building. Prior to this he acted as tutor to the previous
Chaiman's family. Falkner was a novelist and poet as well as business man
and settled in the City of Durham where he loved its Cathedral.
Firth, Bernard Alexander
Times obituary (26 February 1929) refers to
memorioal service in Sheffield Cathedral of Colonel Firth of the steel and
armament firm of Thomas Firth & Sons of Sheffield. Refers to very active
directorship of LNER, and also a board member of English Electric.
Reed refers to a "J.B. Firth" being
chairman of the LNER Locomotive Committee
(Hughes LNER confirms that
Bernard Firth was Chairman of LNER Locomotive Committee and succeeded by
Andrew K. McCosh). who took an active role in the
acquistion of former ROD 2-8-0s. He was 63 at the time of his death.
Fisher, P.J.
Assistant District Controller at Chaddesden before WW2 became
Lieut.-Colonel in the Royal Engineers, and appointed Assistant Director of
Transportation in Italy. He had a wide experience of rail transportation
on the L.M.S. Locomotive Mag.,
1944, 50, 31.
Fitch, S.A.
Member of four man Southern Railway delegation to North America to
examine diesel traction. He represented the Superintendent of Operation.
Bulleid: Bulleid of the
Southern.
Fleetwood, Peter Hesketh
Born at Wennington Hall, near Lancaster, on 9 May 1801; died in London,
on 12 April 1866. Founder of the town of Fleetwood, and descendant of ancient
Lancashire families of Hesketh and Fleetwood. On death of his elder brother,
Edward, in 1820, he became heir to the considerable estates his father had
developed in the Rossall area. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford,
graduating BA in 1823 and MA in 1826. He was high sheriff of Lancashire in
1830, and sat as MP for Preston from 1832 to 1847; initially a Conservative,
by 1837 he was recorded by Dod as a Liberal. He was a strong advocate for
the abolition of the death penalty. He assumed the surname of Fleetwood by
royal licence on 5 March 1831, and was created a baronet in June 1838.
Impressed by the poor facilities of Lancashire and by the opportunities of
opening the country by railway construction, Hesketh-Fleetwood planned a
new town, designed by Decimus Burton, on his estate at Rossall at the mouth
of the River Wyre, in the Fylde, Lancashire. Burton's plan was ready in 1835,
construction starting in 1836: it was one of the first towns to be planned
around a railway. Shortage of capital and an underestimation of railway and
building costs brought Hesketh-Fleetwood near to bankruptcy, and in 1844
he had to sell family estates at Blackpool and Rossall (as a result of which
sale Rossall School was founded). Further land sales followed in 1850. The
town prospered but its founder's family did not.
From ODNB entry by H.C.G. Matthew.
See also Flann Backtrack, 2011,
25, 676.
Forbes, William
Manager of the Midland Great Western Railway in Ireland: father of
Stanhope Forbes (artist)
Ford, J. Newton
Traffic Superintendent North London Railway mentioned by Fellows in
Locomotive Mag., 1935, 41,
215 who suggests that Major Ford was expert railway historian who doubted
whether the NLR operated true slip coaches
Francis, J.H.W.
Born in 1879, (mainly from sources in Grace's Guide).Francis was
educated at, Clifton, served his time on the London and North Western Railway
at Crewe, and became a pupil under F.W. Webb. He completed his training at
King's College, London, afterwards serving on the testing staff of Willans
& Robinson, Rugby. Later he was appointed an Assistant Inspecting Engineer
to the Egyptian and Sudanese Government in Belgium and France. He eventually
became Chief Assistant to Sir A.L. Webb,
K.C.M.G., in London, being responsible for all supplies for the Egyptian
State Railways and other Egyptian Government Departments. During WW1 was
responsible for supplies for the Inland Waterways and Docks Dept. of the
War Office. He was attached to the Inland Waterways and Docks Directorate
under General Collard, and was largely responsible for the development of
the Mystery Port of Richborough and the Water Transport in Mesopotamia. In
January, 1918, he was promoted Assistant Director Inland Waterways and Docks,
was mentioned in dispatches, and received the C.B.E. In February, 1919, he
was appointed a Controller, Disposals Board, Ministry of Munitions, and in
September was transferred to Richborough in charge of disposals work at that
port and was in charge of the disposal of surplus stores at Richborough.
Subseuently Stores Superintendent, Southern Railway. .Lieut.-Col. J.H.W.
Francis, C.B.E., R.E., took up his duties at Nine Elms on January 1st, 1920,
as Chief Storekeeper and Purchasing Agent, London and South Western Railway,
continuing from January 1st, 1923, in the service of the Southern Railway.:See
also Locomotive Mag., 1920,
26, 44
Galt, William
Solicitor 1809-1874: advocate of nationalisation on lines of Post
Office. Wragg Historical
dictionary. Author of Rilway reform 1843 (several editions:
Ottley 425) and Railway reform 1864 (Ottley 4377)
Gardner, Robert
Founded firm which became Tootall, Broadhurst
& Lee in 1799, Also Deputy Chairman Trent Valley Railway: see
Mathams and Barrett Backtrack, 2014,
28, 4.
Garrow, William M.
Superintendent of the Line, Highland Railway: appointed 1 May 1890;
retired 1901. Dawn Smith.
Geach, Charles
Born in Cornwall in 1808. In 1836 accepted position of manager of
Midland Banking Company in Birmingham where he grew to be a local public
figure and eventually an MP. Invested in railways and railway suppliers,
notably Walker's Patent Shaft & Axle Works. Died 1 November 1854.
Robert C. McWilliam in Chrimes.
Gethin, E.L.
British Transport Commission announced appointment as Supplies and
Production Adviser to the Commission who was formerly Deputy Chief Contracts
Officer at the London Headquarters of the Central Electricity Authority.
Gethin would be responsible for the proper utilisation of the Commission's
very large industrial facilities. and for the co-ordination of their purchasing
programmes. The appointment is of special importance in view of the £1200
M. programme for the modernisation and re-equipment of British Railways.See
Locomotive Mag., 1955,
61, 89. Pearson's Man of the rail:
noted that when appointed supplies and production adviser and joined the
general staff of the Commission,. he was very experienced in this work, but
had had no previous experience of the railways or of transport. Gethin was
of medium height, youngish, tough, perhaps a little brash, and talkative.
The first time I saw him was in the general staff mess when he was telling
Jock Brebner, somewhat frankly, what he thought of B.T.C. public relations,
and Brebner was telling him, in effect, to mind his own business! All the
characteristics and qualities and experience that Gethin possessed he needed
for the very difficult job he had taken on, which, incidentally, was one
of the most senior of its kind in the country. It also required the very
greatest tact if changes were to be made in practices which involved prestige,
and which had ruled for many years.
In 1955 it was decided to review the whole stores and supplies organisation
of the B.T.C., and a committee of officers was set up, of which Gethin was
one, under myself, to carry out this review. It was, as might be imagined,
a considerable job of work, and I had some trouble in getting a unanimous
report. As chairman, I had to keep the team together, and Gethin, who had
strong views and was a newcomer to the service, was not easily satisfied,
particularly when he had studied the existing procedures. However, we reported
in October, 1956, and as a result of our recommendations and the discussions
and amendments that followed, the Commission laid down a new policy embracing
the general purchasing procedure. One of the major changes was that
responsibility for purchasing and order- ing equipment, stores and works
should be kept distinct from the responsibilities of the technical departments,
always providing that the latter were satisfied on the technical considerations.
The new purchasing policy came into force in May, 1957, but by then the
Commission had decided to abolish the post of supplies and production adviser,
and Gethin had left in March-naturally not very happily. One or two of us
on the general staff gave him a fare- well lunch at the Ecu de France, but
other than this no one bade him farewell, which made me sad. Then in July,
as a result of comment in the House of Commons, the Minister of Transport
decided on an independent investigation into certain supply matters, and
Sir Harold Howitt went into it all with us, with Gethin and all concerned,
and reported in September in another White Paper (Cmd 262). Broadly, he approved
the new arrangements and made some new suggestions which were adopted.
Gibbins, Edward
Relief clerk at Normanton in 1947. Divisional Manager Stoke-on-Trent
in 1982. Assistant Divisional General Manager for Stoke and Liverpool Divisions
c1985. Backtrack author.
Gillingwater, H.R.
Superintendent of the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway. See
N.A. Comfort. The Mid-Suffolk
Light Railway. Oakwood Press. 1986. Locomotion Paper No. 22
Gilroy, Alexander Bruce
Born 24 March 1854; died 10 November 1923; member of Dundee jute
manufacturing company: Gilroy, Sons & Co. NBR Board in 1913. See Simpson,
NBR Study Group J., 2000, (78),
27.
Glenarthur, 1st Baron
Matthew Arthur was born on 9 March 1852 and was created Lord Glenarthur
in 1903. He had been educated at Glasgow University and was Chairman of several
organisations including the Glasgow & South Western Railway from 1920-22.
According to Mullay's London's
Scottish railways he had served on the Board for 22 years. He died
on 23 September 1928. (Who was who)
Glyn, George Carr
Born 27 March 1797, fourth surviving son of Sir Richard Carr Glyn.
Educated at Westminster School, and entered his father's bank, Glyn, Mills,
Hallifax, Glyn, Mills & Co., straight from school. He became a partner
in 1819 but did not become senior partner until after the death of his elder
brother Sir Richard Plumptre Glyn in 1863. On 17 March 1823 Glyn married
Marianne, third daughter of Pascoe Grenfell.The Glyns had nine sons and two
daughters; the eldest son, George Grenfell Glyn, succeeded to the title.
Two sons entered the army, a third the navy, one was called to the bar, and
another, Edward, became bishop of Peterborough in 1897.
Personally, and through the medium of his family bank, Glyn made a significant
contribution to the development of railway transport, not only in Great Britain
but in many other parts of the world. By the 1850s his bank was known as
the railway bank and probably had the largest business of any of the London
banks. In all, some one hundred and thirty British railway companies and
eighty foreign ones banked with it, and at the time of his death railway
company credit balances with his bank exceeded a quarter of its total deposits.
His bank also acted as London agent for about sixty country banks and played
an important part in the development of investment trusts. One of the earliest,
the Foreign and Colonial Government Trust, was formed in 1868, with Glyn,
Mills, Currie & Co. (as his bank had become in 1864) as its bankers.
Glyn was treasurer of the company formed by act of parliament in 1824 for
the construction of St Katherine's Dock in London, his father-in-law, then
MP for Penryn, acting as one of the promoters. In 1833 he became a member
of the London board for the London and Birmingham Railway Company, becoming
chairman in 1837. The company amalgamated with the Grand Junction Railway
Company and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway Company in 1846 to form
the London and North Western Railway Company, of which he remained chairman
until his resignation in 1852 on grounds of ill health. He took much interest
in the details of the construction of the railway and in the running of the
company, and it was at his suggestion that it built a school at the new town
of Wolverton, in north Buckinghamshire, which was its creation and where
Glyn Square was named after him. According to his obituary in The
Economist, his speeches at the half-yearly meetings of the company
became epochs in the railway history of the time. There was no affectation
of oratory, but in simple dignity and force and in luminous arrangement they
have never been excelled. He was chairman of the Bankers' Clearing
House and, inspired by this example, he founded the Railway Clearing House
in January 1842, remaining chairman until his death.
Glyn became Liberal member of parliament for Kendal in 1847, retiring at
the 1868 election. He rarely spoke in the House of Commons, but he was an
early supporter of free trade and served on numerous committees and commissions.
He gave evidence before a parliamentary committee in 1832, strongly opposing
joint-stock banks. Private banks, he thought, could deal with individual
clients with a speed and secrecy beyond that of a public establishment. He
always remained strongly opposed to the Bank Charter Act of 1844. He succeeded
his father as treasurer of the Globe Insurance Company. He became a governor
of Harrow School, a commissioner of lieutenancy for London, a governor of
the Hudson Bay Company, and a joint high commissioner for Canada.
In 1837 Glyn's bank, together with Baring & Co., became the London agents
for the provincial government of Canada, and together with Barings it advanced
considerable sums, eventually arranging for Canadian government securities
to be quoted on the London stock exchange. In 1852 he joined with Thomas
Baring as promoter of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. This project ran
into serious financial difficulties and it was twelve years before it became
financially sound. Throughout this period Glyn acted with exemplary rectitude,
meeting many claims from his own pocket. He was created Baron Wolverton on
14 December 1869, taking his title from the town which was the creation of
the London to Birmingham Railway. He died on 24 July 1873 at his house, 1
Upper Eccleston Street, London. His widow died in 1892 Glyn's obituary in
The Times records that throughout his life the quick vigour
of his character was remarkable, and his obituarist in The
Economist wrote that he was energetic, sagacious, affable, intelligent,
[and] an almost unerring judge of character. Michael Reed
ODNB. See
also major biography by David Hodgkins. Founder of Railway Clearing House
see Rutherford, Backtrack, 2009,
23, 689.
Good, Alan Paul
Born 9 April 1906; died 10 February 1953. Educated Marlborough and
Hertford College, Oxford. Career: Solicitor, Pennington & Sons,
193039; Chairman; Lagonda Motors Ltd, 1936; Heenan and Froude Ltd,
1936; Petters Ltd, 1937; Associated British Engineering, 1937; Darwins Ltd,
1939; Fielding & Platt, 1935; Mirrlees Bickerton & Day Ltd, 1938;
Director: Brush Electrical Engineering Co. Ltd, 1938 (Deputy Chairman and
Managing Director, 194145 and 1946); Guardian Assurance Co. Ltd,
193751 (Vice-Chairman. 1951); Vivian Diesels & Munitions
Ltd, 1951; Vivian Engine Works Ltd, 1951. (Who's Who). Internet source
(2013-02-09) notes the Chairman of Heenan & Froude Ltd in the 1940s was
A.P. Good who created something of a railway engineering business empire
by amalgamating significant parts of the UK's locomotive building industry.
Good acquired the business of W.G.Bagnall Ltd (reference Civil & Baker,
Bagnalls of Stafford, Oakwood Press, 1973) on behalf of Heenan &
Froude and he also controlled The Brush Electrical Engineering Co Ltd. Part
of this empire included Associated Locomotive Equipment Ltd which operated
from the Shrub Hill Works in Worcester. Associated Locomotive Equipment Ltd
built poppet valve gears for steam locomotives including British-Caprotti
and Lentz Rotary Cam and Oscillating Cam systems and cast iron and steel
locomotive cylinders. Good died in 1953 after which the various businesses
were sold off piecemeal
Goulding, Sir William Joshua
Born 7 March 1856; died 12 July 1925. Educated at Cambridge University.
Chairman, Great Southern and Western Railway of Ireland; Deputy-Chairman,
Fishguard and Rosslare Harbours and Railway Company; an Irish Lights
Commissioner; Chairman Irish Railway Clearing House. Who Was Who.
Reaction to Easter Uprising see
Locomotive Mag.,
1917, 23, 65
Grenfell, Charles Pascoe
Born in London on 4 April 1790: son of
Pascoe Grenfell. He was educated at
Harrow School and at Christ Church, Oxford, and married Lady Georgiana Molyneux,
eldest daughter of the second earl of Sefton. The couple had four children,
including Henry Riversdale Grenfell. Charles Pascoe Grenfell served as MP
for Preston in 184752, and also again in 185765. Between 1846
and 1848 he was chairman of the London and Brighton Railway Company. Listed
in directories as a copper master of Upper Thames Street, Charles was, for
many years, senior partner in Pascoe Grenfell & Sons. He died at Taplow
Court, Taplow, Buckinghamshire, on 21 March 1867.
Most of information from Edmund Newell ODNB
entry.
Grenfell, Pascoe St Leger
Son of Pascoe Grenfell and
second wife was born in 1798. He was closely involved in the copper smelting
business: unlike other smelters, he built his home, Maesteg House, in close
proximity to his workers and downwind of the noxious copper smoke produced
by the smelting works. Pascoe St Leger Grenfell's personal commitment to
church and community was considerable. He taught a Bible class in a Sunday
school for over thirty years, was involved with the British and Foreign Bible
Society and the London Missionary Society, and in 1868 became the first chairman
of the Released Prisoners' Aid Society. He was chairman of the Swansea Harbour
Trust from 1850 to 1859, remaining chairman of its finance committee for
many years afterwards. He was chairman of the Swansea Vale Railway Company,
a member of the Swansea corporation, a justice of the peace, a feoffee of
Swansea grammar school, and was deputy lieutenant for Glamorgan. He died
in Nottingham, on 28 March 1879. Most of
information from Edmund Newell ODNB entry.
Grey. Alexander Reith
NBR Board in 1913. See Simpson,
NBR Study Group J., 2000, (78), 27
and of LNER in 1930 (see Hughes
LNER): B1 class named after him: interests in Aberdeen
Grierson, Henry
Dawn Smith notes
was a director of the NBR in 1886. North British Railway Study Circle called
him self-seeking. Cattenach NBRSG
Journal (92) 16. Advocate son, George, engineered government finance
for Mallaig extension.
Griffiths, Richard
Richard Griffiths, who was born in 1756 at Gellifendigaid Farm, a
mile north of Pontypridd. Although a medical practitioner he became
involved in coal mining and built a 2¼ mile long tramroad and a 1 mile
long canal in 1809 to link into the Glamorganshire Canal at Dynea. Died 1826.
Internet and review of booklet
publishe Pontypridd Museum in Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2011, (210)
59.
Grinling, William
Chief Accoutant GNR between 1868 and 1896. Father of
Charles H. Grinling, author of
History of the Great Northern Railway and of William J. Grinling who
rose to become Chief Traffic Manager of the GNR.
Dawn Smith
Hacking, Richard
Mentioned by Jeffrey Wells in
Backtrack, 2011, 25, 419. Website for gastropub
notes that Heaton Grove, an imposing mansion, wherein resided the influential
family whose head was Richard Hacking Justice of the peace, chairman of the
Bury improvement Commissioners and partner in the firm of Walker and Hacking
on of Burys leading industrial concerns. He was also an originator
of the towns first railway. In 1844 an Act was passed for the Manchester,
Bury and Rossendale Railway, and he became one of the directors. Also Wikipedia
East Lancashire Railway.
Hall, Alfred
Born 1778; Died in Forth Lane on 31 December 1853 and buried in Newcastle
General Cemetery. Son of John Hall, physician, was a 'Sheet lead, red lead
and litharge manufacturer, Collingwood St and Bill Quay'. Elected to Newcastle
Common Council in 1821 as sheriff, one year's tenure; again sheriff 1826-1828.
With others reported on Shields suspension bridge, 1825; Scotswood suspension
bridge, 1828; Grainger's plan for Corn Exchange, 1830; N&CR quay, 1831;
Durham Junction Railway, 1833. Director Newcastle & Carlisle Railway.
Rennison, R.W. The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway and its engineers;
18291862. Trans. Newcomen
Soc., 2001, 72, 203-33.
Harcourt, George Robert De (D')
Patent (via Woodcroft)
GB 10367/1844. Ascertaining and checking the number of checks or
tickets which have been used and marked;- applicable for railway offices
and oyjer purposes. 29 October 1844.
Hare, T. Bernard
Author of Practical railway operating published in 1931 (review
Locomotive Mag. 1931,
37, 361). He was District Superintendent, Middlebrough, LNER at
time of publication
Harper, J.B.
Assistant General Superintendent, North Eastern Railway: retired about
1923. Presented a large collection of historical artefacts and documents
to the Railway Museum in York. Chairman of Museum Committee: see
Locomotive Mag., 1927, 33,
171-2. See Locomotive Mag., 1923,
29, 122
Harrington, J. Leslie
Chairman of the Railway Executive's Committee on the Types of Motive
Power instigated on 20 December 1948 by Cyril Hurcomb of the British Transport
Commission composed of Harrington, E.E. Rostern, A.C.B. Pickford and J.W.J.
Webb (Executive Minute No. 1717)' Reported 1951 (not in Ottley, but widely
cited and available in pdf format at Railway Archive). The terms of reference
of the Committee were to examine the estimate future balance of advantage
between: steam traction; electric traction, diesel-electric traction,
diesel-mechanical traction and gas-turbine traction. Bond states that Harrington
had been a senior member of the Chairman's staff at Waterloo with Missenden,
Szlumper and Sir Herbert Walker at Waterloo. In 1938 he had been Divisional
Marine Manager at Dover before becoming General Assistant to the Southern
General Manager in 1941. In 1946 he was a member of a four-man team sent
to North America to examine diesel traction as an alternative to electrification
(Bulleid. Bulleid of the Southern).
In 1951 he he was appointed Chief Officer (Marine and Administration) of
the Railway Executive and by 1969 (when he retired) he had become General
Manager Shipping and International Services. The BTC Report recommended a
substantial trial of diesel locomotive traction; the use of diesel railcars
for cross country services and electrification from King's Cross to Grantham
and probably Nottingham. In the late 1930s when the SR became involved in
air transport ventures Harrington was frequently delegated
(see Hennessey Backtrack, 2016,
30. 52). The names who had assisted are listed: Rudgard, but not
Riddles, Bond, Cock, Cox, Dean, R.F. Harvey and Warder and some others (even
more obscure). Rostern, Pickford and Webb have still to be traced. (12-2011).
Ottley lists two publications:
The Channel Tunnel and ferry. Oakwood Press, 1949. LP No. 4) (Ottley
1924)
Economic aspects of railway electrification. London, 1931. (Ottley
3490)
Harverson, P.A.
Assistant Passenger Manager, LNER: views on railway involvement in
air services: see Backtrack, 2012,
26, 620.
Hasell, Edward W.
1796-1872. Chairman of the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway.
Braine: The railway Moon
(includes a portrait on page 263).
Hawkins, Sir Christopher
Cornish landowner died 6 April 1829. His estate and Trewint, his home,
passed to nephew. Between they developed china clay industry and Pentewan
Harbour and Railway. See Evans,
Robert E. The Pentewan Railway, 1829-1918. Rly Arch., 2010 (29)
2-23.
Hawkins, E.S.
General manager of the Colne Valley Railway from 1903 in succession
to George Copus. Locomotive
Mag., 1903, 9, 199. Dawn Smith
notes had also become Secretary and locomotive superintendent by time
railway was absorbed into the LNER
Hawkins, William Bailey
Chairman of the Colne Valley & Halstead Railway and of the South
Hetton Coal Co. (see Locomotive Mag.,
1936, 42, 16-18). Dawn Smith
shows that he had financial interests in several Welsh railways, the Harborne
Railway and lines in the West of England. Presumably related to above. NB
online record shows a J.B. Hawkins as Managing Director South Hetton Colliery
Co..
Hearn, S.G.
Chief Operating Superintendent, Western Rregion from 1956. Formerly
Assistant Operating Superintendent on Western Region, but for a time moved
to London Midland Region. Locomotive
Mag., 1955, 61, 183
Hichens, William Lionel
Born in 1874; died 4 October 1940. Educated at Winchester and New
College, Oxford. Chairman of Cammell Laird from 1910. Director of Metropolitan
Cammell Carriage & Wagon & Finance, English Steel Corporation and
LMS. Whos Who.Mentioned within context of steel coaches in
Ellis London Midland & Scottish.
Hickrnan, P.R.
Stores Superintendent, London Midland Region, Euston, to be Chief
Officer (Stores) at Railway Executive Headquarters,
Hill, Sir Reginald
Born 27 November 1888, died 26 December 1971. Educated Merchant
Taylors School and St Johns College, Oxford. Entered Board of
Trade, 1912; Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Transport, 1940; Ministry of War
Transport, 194154; Deputy Director-General (Inland Transport), Ministry
of War Transport, 194147; Chairman. Docks and Inland Waterways Board
of Management, British Transport Commission, 194854. Who Was Who.
Mullay, A.J. Britain's railway canals.
Part 3. Rly Arch., 2011 (32), 55.
Hill, Rowland
Born on 3 December 1795 in Kidderminster, third of the eight children
of Thomas Wright Hill (17631851), schoolmaster. About 1803 Rowland
entered Hill Top, his father's school in a Birmingham suburb, where despite
the effects of scarlet fever which permanently weakened his health he developed
his skills as a mathematician and mechanical engineer. For a time his
considerable energy was expended on work on a series of inventions and ideas,
such as a rotary printing press, a scheme for pneumatic dispatch of messages,
and road-building machinery. In January 1837 Hill published the first edition
of Post Office Reform: its Importance and Practicability, after submitting
the gist of his proposals privately to Lord Melbourne's government. In this
pamphlet Hill undertook two tasks simultaneously. The first was to attack
the current postal system as overly complicated, usually requiring the recipient
of a letter to pay for postage based on the number of sheets the letter contained
and the distance it had been conveyed. Under this system a letter of a single
sheet sent from London to Birmingham cost as much as 9d. Matters were made
worse by the fact that London was served by three separate delivery systems.
Thus a Londoner might receive mail from three different letter-carriers.
Elsewhere it was usually the case that mail had to be collected from local
post offices and posted not, as later, in roadside boxes, but at the same
local post offices or in receiving houses. Hill insisted that
this unwieldy arrangement unfairly taxed the public and inhibited the expansion
of trade and ideas. Hill's second goal in writing this pamphlet was to propose
an alternative system of a standard prepayment for letters conveyed between
principal towns and cities, regardless of the specific distance involved.
Hill would later modify and improve details of this scheme, most importantly
suggesting the use of stamps as one method of prepayment. However, his
fundamental approach first presented in Post Office Reform remained unchanged
for the rest of his life. Jack Simmons in his article on the Post Office
in his Oxford Companion page 392 calls
Hill a "radical publicist" and notes the significacnce of the Railways
(Conveyance of Mails) Act of 1838. From 1843 to 1846 he was a director and
then chairman of the London and Brighton Railway Company. Promoted with Cobbold
the Hadleigh Railway (Backtrack,
2018, 32, 714). Sir Rowland Hill died on 27 August 1879 at Bertram
House, his home in Hampstead, London. Venerated in death, he was buried in
Westminster Abbey on 4 September. C.R. Perry
ODNB
Hindell, H.G.
O.B.E. Central Argentine Railway; Railway Transport Service, France;
Chief Stores Officer, Directorate of Railways, North Russian Expeditionary
Force See J. Instn Loco. Engrs.,
1921, 11 364
Holland-Hibbert, Arthur Henry, third Viscount
Knutsford.
Born 19 March 1855; died 16 January 1935. Member of LMS Board; formerly
LNWR Board Member. Nock A history
of the LMS
Hopper, Edward
Born 1908 in Herne Hill; in 1925 joined Southern Railway as a clerk
in the General Manager's Office at Waterloo and by 1939 was personal assistant
to John Elliot. After WW2 he became involved in reducing staffing costs and
was appointed to the Railway Executive in 1951 to train staff for the Joint
Consultation Procedure and from 1957 the General Railway Course at Dillington
House. See Maurice Hopper
Backtrack, 2013, 27, 341
and Visions of a changing railway reviewed in
Backtrack 2013, 27,
382..
Hopwood, Harold L. . 157.
Died 23 April 1927 aged 46. Superintendent of Line for Southern Area,
LNER. Joined GNR 13 January 1897. Published in Rly Mag. Founder member
of Railway Club: presented Ten years progress at Doncaster Works, Great Northern
Ry on 11 February 1921 (Locomotive
Mag., 1921, 27, 24). Obituary:
Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev.,
127, 33, 157.
Horne, Lancelot Worthy
Born in 1875. Educated Shrewsbury School. Entered General Manager's
office of LNWR in 1893. Superintendent of the Line: LNWR (came from Chaplin
& Horne: the sometime haulage agents to the LNWR). During WW1 was Secretary
of the Railway Executive Committee. Retired at the Amalgamation. Died 7 March
1924. Reed.
Houchen, Harry Owen
Born in New Zealand on 24 September 1907; died 10 March 1981. Educated
at Canterbury College, University of New Zealand. Career in transport and
civil aviation. In 1962 joined British Transport Commission as General Manager
British Railways Workshops. From 1964-9 member of British Railways Board
responsible for engineering and workshops. Who Was Who and
Bond Lifetime.
Howard, Henry
Born at Corby Castle in Cumberland on 2 July 1757. Educated by
Benedictines at Douai, briefly at the University of Paris and in 1774 entered
the Theresian Academy in Vienna. Was refused a commission in the British
army due to his religion, but later served in York militia and raised the
Edenside rangers. He died at Corby Castle on 1 March 1842. He was an eager
supporter of the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway.
ODNB entry by W.A.J. Archbold revised J.A.
Marchand. and Rennison, R.W. The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway and
its engineers; 18291862.
Trans. Newcomen Soc., 2001,
72, 203-33.
Howard, John
NBR Board in 1913. See Simpson,
NBR Study Group J., 2000, (78),
27.
Howard, Philip Henry
Born 22 April 1801; died 1 January 1883. Member of Howard family headed
by the Duke of Norfolk,: son of Henry Howard (above), of Corby Castle,
Cumberland. Howard was returned to parliament as one of two representatives
for Carlisle in 1830. He lost his seat in July 1847 but the election was
declared void in March 1848 and in that same month he was once again elected
for the constituency. This time he held the seat until 1852. He was appointed
High Sheriff of Cumberland for 186061. Vice Chairman of the Newcastle
& Carlisle Railway. Wikipedia and Rennison, R.W. The Newcastle
and Carlisle Railway and its engineers; 18291862.
Trans. Newcomen Soc., 2001,
72, 203-33.
Hunt, Stanley Herbert
Died 19 October 1934: a director of George Spencer, Moulton &
Co.and Vice-President of Executive, London, Midland and Scottish Railway,
192729. (Who Was Who). Flann,
Backtrack, 2011, 25, 334.
Hutchings, Ephraim
Secretary of the Locomotive Manufacturers' Association. Involved in litigation
against LNWR and GER for supplying new locomotives to other compannies
Irwin, Robert Christopher
Born in Carlisle on 26 April 1865; died 28 March 1937. Educated Holly
Bank School. .Secretary of LMS: retired 16 November 1927. Had been appointed
Secretary of Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in July 1899, and had served
in that capacity for LNWR and then LMS. He had entered LYR Secretary's department
in 1881 and other than two years spent as a goods and fish canvasser in the
Company's York office (1886-8) reamined in that department. Rly Mag.,
1927, 61, 496.
Isaac, Samuel
Born in 1812; died in London on 22 November 1886), merchant and projector
of the Mersey Railway Tunnel. Coming to London as a young man, he established
a large business as an army contractor in Jermyn Street, trading as Isaac,
Campbell and Co. His brother, Saul Isaac, J. P., afterwards member for Nottingham
187480, was associated with him in partnership. The firm during the
Confederate war in America were the largest European supporters of the southern
states. Their ships, outward bound with military stores and freighted home
with cotton, were the most enterprising of blockade-runners between 1861
and 1865. He and his firm were large holders of Confederate funds, and were
consequently ruined on the conclusion of the American war in 1865. In 1880
he acquired the rights of the promoters of the Mersey Railway Tunnel, and
himself undertook the making of the tunnel, letting the works to Waddell,
and employing as engineers James Brunlees and Douglas Fox. The tunnel was
opened on 13 February 1885; the first passenger train ran through on 22 December;
it was formally opened by the Prince of Wales on 20 January 1886. Mainly
Who Was Who. A.
Jarvis. Rly Wld., 1986,
47, 211
Jemkins, G.M.
Manager Glyn Valley Tramway.
Locomotive Mag., 1922, 28,
328
Jenkin-Jones, Charles Mark
Born 2 November 1885; died 8 January 1971. Educated Brighton College.;
Queens College., Oxford (Open Classical Scholar). Entered service North
Eastern Railway in 1908; Superintendent, N.E. Area, L and N.E. Rly, 1924;
Divisional Gen. Manager, York, 193647; Railway Operating Gold Medal,
Inst. of Transport, 1934; Visited Palestine to Report on Palestine Railways
at request of Government, 1935; Represented British Dock Owners at International
Labour Conferences, Geneva, 1928, 1929 (including Committee on automatic
couplers: Locomotive Mag.,
1929, 35, 368), 1932; Employers Delegate at Tripartite
Conference on Railway Hours, Geneva, 1939; Major, Engineer and Railway Staff
Corps, 192536; Vice-Chairman. Yorks (E. Riding) Agricultural Wages
Board, 193236; Member of: Tyne Improvement Commission, 193647;
Governing Body Brighton College, 193449; Church Schools Coy, London,
194354; Member. of Oxford University Appointments Committee, 193452;
Vice-Pres. Oxford Society, and Pres. of York and District Branch; Mem. of
Leeds Univ. Appointments Board, CBE 1947;
Johnson, George
Born 1784; died Willington House on 25 January 1852. Director of the
Newcastle & Carlisle Railway from 1833; director of Blaydon, Gateshead
and Hebburn Railway. Reported on the line and bridges of the Newcastle and
North Shields Railway. Colliery viewer.
Rennison Trans Newcomen Soc.,
2001, 72, 203.
Johnson, Sir Henry Cecil [Bill]
Born in Lavendon, Buckinghamshire on 11 September 1906. He was educated
at Bedford modern school. Johnson joined LNER as a traffic apprentice
in 1923, and in 1926 became an assistant yard manager near Ely. After various
posts in the operating department of LNER Johnson was appointed assistant
superintendent of southern area, LNER, in 1942. In 1955 he became chief operating
superintendent of the Eastern Region. He was promoted to be Assistant General
Manager of the Eastern Region at the end of 1955, becoming General Manager
in 1958, where he introduced the successful line management conceptan
Assistant General Manager (Traffic) co-ordinating the work of the line managers.
In 1962 Johnson became General Manager of the London Midland Region, and
was also Chairman in 1963-7. He took charge of the electrification of the
Euston to Manchester and Liverpool line, the first main-line electrification,
completed in 1966, and the new Euston Station opened in 1968. Johnson became
Vice-Chairman of the British Railways board in 1967. Following the forced
resignation of the chairman, Sir Stanley Raymond, at the end of 1967, after
disagreements with the Minister of Transport, Barbara Castle, Johnson was
appointed Chairman, a post he held from 1968 until 1971.
The finances of British Railways improved under Johnson, largely as a result
of the 1968 Transport Act, in which the government promised specific grants
to make unprofitable passenger services financially viable where they were
providing a public service. InterCity, started in 1966 as a new operation
of high-speed trains linking major cities, expanded. In 1969 work began at
the research centre in Derby on the Advanced Passenger Train. Johnson took
a particular interest in the commercial development of surplus railway land,
and established and became chairman of the British Rail Property Board in
1970. In the 1970s British Railways earned £20 million a year from land
sales. Although there were large reductions in railway staff following
modernization and the closure of uneconomic lines, there was some progress
during the Johnson years towards improving industrial relations. While he
did not capture the public imagination in the way of Beeching, he was extremely
popular with the railway employees, who admired him as the only railwayman
to have started at the bottom and worked his way up through the ranks to
become Chairman of British Railways. He was fortunate to become chairman
when the 1968 Transport Act had paved the way towards improving the financial
situation, and he left British Railways with a surplus of £9.7 million.
Johnson was appointed CBE in 1962, knighted in 1968, and became KBE in 1972.
After retirement Johnson started a new career in the City, as chairman of
Metropolitan Estate and Property Corporation, a post he held from 1971 to
1976. He later held positions on the boards of Lloyds Bank, the Trident Life
Assurance Company, and Imperial Life of Canada. Always known as Bill Johnson,
he had a friendly and relaxed manner, but he was shrewd, a good listener,
and expert at delegating. Sir Peter Parker, a later chairman, admired his
honesty and courage, describing him as straight as a gun barrel.
He had an open, distinguished face, with silver-grey hair and large bushy
eyebrows. In his younger days he was a keen rugby player and a cricketer,
and he also enjoyed golf. He was a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club
and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. He died on 13 March 1988 in Great Missenden,
Buckinghamshire. ODNB entry by Anne Pimlott
Baker. The railway in transport (Sir Seymour
Biscoe Tritton Lecture), Rly Div. J., 1971, 2, 5,
Johnson, Robert Stewart
Born 7 August 1872; died 28 August 1951. Managing director of Cammell
Laird & Co. from 1922 until 1951; chairman since 1940. Apprenticed at
Harland & Wolff Ltd in Belfast. Also on Boards of La Mont Steam Generator
Ltd., Metropolitan Cammell Carriage & Wagon Ltd and Midland Railway Carriage
& Wagon Ltd.
Joicey, James
Born in Kip Hill, near Tanfield Lea, Co. Durham, on 4 April 1846;
died Ford Castle on 21 November 1936. He was the younger son of George Joicey,
a mechanical engineer based in Newcastle upon Tyne, and Dorothy, daughter
of Jacob Gowland, of Wrekenton, near Gateshead. His father was one of four
brothers who in 1828 had invested in a colliery enterprise at Tanfield Moor;
the resulting concern becoming James Joicey & Co. after 1829. James Joicey
was educated at Gainford School, near Darlington, and entered the family
business in 1863. Initially, he was employed as an office clerk, but in 1867
he was offered a partnership by the then head of the firm, his uncle James.
He succeeded his uncle in 1881 and seven years later presided over the
incorporation of the firm as a private limited company. Thereafter, Joicey
embarked upon a sequence of colliery acquisitions which led to dominance
of the north-eastern coalfield. In 1896 he purchased, from the earl of Durham,
the Lambton Collieries, and this concern, in turn, purchased the Hetton Coal
Company in 1911. The merged company was known as Lambton and Hetton Collieries
until 1924, when the original family partnership of James Joicey & Co.
was wound up voluntarily and its interests absorbed. Thereafter, until the
nationalization of the coal industry, the company was known as Lambton, Hetton
and Joicey Collieries. At the time of its formation this concern was the
largest colliery enterprise in the north-east, with a coal output in excess
of 5 million tons per annum drawn from twenty pits. The company also owned
by-product works, coke works, and brick and gas works.
Joicey did not confine his interests to the coal trade; he was for many years
a director of the London and North Eastern Railway Company and, until a few
years before his death, he was president of the Newcastle upon Tyne chamber
of commerce. He was also a director of George Angus & Co., the Montevidean
and Brazilian Telegraph Company, and the Dunrobin Shipping Company, as well
as being the proprietor of three newspapers in the north-east of England.
In business Joicey was shrewd, sagacious, and far-sighted. He was an
advocate of colliery mechanization and related programmes of capital investment,
but he was also a firm believer in enforced wage reductions in periods of
trade recession.
Joicey acquired first the Longhirst estates near Morpeth, Northumberland,
and later on, early in the twentieth century, the Ford Castle estates in
Northumberland, near the border. In 1885 he was elected Liberal member of
parliament for Chester-le-Street, and he held the seat until 1906 when he
was raised to the peerage as Baron Joicey of Chester-le-Street. He left an
estate of more than £1.5 million. ODNB
entry by R.A.S. Redmayne, revised by M.W. Kirby.
See also Mountford. Lambton men. Part
2. Archive, 2004 (54) 35 (includes portrait)
Joseph, [Sir] Francis
Director of LMS: presided over naming of No. 6254 City of Stoke
on Trent on 20 September 1946 at Stoke station
(Locomotive Mag., 1946, 52,
146). Born 31 July 1870 in Liverpool; died 8 February 1951. Chairman
and Managing Director, Settle, Speakman & Co., Ltd, (coal merchants)
and its subsidiary companies. Educated Caledonian Schools, Liverpool: left
school at twelve and commenced work as railway messenger; Member Liverpool
City Council, 190313; JP Liverpool, 191024; JP County of Chester,
1920; County of Stafford, 1927; High Sheriff, Staffordshire, 193233;
Staff-Captain War Office, 191617; Assistant Secretary Ministry National
Service, 191718; Deputy Director-General National Labour Supply, 1918;
President North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce, 192232, Federation
of British Industries, 1935; Society of British Gas Industries, 193946,
and National Conference on Commercial Education, 1939; Government Director
of Imperial Airways Ltd from 1937 until purchased by Government; sometime
director Midland Bank, Ltd; President Institute of Industrial Administration,
194048; Founder (and Chairman. 192833) of Central Pig Iron Producers
Assoc. and Basic Iron Producers Assoc.; Member of Overseas Trade Development
Council, 193044; British Govt Economic Mission to South Africa, 1930;
Royal Commission on Location of Industry, 193740; received Freedom
of Stoke-on-Trent, 1936; Chairman Spitfire Mitchell Memorial Fund; Chairman
Order of St John for Staffs; Pres. Coal Trade Benevolent Assoc. Member of
Livery Goldsmiths Company. Kings Jubilee Medal, 1935. Who Was
Who
Kaye, Sir Joseph Henry
Born 6 September 1856; died 24 December 1923. On initial board of
LMS; and formerly that of LNWR. Huddersfield woollen & worsted cloth
manufacturer, Who Was Who and Ellis.
London Midland & Scottish
Kennedy, Archibald (Third Marquis
of Ailsa)
Born on 1 September 1847; died 9 April 1938. Educated Eton. Chairman
of the Glasgow & South Western Railway. Family seat was Culzean Castle.
Took an active interest in development of Turnberry Hotel and golf courses
and associated Maidens & Dunure Railway:
for which see McConnell and
Rankin
Ker, Charles
Born in Glasgow in 1860; died 8 July 1940. On initial board of LMS;
and formerly that of Glasgow & South Western Railway, interests in banking
and insurance. Who Was Who and Ellis.
London Midland & Scottish
Kitching, Albert
Chairman of Mersey Railway until ousted byJames Falconer.
Dawn Smith gives his address as Enfield
in Middlesex. A. Jarvis. Rly
Wld., 1986, 47, 211
Knaresborough, Lord (Henry Meysey
Meysey-Thompson)
Born Moat Hall, York on 30 August 1845. Educated Eton and Trinity
College, Cambridge. Sometime MP for Knaresborough, Brigg and Staffordshire.
Last Chairman of the North Eastern Railway. Who Was
Who.Tomlinson.
Knight, John Peake
Traffic Manager of the LBSCR since 1850: General Manager from 1870
to 1886. Introduced Pullman cars onto Brighton trains.
(Dawn Smith) Formerly with South Eastern
Railway. Note on industrial relations
Rly Wld., 1984, 45,
635
Lander, W.D.
Joined Great Central Railway as a clerk in 1911. Moved to
Midland Railway in 1912. Assistant Yard Master at Beeston Sidings from July
1944 to October 1945. Yard Master at Toton from 1950. White.
Rly Wld, 1955, 16,
6-10
Laws, J.M.
Captain RN: Manager of the Manchester and Leeds Railway and railways
in Lincolnshire. Gave evidence to Gauge Commision Ottley 1266 correspondence
with James Loch.
Leeman, George
Born in York 1809-1882: Statue outside York railway station. Articled
to a York solicitor, Leeman established a very successful legal practice
in 1835. An Alderman of the city for 28 years he was elected Lord Mayor on
three occasions and was a Member of Parliament for York between 1865 and
1880. In these roles he was a staunch defender of Yorks antiquities
and pushed through the restoration of much of the city walls.Leeman was a
successful lawyer and politician, who played a significant role in investigating
George Hudson's illegal share dealings.
In 1849 he succeeded Hudson as Chairman of the York, Newcastle and Berwick
Railway and promoted the mergers which created the North Eastern Railway
Company in 1854. The North Eastern, with its headquarters in York, became
one of the wealthiest railways in Britain: Leeman was chairman from 1874
to 1880. He was a prime mover in the development in the 1860s of iron ore
mining in Rosedale to supply the Teeside steel works. At national level he
was Chairman of the Railway Association of Great Britain and in 1875 at
Darlington presided over the celebrations of the first fifty years of railways.
Off Internet .Tomlinson. Statue in Station
Avenue, York: see Backtrack, 2011,
25, 740.
Learmouth, John
Died in 1858. Instigator of Dean Bridge in Edinburgh: a road viaduct
comparable to early railway structures. First Chairman of the Edinburgh &
Berwick Railway. Was also involved in other early Edinburgh-based railways
and the supply of coaches to them. Ellis
writes sharply about his business methods.
See also NBR Study Group J. Number
66 p. 13.
Lewin, H.G.
Appointed assistant superintendednt Sunderland District: name originally
published in error as Lewens.
Locomotive Mag., 1903,
9, 158 and
189.
Loder, Gerald Walter Erskine (Lord Wakehurst)
Born Sussex, 25 October 1861; 4th son of Sir Robert Loder, Bt, MP
New Shoreham; Director, Educated Eton; Trinity College, Cambridge. (MA).
Barrister. Inner Temple, 1888; Private Secretary to President Local Government
Board (Rt Hon. C. T. Ritchie), 188892; to Lord George Hamilton (Secretary
of State for India), 18961901; a Junior Lord of Treasury, 1905; MP
Brighton, 18891905. Joined LBSCR Board in 1896 and became Chairman
just before the Grouping; Chairman Southern Railway from 1932 until his death.
His manner was quiet, almost gloomy. His Times obituarist wrote that
'he shared with William Whitelaw of the LNER the reputation of having a more
intimate and practical knowledge of railway management and operation than
most other railway chairmen or directors ... like Mr. Whitelaw, he practically
confined his business activities to the railway'. The closeness of his interest
may perhaps not have appealed very strongly to Walker, who had had a clear
understanding with General Baring of the dividing line between direction
and management. Speaking to a meeting of the Retired Railway Officers Society,
Loder had expressed regret that in the 1930s Directors were no longer so
closely in touch with railway officers, other than the most senior ones,
as had been the case before Grouping. Old Brighton loyalties died hard, it
seemed. Shortly before his death he was created Lord Wakehurst in 1934. He
died 30 April 1936. Bonavia.
McCosh, Andrew Kirkwood
Born 31 August 1880. Educated Fettes; Trinity College, Cambridge (BA
Mechanical Science Tripos). mining engineer. Member of Bairds of Gartsherrie,
ironmasters. President. British Iron and Steel Federation, 1936; Deputy
Controller of Iron and Steel, Ministry of Supply, 193942; President.
Mining Association. of Great Britain, 1944; President British Employers
Confederation, 194546. Died 27 September. 1967 Chairman of the LNER
Locomotive Committee (came to LNER Board from that of the NBR See Simpson,
NBR Study Group J., 2000, (78),
27.) (Hughes LNER)
succeeded Bernard Firth
Maciver, Henry
NBR Board in 1913. See Simpson,
NBR Study Group J., 2000, (78),
27.
McLaren, James
Born Polmont on 5 May 1829; died from heart failure in train approaching
Waverley on 30 October 1893. Joined the North British Railway at age of 17,
as a booking clerk at Haddington for the opening on 22 June 1846 . From
Haddington, he went to a similar post at Berwick. He was promoted to Station
Master, first to the small station of Belses (between St Boswells and Hawick),
then to Dunbar, and finally, in March 1851, to Berwick. McLarens next
move was to Edinburgh in December 1852, as Assistant to the General Manager,
Thomas K. Rowbotham. In August 1857, McLaren was appointed Passenger
Superintendent. The NBR in 1857 was still a relatively small concern, but
1862 saw amalgamation with the Edinburgh Perth and Dundee, and West of Fife,
Railways, and the Companys re-incorporation. This was followed three
years later by amalgamation with the Edinburgh & Glasgow. In March 1873,
McLarens post was re-designated as General Superintendent equivalent
to Superintendent of the Line in some other companies. The duties of the
post were considerable. McLaren was the chief operational officer, now
responsible for all operating matters and for all operating staff. McLaren
lived in the elegant Mount Lodge at the top of Windsor Place, Portobello,
set in several acres of its own land, and owned by the NBR. He tended to
travel on the footplate of the locomotive when Royalty were being conveyed
He was a stern disciplinarian but appears to heve been honest. He was
a Freemason. North British Study Group
J., 2012 (116), 24
Mance, Sir Henry Osborne
Born in Karachi on 2 October 1875, died in London on 30 August 1966.
Educated at Bedford School, between 1884 and 1893, and at the Royal Military
Academy, Woolwich. He received his first commission as a Second Lieutenant
in the Royal Engineers in March 1895, and served during the Second Boer War,
between 1899 and 1902, as Deputy Assistant Director of Railways and Armoured
Trains on the Kimberley line. He was an engineer during the construction
of the Baro-Kano Railway, between 1908 and 1911. He served during WW1, between
1914 and 1918, and was Director of Railways, Light Railways and Roads at
the War Office, between 1916 and 1920. He rose to rank of Brigadier General
He was Transportation Adviser to the British Delegation during the Paris
Peace Conference, between 1919 and 1920. He retired from the British Army
in 1924, and was appointed British Director of Deutsche Bahn, between 1925
and 1930. He was author of reports on Austrian Federal Railways, in 1933,
and on the co-ordination of transportation in East Africa, in 1936. He was
Director of Canals at the Ministry of War Transport, between 1941 and 1944,
British Representative on the Transport and Communications Commission of
the United Nations, between 1946 and 1954, British Delegate on the Central
Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, between 1946 and 1957, and was appointed
as President of the Institute of Transport in 1949. Invested as a Companion
of the Distinguished Service Order in 1902, as a Companion of the Order of
St Michael and St George in 1917, as a Companion of the Order of the Bath
in 1918, and as a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in
1929. Wikipedia 2017-01-24: not in Whos Who.
Mantle
Manager of the Earl of Dudley's Railway (Shutt End Railway) when visited
by T.R. Perkins in 1909?: deceased by 1910.
Locomotive Mag., 1910,
16, 126-8.
Manton, Lionel
Born 1887, died 23 July 1961. Served WW1 (despatches, DSO); Inter-Allied
Railway Commission, Cologne, 192226; Assistant Director of Transportation,
British Troops in Egypt, 193536; Chief Engineer Malta, 1936; retired
1936; Principal LMS. Railway School of Transport until Sept. 1939 (opening
see Locomotive Mag., 1938, 44,
237); Commandant No. 2 Railway Training Centre, 193941; Director
of Transportation, India, October. 1941June 1942; Principal School
of Transport (Railway Executive), 193751.Who Was Who:
Terry Jenkins Sir Ernest
Lemon shows Lemon's involvement in establishing the School of Transport
in Derby.
Martin, John
John Martin succeeded Simpson as General Accountant
on NBR. He was the son of a gamekeeper and was born at East Lodge on the
Hopetoun Estate on 1 April 1856. In 1871 he became an apprentice clerk at
South Queensferry Station and following service at other stations was moved
to the Secrtary's Office in November 1874. Wieland retired in 1892 and joined
the Board; John Cathles became Secretary and John Martin Assistant Secretary.
In August 1901 Martin became Secretary to the West Highland Railway and became
involved in the dispute involving Henry Grierson and the government funds
received for the Mallaig extension. Martin was involved in the protracted
negotiations with the Ministry of Transport for compensation for services
provided during WW1. He retired at the last meeting of the Board on 2 March
1923. He retired from being Secretary of the Forth Bridge Company in February
1931. He had married Elizabeth Young, daughter of James Young, railway
contractorn who had business dealings with Wieland and the NBR. He died in
Edinburgh on 8 August 1931.
North British Railway Study Group
J., 2010, (111), 30.
Mason, Charles
General manager Birkenhead Railway, then Assistant General Manager, LNWR.
Died 1869 (M.C. Reed)
Mason, Samuel Lack
Died 2 March 1889 in Edinburghh. General Manager North British Railway from
1867 to 1874 when eased out. According to
Cattenach brother of Charles (above)
Mathieson, John
Born in New Cumnock and entered service of Glasgow & South Western
Railway as a boy. Rose to be stationmaster at Stewarton and Superintendent
of the Line from 13 July 1875 until 8 June 1889 when he left to become
Commissioner of Railways for Queensland. From July 1896 he became Chairman
of the Commissioner of Railways for Victoria but returned to England to become
General Manager of the Midland Railway from 1 July 1901 until retirement
in 1906 during which time the Midland absorbed the Belfast & Northern
Counties Railway and the opening of Heysham Harbour. He died on 9 August
1906. Dawn Smith and Times
Obituary.
Matthews, Gilbert
Born London; died 22 Oct. 1969. Educated Westminster School. Joined
Great Western Railway, 1908, General Managers Office. Toured USA to
study operating matters. Traffic Department, 1911. Operating Assistant
Superintendent of Line, 1934; Divisional Superintendent, Swansea, 1937; Principal
Assistant Superintendent of Line, 1939; Superintendent of Line, 1941. Chairman
REC Operating Committee, 1945. Lt-Col Railway Engineer and Staff Corps, 1944.
Chief Operating Superintendent, British Railways, Western Region, 194855,
when retired. CVO 1949; CBE 1947. Mainly Who Was Who
Mavor, J.B.
Elected Chairman, North British Locomotive Co.:
Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev.,
1950, 56. 68. Resigned in 1955 in favour of T.A.
Crowe. Author of Electrically driven underground conveyors in coal mines,
and their economic advantages. This paper appears in: J. Instn Elec.
Engs, 1932. 71, 145-70. with W.B. Hird.
Maxwell, Sir John M. Stirling
Born 6 June 1866; died 30 May 1956. Educated at Eton and Trinity College,
Cambridge. Director of North British Railway. See Simpson,
NBR Study Group J., 2000, (78), 27.
Chairman of the Forestry Commission. Gave Glasgow citizens free access to
his Pollock Estate and daughter gave house to the City: now houses Burrell
Collection (Wikipedia).
Meldrum, David
Manager of the Cheshire Lines Committee in 1899 and had been since
1 October 1882. Prior to that he held a similar post on the LNWR/GWR Joint
Committee based at Chester, and before that he had served on Indian railways.
He started his railway career on the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee
Railway. Rly Mag., 1899, 4,
385. See Dow's GCR history
V.2 pp. 143 for portrait.
Mellor. Edward William|
Born in Birtle, Bury in 1852. His father Jonathan, was a manufacturer,
and Edward may have followed him into the family's Oldham cotton-spinning
business. By the early 1890s he had moved to Lytham, where he resided at
Fairlawn. Edward Mellor was a leading member and sometime President of The
Manchester Geographical Society. Mellor was also a member of the Royal
Photographic Society and published accounts of his travels in its journal.
He was also an active member of Lytham society. He became a magistrate in
the town and was involved in charitable works, especially later in promoting
and contributing to the new Cottage Hospital which opened in 1930. The opening
was very shortly after its benefactor's death Edward Mellor died in suddenly
in London on 18 March 1930 leaving a fortune of £198,000. His widow,
Emma continued her late husband's associations with the hospital. The scale
of their charitable giving may be gauged by the fact that when she died in
1944 her estate was valued at £33,000. He was a director of the Southern
Railway having come from the Board of the South Eastern Railway. Mainly The
Times and Dawn Smith. Photograph of
him with Maunsell and |Sir Herbert Walker with King Arthur at Waterloo in
1925: caption states that Mellor was Chairman of the Locomotive Committee
in Nock The locomotives of R.E.L.
Maunsell. Probably Jonathan Mellor
Meyer, Sebastian William
1856-1946. See letter in
Rly Arch., 2012 (37), 70 from David Morton: He was variously general
manager, director, secretary, promoter or principal of the Goole & Marshland,
Isle of Axholme, Deame Valley, North Lindsey, Brackenhill, CW&SL and
North Sunderland railways. Meyer was secretary, and then managing director,
of the East & West Yorkshire Union Railways and the principal partner
in both the Yorkshire District Light Railway Syndicate and the Leeds Contract
Co.; and where Sebastian Meyer went, his younger brother Philip usually followed.
Sebastian Meyer certainly earned the soubriquet 'Light Railway King of the
North', so aptly given him in the title of the book written by A.L. Bamett,
wherein the details of his extraordinary career can be found. This was published
by the R&CHS in 1992 (reviewed
Backtrack, 1993, 7, 166) Also hymn writer.
Miles, Philip William Skynner
Born 15 May 1816; died 1 October 1881. Bristol politician: Chairman
Bristol Port and Pier Railway: Dawn Smith and
Locomotive Mag, 1925, 36.
354
Mills, George
Divisional General Manager, LNER Scottish Area: present at Institute
oof Transport Congress in Edinburgh in 1938
Mitchell, Sir Seton Steuart Crichton
Born on 9 March 1902; did 4 March 1990. Educated Edinburgh Academy
and Royal Naval Colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth. Joined Royal Navy in 1916.
Qualified as a Gunnery Specialist in 1927-9. Between 1962 and 1964 he was
Vice Chairman of the British Railways Board following his retirement from
Government posts in Guided Weapons and Electronics. Bond states that he was
brought in by Beeching to reorganise the railway workshops as he had been
responsible for rationalising the Royal Ordnance Factories: Bond workefd
closely with him on this task. Who Was Who and
Bond Lifetime.
Moffat, T.H.
Deputy Regional Officer Scottish Region
See Locomotive Mag., 1947,
53, 181.
Morgan, Arthur
Started work on the Monmouthshire Raliway. Became joint station master
at Abersychan & Talywain (GWR & LNWR). In 1899 appointed general
manager and dock superintendent of the Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley
Ry and station and dock superintendent at Briton Ferry. He was also a member
of the Llanelly Harbour Trust.
Locomotive Mag., 1910,
16, 12.
Morgan, John Pierpont
Eldest son of Junius Morgan, banker, John Pierpont Morgan, investment
banker, was born on 17 April 1837, in the house of his grandfather Joseph
Morgan, in Hartford, Connecticut. He was educated at the Cheshire School,
at the Pavilion family school, and at the Hartford public high school, where
his record was undistinguished; at the Institution Sillig, Vevey, near Geneva,
in Switzerland, where he did well and consolidated his French and German;
and then at the University of Göttingen. In August 1857 he became a
non-salaried clerk in the New York bank Duncan, Sherman & Co. In 1864
one of the partners, Charles Dabney, joined Pierpont Morgan in the new firm
of Dabney, Morgan & Co., which acted in New York as the representative
firm of Morgans of London. In 1871 Morgan became a partner in the firm Drexel,
Morgan & Co., which had houses in Philadelphia and Paris in addition
to New York. In 1893 the name was changed to J.P. Morgan & Co., and this
firm together with the London house was to constitute the house of Morgan.
Pierpont Morgan's reputation in the USA rested upon his prowess as the financier
and reorganizer of various railways, and as the supreme corporate banker.
In the UK he succeeded his father in 1890 as the head of J.S. Morgan &
Co., which in 1910 became Morgan, Grenfell & Co.; by the 1920s it was
probably the premier merchant bank in London. During Junius Morgan's lifetime,
London was the major international capital market, but during the lifetime
of his son, the pendulum gradually swung towards New York; the relative
importance of the London and New York banks mirrored this change.
Pierpont Morgan bestrode the American investment banking world like a Titan:
to his admirers he was straight, dependable, and powerful, but to others
he represented the threat of monopoly capital and manipulative power. In
Britain his impact was frequently great. In 1900, when for the first time
since the eighteenth century the British government turned abroad to raise
funds for war, they turned to the house of Morgan to issue loans in New York
for the South African War. In 1904 Morgan caused a political crisis by his
attempts to do for Atlantic shipping what he had already done for steel in
the USAnamely, to put together by merger and acquisition a firm which
would dominate its sector (as he had done with the United States Steel Company).
Morgan believed that competition was wasteful and that co-operation was more
logical; but the British government viewed his attempts to establish a
shipping trust, made up of American and British shipping lines
but run by Americans, as a threat to the national interest, particularly
during wartime. The International Mercantile Marine merger went through,
though with substantial concessions by Morgan to the British government,
but Pierpont Morgan's relations with the British political élite never
recovered fully.
The house of Morgan was built up by the intelligence, personalities and wills
of the two Morgans, who shared an absolute integrity and devotion to first-class
banking which inspired the trust of their banking and corporate colleagues.
Junius Morgan was quieter and led a more private life than did Pierpont,
who like his father lived well, but not quite as unostentatiously: he was
almost as famous for his yacht Corsai and his art and manuscript
collection as he was for his banking prowess. At one time he and Edward VII
both had a relationship with the actress Maxine Elliott. Junius and Pierpont
Morgan were intense Anglophiles. Pierpont died on 31 March 1913 at the Grand
Hotel, in Rome. He was buried near his father at Cedar Hill cemetery, Hartford,
USA, on 14 April 1913.
The two Morgans, father and son, together played an increasingly important
role in British financial life. Their London firm came to have great historical
importance after their deaths: Pierpont Morgan's son Jack led J.P. Morgan
& Co. to act for the British government and the US government during
the First World War, both as the financial agent for Britain and as the American
purchasing agent. Furthermore, the house of Morgan took the lead in the private
reconstruction of Europe during the 1920s, when Morgan Grenfell acted as
the chief banker in London for the loans leading to the re-establishment
of the currencies of Germany, Belgium, and Italy.
ODNB entry by Kathleen Burk.
Wolmar (Subterranean
railway) notes that Pierpont Morgan was defeated by Yerkes in his
endeavour to construct the London tube system.
Morris, Joseph
Superintendent of the Line on Great Western Railway in late 1900s:
appointed from 1904
Locomotive Mag., 1903,
9, 297.
Moss, John
Born 1782; died 1858, Liverpool banker and owner of West Indian sugar
plantations: his 1000 slaves being freed under the 1833 Emancipation Act.
In the same year he became chairman of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway
and of the Grand Junction Railway between 1833 and 1845. When the LNWR was
formed Moss in 1845 retired, as he distrusted George Carr Glyn and turned
his attention to railway promotion in France and the Netheerlands.
See review of book by Graham Trust
by Gordon Biddle in J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2011, (210)
58.
Mott, Charles Grey
Chairman of the City & South London Railway and a director of
the Great Western Railway and of the Birkenhead Railway (jointly owned by
GWR and LNWR). Also a director of the Mersey Railway.
Dawn Smith. He also appears to have had
railway interests in Uruguay.
Murray, Arthur Cecil
Born on 27 March 1879; died. 5 December 1962. Murray was the fourth
son of First Viscount Elibank of Selkirkshire and his wife Blanche Alice
née Scott of Portsea, The family moved to Dresden in Germany in 1886,
and he received his early education in that city. He entered the Royal Military
College Sandhurst and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Indian
Staff Corps on 20 July 1898. in 1900. In the same year he became Aide-de-Camp
to the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, Sir John Woodburn. He served as part
of the international force that intervened to suppress the Boxer Rebellion
in China in 1900 and commanded a Mounted Infantry Company, protecting the
Sinho-Shanhaikwan Railway. He subsequently served on the North-West Frontier
and in Chitral. In 1907 he was promoted to captain in the 5th Gurkha Rifles
(Frontier Force). In March 1908 Murray was selected by the Liberal Party
to contest the by-election for Kincardinshire which he won, and remained
MP and its successor constituency, Kincardine and Aberdeenshire West, until
1923. From 1910 until the outbreak of war in 1914 he was Parliamentary Private
Secretary to Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He
served in World War 1 in France and Belgium from 19141916 with the
2nd King Edward's Horse, was mentioned in despatches and awarded the
Distinguished Service Order in 1916. He was Assistant Military Attaché
in Washington from 19171918, and was awarded the CMG in 1919. Although
a member of the Liberal Party which formed part of the coalition government,
Murray became a stern critic of the policies pursued by the Prime Minister,
David Lloyd George.He lost his seat at the 1923 general election.Following
the loss of his Commons seat he continued to take an active interest in politics,
in particular foreign policy, and wrote a number of books and pamphlets on
the subject
He became a director of the London and North Eastern Railway from 19231948
and of Wembley Stadium. Chairman, Scottish Area Board, LNER. Spoke at the
celebratory luncheon held at the North British Hotel on 20 June 1946 to mark
the centenary of the railway between Edinburgh and Berwick. (Scotsman
21 June 1946).
In 1951 he succeeded to two titles: the Viscountcy of Elibank and
the Lordship Elibank of Ettrick Forest, following the death of his elder
brothers. He was a Member of the Royal Company of Archers.In 1931 he married
the actress Faith Celli Standing. The couple had no children, and she died
in 1942
Nash, Philip Arthur Manley
Born 20 August 1875; died 1 May 1936. Educated Radley. Apprenticed
at Grantham Works of Richard Hornsby & Sons; later joining the Locomotive
Department of the Great Northern Railway 1897-9; then East Indian Railway
until 1915: latterly in the General Manaager's Office. Then served with
distinction in WW1 initially being Director of the National Filling Factories
in the Ministry of Munitions and rising to Inspector General of Transportation,
Western Front. Whilst Direrctor General of Traffic at the Ministry of Transport
he served on the Kennedy Committee on railway electrification. Witness to
Weir Committee on Railway Electrification.
Mainly Whos Who plus obituary
in Locomotive Mag., 1936, 42, 165.
Ness, James
Wi;;iams Steam World No. 389 notes that Ness was a Dundonian and had
joined the NBR in 1919 at Dundee; hence the
obvious knowedge of Frank Jones, a lowly clerk in Hadley Wood and the
pictures of the two men together where they obviously knew each other, General
Manager, Scottish Region (Loco.
Rly Carr. Wagon Rev., 1955, 61, 213 notes his promotion from
Assistant General Manager to General Manager from 21 November 1955)
(for activities, photographs, etc see also
file on Frank Jones). Mullay's Scottish
Region is decidedly disappointing on the topic of Ness and merely
reiterates Gourvish's somewhat acidic comments
on his lack of ability and adds little biographical colour, Gourvish
calls Ness "a rather paranoid character who also frequently clashed with
his colleagues". The LNER Magazine (1939, p. 607) notes that he was
appointed Assistant to the Divisional General Manager of the Scottish Area
and that he gained wide experience prior to becoming Assistant District Goods
& passenger Manager at Dundee. A short piece in the LNER Magazine
1946 noted that he had joined the NBR in 1919 and had become a Traffic Apprentice
in 1924. He had been acting as assistant general manager (Works and General)
during Cameron's absence in Edinburgh, had now been appointed to that post.
After a varied experience in the Scottish and N.E. Areas, and at London
Headquarters, he was appointed assistant divisional general manager at Edinburgh
in 1940, going to York in a similar capacity in 1942. Ness was closely associated
with the work of the Institute of Transport, of which he is a Member of Council.
Ross Scottish railways notes
that Ness retired early in 1966 at the behest of Stanley Raymond
Nicholls, Richard Howell
Born in Grays in 1868; died on 13 October 1946. Superintendent of
the line, GWR from 1918 until 1932. CBE in 1920. Spoke at the Retired
Railway Officers Society:
Locomotive Mag., 1930,
36, 386. Lieut. Col in Railway Staff Corps. Member Institute of
Transport. Who Was Who. Dawn
Smith
Nicolle, J. Mauger
Secretary of Special Committee appointed to inquire into certain schemes
for the improvement of railway communication on the western coast of Scotland.
Presumably Civil Servant with Board of Trade; with Channel Islands origins.
See Backtrack, 2015, 29,
356.
Norman, Albert William
Born in 1883 and died in 1967. Joined the London & North Western
Railway at Broad Street Goods Depot in 1895 and rose to be Assistant Stores
Superintendent in 1933 and Chief Stores Superintendent of the LMS in 1946
and the first Chief Stores Officer of British Railways until his retirement
at the end of 1948. J. Rly Canal
Hist. Soc., 2006, 35, 346. Includes portrait and medal issued
by the Company to employees who coontinued to work during the General
Strike.
Notter, W.G.H.
Station master at Highgate; from 1869 Assistant General Manager Ulster
Railway: Loco. Mag., 1916,
22, 217.
O'Neill, Joseph
Publicity officer LMS/London Midland Region in early post-WW2 period.
see Locomotive
Mag., 1946, 52, 80.
D.S.M. Barrie called him a "(needlessly) feared character"
(LMS 150 p. 141)
Owen, A.J.
Superintendent of Operation, Midland Railway from January 1910.
Locomotive Mag., 1910,
16, 5.
Packe, George Hussey
Born at Hanthorpe House in Lincolnshire on 1 May 1796; died in London
on 2 July 1874. Son of Charles James Packe who was a director of the Leicester
& Swannington Railway. Served at the Battle of Waterloo. Member of
Parliament. Promoter of the Great Northern Railway; director for many years,
chairman from 1864 until his death. Also on board of East Lincolnshire Railway.
Exploited the mining of ironstone on his land. Mainly Wikipedia (2014-08-31);
also in Dawn Smith
Parkes, Charles Henry
Chairman of the Great Eastern Railway and Parkeston Quay named after
him. For a man who has altered the topographical map remarkably little seems
to be known about him. Dawn Smith notes
that lived at Netherfield, Weybridge and was Chairman in 1886. Wikipedia
(2013-05-14) states that was Chairman between 1974 and 1893 when he was replaced
by Lord Claud Hamilton: the company having made a loss in the previous year.
Times records the early death of a grandson to the late C.H.
Parkes.
Parkhouse, S.E.
Retired on 31 January 1955: see
Locomotive Mag., 1955, 61, 28
after 49 years railway service, S.E. Parkhouse. O.B.E., Chief of Operating
Services (British Railways). British Transport Commission. Entered service
of the L.N.W.R. in 1906, was appointed Assistant to the District Superintendent,
Euston, in 1914, but was then away until 1920 on war service with the Railway
Operating Division Royal Engineers; he attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel
and was awarded the O.B.E. and two mentions in despatches. On returning to
the railway he held various appointments in the Operating Department and
from 1935 to 1944 was Divisional Superintendent of Operation for the Western
Division of the L.M.S.R. In 1944 Parkhouse became Assistant Chief Operating
Manager, L.M.S. Railway, and since 1948 has been responsible, with the R.E.
as Chief Operating. Officer and latterly with the B.T.C. as Chief of Operating
Services, for important work on the co-ordination of inter-regional traffic
working and operating practices throughout British Railways.Chief of operating
services at BTC headquarters, was the principal advocate of continuous brakes,
and when the planning committee was formed in 1954 to prepare the draft
modernisation plan, Parkhouse did the preliminary work on this subject for
the committee. In its report to the Commission the committee said that 'the
adoption of continuous brakes is one of the most important single steps forward
that can be taken by British Railways in the near future to improve the standard
of their service.' The Commission adopted the proposal and used the same
words in the published plan. The estimates in the plan were for the vacuum
type of brake. Pearson. Man of the
rail
Parnwell, Sidney Arthur
Assistant General Manager Great Eastern Railway; then final General
Manager. Divisional Manager Southern Area LNER from 1923 to 1924 when he
retuned to land surveying. Allen London
& North Eastern Railway
Pearce, R.E.
Secretary of the North Staffordshire Railway from 1894 until the Grouping.
Dawn Smith. portrait
Rly Mag., 1899, 4,
97.
Pearson, Arthur James
Author of Man of the
rail: an autobiography. He was brought up in Southport
and joined the Cheshire Lines in Liverpool after the end of World War I working
in the clerical grades. In his spare time he started to write and in 1931
he left to join Modern Transport. In 1934 he left Modern Transport
to join the LMS Headquarters staff at Euston and came into contact with
Stamp, Lemon, Hartley and Wood. He retired from British Railways in 1963.
Pearson, Charles
Not a traditional railway manager, but a promoter of Metropolitan
Railway. Born in London on 4 October 1793 and died in Wandsworth on 14 September
1862. In 1839 Pearson was appointed City solicitor and held the office until
his death. In this position, and as MP for Lambeth from 1847 to 1850, he
campaigned for London improvements including the embankment of the Thames,
a central railway terminus in the Fleet valley and improved transport by
an underground railway, in which he was successful. Pearson was associated,
with the City's consent, with early versions of this project, and in 1857
he joined forces with the promoters of the Metropolitan Railway from Paddington
to Farringdon Street, which was in financial doldrums with no work started;
the City took £200,000 in shares in 1859 (which it later sold at a profit),
and Pearson's skilful advice and lobbying. He also pushed for cheap workmen's
fares to asssit the poor to move to healthier suburbs.
Michael Robbins ODNB.
Also Wragg Historical
dictionary
Peckett, Thomas
Born in Wakefield in 1835; died in Boulogne on 26 June 1891. Dwelt
in Manchester; then in Bristol. Founded Thomas Peckett & Sons in 1864
and took over Fox, Walker
who manufactured locomotives.
Phillips, H.H.
Assistant General Manager Western Region see
Institute of Transport paper on improving
productivity of Cardiff suburban services. Locomotive Mag., 1955,
61, 28
Plummer, Matthew
Born at Thormanby, Yorks in 1771. Died on 25 December 1856 at Sheriff
Hill, Gateshead. Diverse financial interests and USA Consul for 33 years.
Chairman N&CR, 1833-1851. Ship and Insurance broker; owner of Northumberland
Flax Mills and St.Lawrence bottle works; he was a coalowner and also became
involved in the whaling trade. Rennison, R.W. The Newcastle and Carlisle
Railway and its engineers; 18291862.
Trans. Newcomen Soc., 2001,
72, 203-33.
Pollitt, James Burton
Born in Ashton-under-Lynn in 1862: son of
Sir William Pollitt. Trained as a solicitor
and appointed as solicitor to Wrexham & Ellesmere Railway which was absorbed
into Cambrian Railways. Hughes
and Jackson
Pownall, John Frederick
Advocated running passenger trains on a "railway hour principle".
Review of one of his books in
Locomotive Mag., 1940,
46, 322 gives some inkling of system. Also review of The Liverpool
and Stoke-on-Trent railway hour section in
Locomotive Mag., 1943,
49, 170. See also Ottley for several entries
.Price, Francis Swaine
Served on HMS Teremaire at Trafalgar: served as manager of
the Pentewan Harbour and Railway. See
Evans, Robert E. The Pentewan
Railway, 1829-1918. Rly Arch., 2010 (29) 2-23.
Prosser, Ernest Albert
Born in Cardiff: died 4 October 1933. began work in shipbroker's office
and then became a junior clerk on Rhymney Railway. Rose to Deputy General
Manager in 1900 and General Manager in 1905. In 1917 he also became GM of
the Cardiff Railway and in same year of the Taff Vale Railway. Recipient
of CBE. Dawn Smith and Who Was Who
Pullar, Albert Evans
Died aged 80 on 14 June 1945: working life with the family firm of
J. Pullar and Son, Ltd., cleaners and dyers of Perth. After serving his
apprenticeship in the firms engineering shop he proceeded to Leeds,
where he attended classes in engineering at the Technical College. On his
return to Perth he took part in the management of the business, subsequently
becoming managing director and chief engineer, in which latter capacity he
was responsible for the entire renewal of the steam plant and large extensions
to the machinery. He was also a director of the London, Midland and Scottish
Railway. IME obituary
Purkess, James
Died 12 December 1902 in Cirencester. Late General Manager Midland
& South Western Junction Railway which he had joined from the LSWR in
1899. Locomotive Mag., 1903,
8, 5.
Quelch, John George
Mineral Manager, North Eastern Railway Northern Division between 1854
and 1874. Dawn Smith
Quirey, J.
Ulsterman: Vice-President of Executive, London, Midland and Scottish
Railway responsible for accounting & services (ex-Midland Railway). Resigned
on 4 November 1931 to take up appointment at Railway Rates Tribunal.
Flann, Backtrack, 2011, 25,
334. and Terry Jenkins. Sir
Ernest Lemon and A.J. Pearson Man
of the rail.
Ramsay, James
Born in Scone and started work on Caledonian Railway at Perth. Rose
to be Chief Goods Manager and after the Grouping to Divisional Rolling Stock
Superintendent for the LMS in Scotland. He retired in 1925, but became chairman
and managing director of the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Railway. He
received an OBE for services provided during WW1. He was a bachelor and elder
of Queens Park High Church in Glasgow. He died in February 1943. Glasgow
Herald obituary
Randall, F.G.
Former District Superintendent of the London District appointed
Superintendent of the Line, Great Eastern Railway in succession to
R.P. Ellis in 1910
(Locomotive Mag,, 1910,
16, 182):
Raymond, Stanley
Born in 1914 (aged 51 in 1965 according to The Times 22 April
1965). Orphaned when aged six and sent to the Shaftesbury Home where headmaster
sent him at his own expense to Hampton Grammar School where he won a scholarship.
At seventeen he entered the Civil Service as a tax clerk. He acted as assistant
secretary to the Society of Civil Servants and became a friend of James
Callaghan. His railway career began as chief commercial manager of the Scottish
Region in 1957 and rose rapidly becoming head of the Western Region in 1962
and member pof the Railways Board in 1963 and vice-chairman in 1964. In 1955
Raymond was appointed assistant manpower adviser at the British Transport
Commission; previous to that he had served with British Road Services, then
the road haulage part of the B.T.C., and before that at London Transport.
Pearson (Man of the rail) states that
he showed himself as an able officer with considerable energy and a useful
gift of expression. No one then would have picked him out as a future chairman
of British Railways, as he became in 1965 in succession .to Lord Beeching,
but at that time hardly anyone trained in the service had the shghtest prospect
of rising to the very top. He was a plain speaking man, not given to talking
too much, and with a mind of his own .. W e often had chats in my room at
Marylebone. His subsequent rapid appoinments to important posts in different
parts of the service marked him out, at his age, as a 'coming' man. . . .
It was a bit ironic that when he was appomted chairman in 1965 he received
a rise of £2,500 a year in salary. To take on the responsibility of
chairman is really something; one should kneel down and pray that one may
be given the strength to see It through. Everythmg revolves around him.
Naturally, a wIse chairman will gather around him the best team he can get,
and delegate as much as he can. But he cannot delegate the ultimate
responsibility, even to his colleagues on the board. It is something indefinable;
it is certainly very onerous. It certainly could not be valued at £2,500
a year, less tax. On paper the members of a board such as this are equal,
if it came to a vote. But in practice, it is very different.
Barbara Castle (Fighting all the way)
noted that he was a touchy man and that she had to handle him carefully,
but that he fought for an 11,000 mile network.
Redpath, Leopold
Born c1816; died post 1868. Clerk on Great Northern Railway taken
on in 1846 too rapidly promoted to Registrar and defrauded Company of over
£200,000 by selling stock. Escaped to France when detected, but returned
to Britain and sentenced to transportation to Australia where he was still
alive in 1868. See ODNB biography by Richard
Davenport-Hines who cites J. Wrottesley''s The Great Northern
Railway; Oxford Companion page
119 [donation to KPJ please] and
Backtrack, 26, page 146
Ree, Frank
General Manager LNWR. Died 17 February 1914. Educated Royal College,
Epsom; France, Switzerland, and Germany. Entered LNWR in 1873: was District
Manager in Liverpool, and Chief Goods Manager in London. Knighthood in 1913.
Who Was Who and Reed.
Ricardo, John Lewis
Born 1812; died in London on 20 August 1862. In 1841 he became MP
for Stoke upon Trent and was first chairman of the North Staffordshire Railway.
In 1846 he established the Electric Telegraph Company. He was chairman of
the Norwegian Trunk Railway which he contracted the construction jointly
with Sir Samuel Moron Peto and Thomas Brassey. He was also chairman of the
Metropolitan Railway. ODNB entry by W.A.S.
Hewins revised H.C.G. Matthew. Portrait in Allan C. Baker Statutory origins
of the North Staffordshire Railway.
Backtrack, 2013, 27, 114.
Richardson, Thomas
Born Darlington on 15 September 1771. He was related by marriage on
his mother's side to Edward Pease, Quaker
woollen manufacturer and railway promoter. After a limited education at home,
Thomas was apprenticed to a grocer in Sunderland. During the 1790s Edward
Pease gave him money for a passage to London and an introduction to Messrs
Smith, Wright, and Gray, Quaker financiers of Lombard Street, who engaged
him as messenger, and then as a clerk at a salary of £40 a year. He
rose to be confidential manager. He married Martha, daughter of John Beeby
of Allonby, Cumberland, in 1799; there were no children.
In 1802 Richardson informed his employers that London merchants with bills
for discount were habitually paying brokerage fees to bill brokers who secured
accommodation for them. In recommending this practice to Smith, Wright, and
Gray, Richardson claimed that country bankers dealing with the firm would
be likely to take more bills, having been relieved of the payment for commission,
but they rejected his proposition, and Richardson entered into discussions
with Gurneys of Norwich, the established Quaker bankers, with a view to sending
them bills for discount, but without a commission charge. Gurneys' response
was positive and from this reaction there developed the largest discount
business in the country in the period to 1850. In 1805, by which time his
business with Gurneys was well established, Richardson joined with another
former Smith, Wright, and Gray employee, John Overend, to form Richardson,
Overend & Co., bill brokers trading from a small upstairs room in Finch
Lane, Cornhill, in the City of London.
In 1807 the link with Gurneys' bank was strengthened when the new partnership
was joined first by Samuel Gurney and then by his brother, John, who acted
as the principal link with Norwich. By August 1808 the expanded partnership
was responsible for supplying 42 per cent of Gurneys' London-acquired portfolio,
including that of its branches. One year later, Richardson, Overend &
Co. was transacting the whole of Gurneys' business, a fact which accounts
in large measure for the firm's rapid rise to prominence in the London discount
market. In 1810 Richardson twice gave evidence before the select committee
of the House of Commons on the high price of bullion. He proved to be a highly
effective advocate of the role of financial intermediaries, well represented
in the case of Richardson, Overend & Co. According to his testimony,
London bill brokers had proved instrumental in reducing the losses sustained
on bills by country bankers, and in the case of his own firm, losses had
been limited to a very small amount indeed. Richardson also described
how his firm took in bills from Lancashire before sending them on to discount
in Norfolk, Suffolk, Sussex, and Essex. This was followed by the revelation
that the annual turnover of his business was in the region of £7-8 million,
with about £1.5 million out on loan at any one time.
As a wealthy member of the Quaker cousinhood, Richardson was
one of a number of Friends with financial and banking interests to be recruited
by Edward Pease as investors in the Stockton and Darlington Railway project,
inaugurated in Darlington in 1818. As a founding shareholder, Richardson
subscribed the sum of £10,000 to the railway before the official opening
in September 1825. He then offered the equivalent sum as additional liquidity
during the early phase of operations when traffic revenues were, as yet,
uncertain. Richardson also provided significant capital funding in 1823 for
the inauguration of Robert Stephenson & Co., locomotive builders of Newcastle
upon Tyne, and in 1828 for the purchase of the Middlesbrough estate. The
latter was a decisive development in the history of the Stockton and Darlington
Railway in so far as it opened up the prospect of a profitable coastal trade
in coal, in competition with long-established interests on the Tyne and Wear.
Never an active participant in the managerial direction of the Stockton and
Darlington company, Richardson sold the bulk of his shares to members of
the Pease family in 1844, thereby confirming the Peases' status as the dominant
managerial force.
Richardson retired from the bill-broking business in 1830, in the heyday
of his firm's prosperity, and following his death in 1853 the name of the
original partnership was changed to Overend, Gurney & Co., with its premises
located at 65 Lombard Street in the City of London. In July 1865 the firm
became a public limited liability company and it was in this form that it
failed spectacularly in May 1866.
Richardson built for himself a handsome house at Stamford Hill, Great Ayton,
Yorkshire, where he interested himself in establishing an agricultural school
for the north of England, to be managed by Friends. To this he contributed
about £11,000. He owned a second house at Allonby, Cumberland, and he
was a generous benefactor to the neighbouring Friends' school at Wigton.
Richardson died at Redcar, Yorkshire, on 25 April 1853, leaving by his will
money for educational purposes in the Society of Friends.
M.W. Kirby ODNB biography.
Ridley, Viscount
Born on 6 December 1874. Died 14 February 1916. Educated at Eton and
Balliol College, Oxford. Chairman of the North Eastern Railway in 1902-1904.
Who Was Who. Tomlinson.
Robertson, John Clinton
Early Secretary of Eastern Counties Railway and from 1839 editor of
the Railway Times which sought to discredit his former employer:
see special issue on Great Eastern Railway of
British Railways Jouranl Also listed in Ottley (but as a minor source
for proof of existence).
Rose, Sir [Hugh] Arthur
Director of LMS (Scotsman obituary). Born 1875; died 14 August
1937. Born at Kilvarock Lodge in Edinburgh; educated Harrow and Trinity College,
Cambridge. Received a Commission in the Royal Scots and mentioned in dispatches
during WW1, but ill-health forced his retirement from active service in 1917.
He became Food Commissioner for the East of Scotland in 1917 and
subsequently for the whole of Scotland in 1919. He became chairman of the
Edinburgh School Board in 1915. He was a director of the LMS Railway and
of the Union Bank. He was Commisswioner for Special Areas in Scotland. He
was made a baronet in the Jubilee Honours List of 1935.
Ross, Edward
Born on 29 January 1827. Joined the Manchester, Sheffield &
Lincolnshire Railway in 1845, Was Secretary between 1850 and his death in
1892. Dow calls him "kindly, shrewd and diplomatic" and enjoyed immense
populalarity amongst officers and staff. Portrait in
Dow Great Central V. 2.
Russell, Charles
Chairman of the Great Western Railway 1839-1855. MP for Reading. Chairman
of Parliamentary Committee that examined Great Western Bill prior to receiving
Royal Assent. Staunch supporter of Brunel's broad gauge. Death by suicide.
Nock, O.S. Railway enthusuast's
encyclopedia
Russell, George Neville [Charles]
Born in London on 19 October 1899, the eldest of three illegitimate
sons of Emily Mary Russell (18701959) and Sir Edward George Jenkinson
(18351919), civil servant and businessman. He was educated in Linslade
and at Arnold House preparatory school before entering Rugby School between
1913 and 1917. After the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he was commissioned
as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 20 September 1918, and had
his first experience of a war zone during the Arab uprising of 191920,
gaining the Iraq medal with two clasps. Other medals and honours followed
during and after the Second World War; most notably he became CBE in 1943
and CB in 1946. In 1948, after leaving the army with the rank of Major-General,
Russell was appointed chairman of the Road Transport Executive (RTE, later
the Road Haulage Executive or RHE), one of five bodies responsible for running
Britain's newly nationalized transport systems under the terms of the Transport
Act, 1947. In 1959 Russell relinquished his post at British Road Services
when appointed a full-time member of the British Transport Commission, having
previously served successively on its London Midland and Eastern Area Boards.
He chaired it in 19612, immediately before its break up. At the commission,
where Russell faced the baffling problems of transport as a whole
he was disinclined to view road haulage as an inferior adjunct to railways.
Between 1962 and 1964 he served on the newly established British Railway
board during preparation and publication of the Beeching report which recommended
extensive cuts to the rail network. As chairman of Railway Sites Ltd Russell's
main responsibility on the board was British Railways' property portfolio
but he believed that the railways had to pay their way'. On reaching
pensionable age in 1964, Russell retired from the British Railways board.
However, he maintained a long standing interest in subsidized or social housing;
until 1970 he was chairman of the Sutton Dwelling Trust, a post he assumed
in 1962. He was also, for two years, chairman of the publicly owned manufacturers
Bristol Commercial Vehicles Ltd and Eastern Coach Works Ltd. Throughout his
military and civilian transport career Russell loved nothing more than to
escape his desk by undertaking personal tours of inspection to gain hands-on
experience and see conditions for himself. Until dissuaded by colleagues
at BRS concerned that he was telegraphing his impending arrival,
he was in the habit of travelling to inspections in a chauffeur-driven Humber
bearing the registration number BRS 1. Typically, when booked to give a speech
at a Road Hauliers' Association dinner in Birmingham in 1948, he travelled
to the venue in a 14 ton 8 wheeler in order to find out for himself
what conditions were like on the road Russell was tall and rangy with
sandy hair and a small military moustache. He possessed great energy and
enthusiasm, to the extent that he was sometimes dubbed Cyclone Charlie. His
many leisure pursuits included walking, gardening, the theatre, music, cards,
sailing and other sports, and mess dinners with soldier friends. In character
he was extrovert, sociable, humorous, determined and outspoken, sometimes
irascible. Having been resident for some months at Stourpaine, Blandford
Forum, Dorset, he died on 24 August 1971 at the General Infirmary, Salisbury,
of uraemia melaena and a gastric ulcer. ODNB
entry by P.W.J. Bartrip
Salmon, C.R.
In group photograph (listed as London Representative, presumably
of Armstrong Whitworth, at handing over of first three Class 5 to LMS at
Scotswood in April 1935.
Locomotive Mag., 1935, 41,
151.
Salt, Thomas
Born at Weeping Cross, Stafford on 12 May 1830; died 8 April 1904.
Educated at Rugby and Balliol Colege, Oxford. Private banker then director
of Lloyd's Bank. Chairman North Staffordshire Railway. 1883 until death.
Who Was Who: portrait Rly
Mag., 1899, 4, 97.
Sayers, H.G.
Appointed Superintendent (Scottish Area) in succession to the late
Mr. Gardiner. Commenced his railway career at Hull in 1907. He filled various
posts in the operating department of the North Eastern Railway, and latterly
the North Eastern Area of the L.N.E.R. After being in charge of Tyne Dock
he became dock superintendent, Alexandra and King George Docks, Hull, and
went to Scotland as assistant superintendent in 1937. For his services in
connection with wartime traffic operation he was awarded the M.B.E. in 1943.
LNER Magazine 1946.
Scott, Archibald
Traffic Manager of the LSWR from 1852 until 1870, thence General Manager
until 1885. Died 6 December 1910, Ellis.
The South Western Railway. Also
see Ron Strutt, Backtrack. 2014,
28, 198 for a fairly harsh assessment of Scott's abilities and
correction by John Harvey
(Backtrack, 2014, 28, 381).
Seddon, G.
Talked to the Great Western London Debating Society on train control
on the L&YR. Locomotive Mag.,
1921, 27, 24. Similar talk also presented to Great Central staff
in Sheffield (National Archive website).
Senior, G.G.
Joined L&YR in late 1870s as a junior clerk. Rose through Goods
offices to be Assistant to General Manager before amalgamation with LNWR
(Dawn Smith). President of Retired Railway
Officers Association in 1936 and ex-Mayor of Eccles
(Locomotive Mag., 1936,
42, 93)
Sharpe, J.E.
Chief Clerk, Office of Superintendent (Eastern Section) Southern Area,
to be Assistant to the Superintendent (Eastern Section) Southern Area:
See Locomotive Mag., 1935,
41, 214.
Shaw, Benjamin
One of the London directors of the Great Wrestern Railway; elected
chairman in October 1835, but succeeded by Sims.
Dawn Smith
Shaw, George
Born in South Yorkshire in 1851. Joined Great Northern Railway in
1867 and worked as a clerk. In 1895 he became District Passenger
Superintendent basef in Boston. He was then appointed Rolling Stock Controller.
In 1902 he was appointed Goods Manager. In 1910 he was chairman of the Goods
Managers' Conference and in 1930 president of the Retired Railway Officers
Society. Dawn Smith and
Locomotive Mag., 1930,
36, 386.
Short, Herbert Arthur
Born Bournemouth on 22 March 1895. Died 15 November 1967. Educated
Bournemouth School. Joined LSWR in 1913. Served in Suffolk Regiment during
WW1. Various appointments with Southern Railway Co., including Docks &
Marine Manager; Chairman Southampton Harbour Board, Docks Committee of Railway
Executive, Southampton Port Emergency Committee and Southampton Dock Labour
Board during period of despatch of troops and equipment from Southampton
for D-Day operations. Commanded Southern Railway Group, RE (Support Reserves),
1925-37. Deputy Traffic Manager Southern Railway, 1945; Chief Officer, Railway
Executive., 1948; Chief Regional Officer, N.E. Region, British Railways,
1950. Loaned by Southern Railway Co. to Colonial Office and Argentine Government
to advise on transport problems in Malaya, 1946, and in Argentine, 1947 and
1948 Member of British Transport Commission team to USA, 1957, to study US
railroads. Former Chairman: Associated Humber Lines. Who Was
Who.
Simpson, Alexander
Board member of NBR in 1913. See Simpson,
NBR Study Group J., 2000, (78),
27.
Simpson, George
Born on 26 March 1833 at Heriot in Midlothian: son of village
schoolmaster. Joined NBR as a clerk in the Cashier's Office in Ocober 1854
under J.P. Lythgoe, the General Accountant. Lythgoe and the General Manager,
Thomas K. Rowbotham were dismissed in 1866 and the chairman, Richard Hodgson
left at the same time. Simpson became General Accountant in January 1867
under the Secretary and David Anderrson became Audit Accountant under the
General Manager. The remuneration for both accountants was £300 per
annum. Simpson retired on 30 September 1905 and died at his holiday residence
in Burntisland on 19 May 1910. North
British Railway Study Group J., 2010, (111), 30.
Simpson, Lightly
Chairman of the Lynn & Hunstanton Railway; deputy chairman of
Great Eastern Railway. Grandfather of another
Lightly Stapleton Simpson who served on
the Kennedy Committee on railway elctrification. Norfolk Green bus named
after him vide Great Western Earl class
Sims, William Unwin
One of the London directors of the Great Wrestern Railway; elected
chairman in October 1837, but committed suicide in November 1837.
Dawn Smith
Smart, S.W.
Superintendent of Operation, Southern Region. See R.H.N. Hardy. Attention
to detail. Part 4. Steam
Wld., 1995, (96) 27
Smith, Charles T.
Goods manager Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway at
Manchester between 1886 and 1895. Dawn
Smith
Smith, Graham Royde
Smith entered London and North Western Railway service in the Expenditure
Office in July, 1898. Four years afterwards he was transferred to the Secretary's
office, and at the age of 21 became Personal Clerk to the Secretary. In 1911
he was appointed Secretary to the Chairman, the late Sir Gilbert Claughton,
and served in that capacity also under the late Lord Lawrence of Kingsgate
and Sir Guy Granet. Mr. Royde Smith was made Secretary of the London and
North Western and Midland Joint Committee in 1914, and Secretary of the Great
Northern and London and North Western Joint Committee in 1922, also
becoming Secretary to the London Midland and Scottish Works Committee
in 1924. He was appointed Principal Assistant to Secretary in 1929, and became
Assistant Secretary at the beginning of 1932 (Graces Guide)
>Author of at least two books and Assistant
Secretary of the LMS, later Secretary. Naomi Royde Smith
(Gwladys Naomi, born 20 April 1875, died 28 July 1964) was a sibling and
was involved in writing for a Times Special Supplement issued to mark
the Centenary of the London & Birmingham Railway (she was much better
known for her editorship of the Westminster Gazette, acting, novels etc:
she became a Catholic in 1942)
Smith, Herbert Grant
Ernest Lemon's personal assistant on LMS: portrait in
Terry Jenkins biography of Lemon
page 227 and on page 201 where he was Secretary to the Railway Chairmen's
Commission. Jenkins research makes it clear that Smith worked very closely
with Lemon and was well aware of internal tensions at senior level especially
with Ashton Davies.
Smith, John Abel
Born at Dale Park in Sussex on 2 June 1802. Educated at Eton and Christ's
College, Cambridge. Joined family bank, but in 1834 formed Magniac, Smith
& Co., correspondents for Jardine, Matheson & Co. who had wide Oriental
interests. Subsequently, he developed interests in New Zealand and Canada.
In 1842 he acquired an interest in Fleetwood, which had been developed by
Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood. He entered politics
in 1830 and became a political ally of Lord John Russell. He died at Kippington
on 7 January 1871. Entry by Jacob M. Price in
ODNB. See
also Backtrack, 2013, 27, 207 for venture into Furness
and David Joy. Two dukes and a lord.
Backtrack, 2018, 32, 292.
.
Smitton, Frederick
Diirector of Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway and
of Mersey Railway (of latter by dubious means). See A.
Jarvis. Rly Wld., 1986,
47, 211.
Stanier, Sir Breville
Born 12 June 1867: son of Francis Stanier (below) and died 15 December
1921. Educated Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. Who Was Who.
Deputy Chairman, North Staffordshire Railway and of Trent & Mersey
Canal.:
Stanier, Francis
Partner in Siverdale Ironworks: see
Archive No. 86 p.2 et seq. Deputy Chairman, North
Staffordshire Railway: portrait
Rly Mag., 1899, 4,
97.
Steel, Samuel Strang
Born 1882; died 14 August 1961. Educated Eton; MP 1918-29 for Ashford
in Kent. Parliamentary Secretary, Minister of Transport. Director of Bank
of Scotland.Commissioner of Forestry. Board member LNER address Philiphaugh,
Selkirk: appointed as replacement for William Whitelaw when he retired.
Scotsman, 1938 29 October B1 No. 1244 named Strang
Steel
Stemp, Charles Hubert
Born in 1871; died 18 March 1948 (Who Was Who). According to
Mullay's London's Scottish
railways was head-hunted from Great Eastern to North British Railway
in 1917 where he introduced control system to handle coal traffic in Lothian
Coalfield. Portrait rear cover NBRSGJ
Issue 95 .
Stephen, [Sir] Alexander Murray
Born 1892; died 17 December 1974. Educated Cargilfield; Fettes College;
Kings College, Cambridge (1st Class Hons Mechanical Science Tripos).
Served WW1, RGA, 191418, Major (despatches, MC); Sometime President
Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland; Shipbuilding Employers
Federation; Shipbuilding Conference; British Shipbuilding Research Association.
Probably Director of LMS in 1947. JP 1955, Knighted 1946; Lord Lieutenant
of Lanarkshire, 195559
Stewart, Sir David
Born 29 July 1835. ; died 11 Oct. 1919. Educated Kings College,
Aberdeen. Chairman of Great North of Scotland Railway between 1904 and 1919
and member of Board since 1891. Vallance.
calls him a prominent Aberdeen businessman, Director of Northern Assurance
Company and Aberdeen Comb Works Company, Twice elected Lord Provost; served
nine years in University Court, during which he greatly extended the Aberdeen
University buildings and the City of Aberdeen, so as to incude Old Aberdeen,
Woodside, and Torry. Knighted by Queen Victoria at Balmoral.
Stewart, Frederick Charles
Educated High School, Glasgow. Chairman of Thermotank Ltd, and Chairman:
North British Locomotive Co., Ltd, Served on many boards and committees in
Scotland. With his two brothers as partners he founded the first Thermotank
Company. Served WW1 with 9th Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 191421.
Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev.,
1950, 56. 68.
Strang, Willliam
Briefly Commercial Superintendent NBR: appointed 1916, died 1918?.
Portrait rear cover NBRSGJ Issue
95 .
Stride, Arthur Lewis
Born in Dover on 10 March 1837, the son of the manager of the National
Provincial Bank in Dover. He was educated at a boarding school in Ashford
and in 1856 was working on the Chatham to Canterbury section of the East
Kent Railway. Once construction was over he was employed as district engineer
for the Kent Coast and Sheerness section of the London, Chatham & Dover
Railway. In April 1875 he was appointed General Manager and Resident Engineer
on the London. Tilbury & Southend Railway. Prior to this the railway
had been run by the lessees (the executors of Thomas Brassey) with the trains
run by the Great Eastern Railway. He rose to be Managing Director in 1889
and Chairman in January 1906. At the age of 73 in 1910 Stride negotiated
with the Midland Railway to takeover the railway and in 1912 he retired.
In 1885 he leased Bush Hall in Hatfield and made it his home where he became
a County Councillor and bred Jersey cattle (KPJ he presumably knew the Pearson
family at Brickendonbury): he died at Bush Hall on 15 September 1922. .
Peter Kay. J. Rly Canal Hist.
Soc., 2010 (209) 172.
Swarbrick, Samuel
Born in 1819, died at The Cedars, Tottenham, on the 22 January, 1899.
Formerly General Manager Great Eastern Railway. In 1838 he joined the Manchester
and Leeds Railway Company, and rose to the post of Accountant, and in 1851
he was appointed to a similar post on the the Midland Railway. During the
following fifteen years he assisted in promoting the great development of
the Midland system which took place under Sir James Allport. In 1866 Mr.
Swarbrick was appointed General Manager of the Great Eastern Railway and
during the fourteen years he held that post the position of the Company was
greatly improved, the problem of a northern outlet was solved, and the large
suburban traffic originated. He resigned in 1880, and then acted as an adviser
in railway matters. In 1882 he made, in conjunction with Sir James Allport,
an exhaustive report on the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad, and
two years later he became a Director of the Hull and Barnsley Railway Company.
During the last eight years he lived in retirement at Tottenham. Mr. Swarbrick
shared with the George Parker Bidder the
gift of rapid calculation and the facility of dealing with large masses of
figures. He was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers
on the 3 March, 1868. Min. Proc. Instn Civ. Engrs., 1899, 136,
363...
Tatlow, Frank
Born on 9 June 1861; died 13 March 1934. Educated Derby School Joined
the General Manager's office of the Midland Railway in 1876; became Deputy
General Manager in 1917 and General Manager 1920-3. Who Was
Who
Tatlow, Joseph
Born in Sheffield in 1851; died Kingstown 18 January 1929. Educated
Derby. Joined Midland Railway at Derby in 1867; seven years later became
chief clerk to the General Manager of the Glasgow and South-Western Railway;
General Manager of the Belfast and County Down Railway and moved to Ireland
in 1885; General Manager of Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland,
18901912; represented the associated Irish Railway Companies in the
proceedings before the Vice-Regal Commission on Irish Railways, 190609;
Chairman of the General Managers Conference of the Railways of the
United Kingdom, 1910; Chairman of Irish Branch of Railway Benevolent Institution,
18911912; conducted various Government Inquiries regarding Light Railways,
etc., in Ireland; as Member of the Dominions Royal Commission, 191217,
visited Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, S Africa, Canada, and Newfoundland
Publications Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland, and
Ireland; 1920. (Ottley 1653): reviewed
Locomotive Mag., 1920,
26, 138. also pamphlets on railway subjects. Who Was
Who
Taylor, John
Born in Norwich in 22 August 1779 into a Unitarian family. He died
in London on 5 April 1863. When 19 he became involved in the Wheal Friendship
copper mine at Mary Tavy and assisted with the construction of the unusual
canal from the mine through a tunnel to Morwellham on the banks of the Tamar.
He was involved in mining overseas and with his sons, John and Richard in
the consultancy John Taylor & Sons. Edmund
Newell ODNB (especially birth & death dates).
D. Gwilym M. Roberts in Chrimes. The
Redruth & Chasewater Railway is not mentioned in the above, but see.
D.B. Barton The Redruth & Chasewater
Railway, 1824-1915..
Teasdale, William Milburn
First Advertising Manager of LNER; promoted to be Assistant General
Manager in 1927, but left to become a Director of Allied Newspapers in 1932.
He died on 1 September 1948. See Allan
Middleton: It's quicker by rail.
Thomas, Glegge
Secretary Estate Agent and Rating Surveyor Cheshire Lines Committee
(had held this pposition for 21 years in
1899. Rly Mag., 1899, 4,
385.
Thompson, Sir Harry Stephen Meysey
Born Newby Park in Yorkshire on 11 August 1809. Educated Trinity College
Cambridge. Active in agricultural improvements, especially influence of nitrogen
as a ferilizer. Chairman of the North Midland Railway and Chairman of North
Eastern Railway from 1855 until his death at Kirby Hall on 17 May 1874, shortly
after he had been created a baronet. For a time he was MP for Whitby and
took an active part in legislation to improve agriculture and the management
of railways. His eldest son was a later Chairman of the NER (from 1912) as
Lord Knaresborough. ODNB entry by John
Martin. Tomlinson.
Thompson, Sir Matthew William, first baronet
(18201891),
Railway administrator, born at Manningham, Yorkshire on 1 February
1820, was the son of Matthew Thompson of Manningham Lodge, Bradford,. He
was educated at private schools and in 1840 entered Trinity College, Cambridge,
graduating BA in 1843 and MA in 1846. He was called to the bar at the Inner
Temple in 1847, and for ten years practised as a conveyancing counsel. Having
married on 10 May 1843 Mary Anne, daughter of his uncle, Benjamin Thompson
of Park Gate, Guiseley, who possessed the controlling influence in the old
brewery, Bradford, he retired from the bar in 1857 and went to Bradford to
manage and develop the brewery. He became a town councillor in 1858, an alderman
in 1860, and mayor of Bradford in 1862. In 1865 he was elected a director
of the Midland Railway, and in 1867 was returned as a Liberal-Conservative
borough member for Bradford, with William Edward Forster as his colleague.
He was not a committed politician, and did not stand at the general election
in 1868; but he did unsuccessfully contest the constituency again in March
1869 after the unseating of the Conservative member, Henry William Ripley.
In 1871 and 1872 he was re-elected mayor of Bradford. In 1879 Thompson became
chairman of the Midland Railway, and asserrted his rigorous and energetic
management. He was also chairman of the Glasgow and South Western Railway,
and a director and sometime chairman of the Forth Bridge Railway Company.
Parliamentary sanction for the building of the Forth Bridge had been obtained
in 1873, but the work was not begun until 1882, when the Midland Railway's
policy towards the financing of the bridge was greatly influenced by Thompson.
The shareholders of the Forth Bridge Railway Company were guaranteed 4 per
cent on their capital by the North British, Midland, Great Northern, and
North Eastern railway companies, the Midland Railway under Thompson putting
forward the largest single contribution to the bridge's £3 million cost.
The bridge was completed in January 1890, and formally opened by the prince
of Wales on 4 March 1890. On this occasion a baronetcy was conferred upon
Thompson, in recognition of the ability with which he had helped forward
the undertaking. Thompson resigned the chairmanship of the Midland Railway
in 1890, through failing health. He died at Park Gate, Guiseley on 1 December
1891, ODNB entry by William Carr, rev.
Ralph Harrington
Tonge, J.W.
Appointed Public Relations & Publicity Officer of British Railways
(London Midland Region): had since August 1951, been Assistant Public, Relations
& Publicity Officer of that Region. Tonge, a Mancunian, began his railway
career in the former Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Head Office at Manchester
in 1920 after his demobilisation from the South Wales Borderers and subsequently
gained experience at a number m goods and passenger stations in Lancashire
and in the District Goods Manager's Office of the L. & Y.
He had been at Euston since June 1927 filling posts in the Overseas and
Continental office and Chief. Commercial Manager's Office, being Chief of
the passenger trains section in 1941, and Chief Clerk of the Personal and
General Section in 1946. Tonge was Assistant District Passenger Manager.
Euston in 1947 and in 1948 Trade Advertising Assistant to the Chief Commercial
Manager. During the last war Tonge served on the Passenger Trains Committee
and the Ad Hoc Standardisation of the Passenger Rolling Stock Committee.
See Locomotive Mag., 1955,
61, 162
Tootal, Edward
1799-1873, Manchester silk manufacturer and director of LNWR from
1851 until his death. Braine: The
railway Moon. and Dawn Smith His
brother Henry, was also in the silk business, and was
a board member of the Trent Valley Railway Co
(Mathams and Barrett Backtrack, 2014,
28, 4). Grace's Guide gives details of Tootal, Broadhurst &
Lee and their textile business in Manchester. See also
Gardner who founded firm.
Treffry [formerly Austen], Joseph Thomas
Baptized Joseph Thomas Austen at St Andrew's Church, Plymouth,
on 1 May 1782: died at Place on 29 January 1850. He was the eldest child
of Joseph Austen (died 1786) of The Friary, Plymouth, brewer and sometime
mayor of Plymouth, and his wife, Susanna (d. 1842), daughter of Thomas Treffry
of Place, Fowey, Cornwall. She and her sister Jane inherited the Treffry
estate in Cornwall in 1779 following the death first of their father and
then their brother, William Esco Treffry. After the death of her husband
Susanna and her children moved to Place. Nothing is known of Austen's
early education. He was at Exeter College, Oxford, from 1801 to 1804, but
left without graduating. He returned to Place and became involved in the
management of the small family estate, which had been badly neglected for
many years. Taking advantage of high wartime agricultural prices he sought
to improve the profitability of the estate's farms and acquired more agricultural
land. From about 1815 he turned his attention to the more lucrative prospect
of mining by adding to the estate's shareholdings in local copper and tin
mines. By 1820 he had acquired control of Wheal Treasure, near St Austell,
which was later combined with neighbouring mines and renamed Fowey Consols.
At its peak in 1837 this was the second largest producer of copper in Cornwall.
His other large copper mine, Par Consols, came into production in 1840.
The success of Austen's mining ventures owed much to his investment in good
transport facilities. He built and owned ships to handle his business and
made a quay at Fowey, on the south coast. Being unable to link his mines
to the port with a railway because of opposition from a landowner, he created
an entirely new port at Par which was opened in 1833, complete with an inclined
plane railway and canal to serve the nearby mines. He further diversified
his business interests, though they remained local and related. He built
his own smelting works at Par, and the port was later linked by railway to
the Luxulyan granite quarries, which he also owned and developed. In 1836
he bought the pier and harbour of Newquay on the north coast of Cornwall;
this was convenient for shipping lead from the East Wheal Rose mine, and
china clay and stone from his quarries. He sought to connect Cornwall with
the main national railway system: from 1844 to 1846 he was chairman of the
provisional committee established for the purpose, and he presided over the
board of the Cornwall Railway from 1846 to 1850.
When young Austen entered local politics and strengthened his position in
the town by purchasing property and allying himself with the enemies of the
unreformed municipal corporation of Fowey. While appearing a fiery radical,
his politics were individual and never doctrinaire. Although his political
activities gave way to business interests, he briefly entered the political
arena at a national level in the early 1840s; this led to an unsuccessful
campaign by Cornish mine owners against the proposed reduction of import
duties on copper ore as part of Robert Peel's tariff reforms.
Austen took great pride in the Treffry heritage, and in 1838 he fulfilled
a long-standing wish to take the name Treffry. To ensure the continuation
of the name he left the bulk of his estate to a cousin, the
Revd Edward John Wilcocks, provided that he
also took the family name. Treffry devoted much time to restore and develop
Place, which had become partly derelict. The house was visited by Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert in September 1846, though Treffry was too ill to receive
them. Treffry served as a magistrate and was high sheriff of Cornwall in
18389; he was also a committee member of the East Cornwall Agricultural
Society, a patron of the Tywardreath Gardening Society, and vice-president
of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society from 1849 until his death. He died
at Place on 29 January 1850, after several years of serious illness.
ODNB entry by Jack Simmons, revised Edmund
Newell
Turnbull, Robert
Born 21 February 1852 son of Robert Turnbull, Vicar of Wybunbury,
Cheshire; died 22 February 1925. Educated Whitechurch Grammar School, Shropshire.
Joined London and North Western Railway, 1868; Assistant to Superintendent
of the Line, 1889; Superintendent of the Line, 18931914; General Manager,
1914; joined the Board, 1915; Lt-Col in Railway Engineer and Staff Corps.
Knightet in 1913; MVO in 1910. Who Was Who
Tweeddale, Marquis of (William Hay)
Born Yester House, East Lothian 29 January 1826; died 25 November
1811. Educated Imperial Service College. Served in Bengal Civil Service.
High Commissioner General Assembly Church of Scotland. MP (Liberal) Taunton
the Haddington Burghs. Portrait Nock
Railway race to the north
Tyacke, J.F.
Superintendent of Redruth & Chasewater Railway and Devoran
Harbour. Locomotive Mag., 1902,
7, 141
Wansbrough-Jones, Major-General Llewelyn
Born 1900; died 1974 (NPG). Secretaery General Brittish Transport
Commission; from 1955:
Locomotive Mag., 1955,
61, 28. Pearson Man of the rail
notes that he provided excellent support tto Sir Brian Robertson
and was a "tallish, spare, dark man" and that vit wwas not an easy
transition into transport.
Watkins, James William
Born 4 September 1890; died 12 January 1959. Educated Tewkesbury Grammar
School. Joined Midland Rly in 1905; successively LMS Rly Co. where appointed
Divisional Superintendent of Operation, Derby (see
Locomotive Mag., 1943,
49, 11) and British Rlys; General Manager, London Midland Region,
British Railways, 195356. Served WW1 in Army, 191419: joined
5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment as Private, 1914; commissioned on
Field to 2nd Bn Lancashire Fusiliers; commanded 2nd Bn Lancashire Fusiliers;
retired with rank of Lt-Col. Member (full-time), British Transport Commission,
from 1956. CVO 1951; DSO 1918; MC 1918. Who Was Who.
Pearson Man of the rail notes that Watkins
took charge of the operations following the Harrow & Wealdstone disaster
on 8 October 1952 and considered he "displayed leadership" and "did a really
fine job". With Riddles, etc alongside Duke
of Gloucester.
Pictured at Deltic roll-out Loco.
Mag., 1955, 61, 190
Walker, John
In 1918 rose to be Assistant General Manager North British Railway.
Formerly District Traffic Superintendent at Coatbridge and then at Edinburgh.
Dawn Smith. Poem by George Colburn about him in
Kenneth Hopkins The poetry
of railways
Walker, John (d. 1891)
Born 7 January 1832; died 24 April 1891. (The Scotsman 30 April
1891). North British Railway: Secretary 1866-1873; General Manager 1874-1891;
died whilst on company business in London. Formerly worthy of statue in Waverley
Station. See NBRSG J., 2017, 131, 37. Other information off NBRSG
website
Ward, E.R.
General passenger agent, Midland Railway. Appointment:
Locomotive Mag., 1910,
16, 5
Watson, General Sir Daril
Secretaery General Brittish Transport Commission; retired May 1955:
Locomotive Mag., 1955,
61, 28. Member of Railway Executive 1949-53. Born 17 October 1888;
died 1 July 1967. Educated Mercers School. Commissioned into Highland Light
Infantry in 1915. In WW2 rose to be Quartermaster General: hence postwar
task. The stores department in Railway
Executive. Unification of British Railways: administrative principles
and practice. London: Modern Transport. 1951.
Watson, Henry Angus
Born Forres in 1863. Educated at private schools in Elgin and Aberdeen,
and Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities. In 1884 he joined the staff in the
Solicitor's Office of the Highland Railway; moved to the similar office on
the NBR in 1891 and in the same year joined the NER as one of the Assistants
to the Superintendents of the Line. In 1900 he became Superintendent of the
Line: the title changed to General Superintendent before the Grouping.
Dawn Smith Addressed the Great Western
Railway Lecture & Debating Society (London) on railway safety noting
mreasures brought in by North Eastern Railway
see Locomotive Mag., 1925,
31, 96. Introduced Train Control System to NER: see
Backtrack, 2012, 26,
466.
Watts, T.W.
Former Goods Manager of the Ipswich district, put in charge of section
B of the Chief Traffic Manager's department, with the title of Commercial
Superintendent; dealt with all commercial matters, goods and passenger, including
season tickets, and his office was at Liverpool Street station.
see Locomotive Mag., 1915,
21, 120
Welsby, John Kay
Educated Heywood Grammar School, University of Exeter and University
of London. He was in the Government Economic Service from 1966 to 1981 when
he joined the British Railways Board and was Chief Executive from 1990 until
1998; and its Chairman from 1995 to 1999. He was appointed CBE in the 1990
Birthday Honours and made a Freeman of the City of London in 1992.
Faulkner and Austin note his failure
to receive a knighthood in spite of his work to implement the Balkanization
of the railways "work".
Westlake, William
Contractor of locomotives and other means of haulage
to Swansea Harbour Trust from
1883 to 1891. RCTS
Locomotives of the Great Western Railway. Part 10
Wharton, John Lloyd
Born 18 April 1837. Died 11 July 1912. Educated Eton and Trinity College
Cambridge. Barrister and MP. Chairman of North Eastern Railway 1906-1912
Who Was Who. Tomlinson.
White, G.T.
Died 17 March 1899: formerly Superintendent of the Line, LSWR (since
1882). Formerly Assistant Superintendent of the Line since July 1876. Had
started railway career as a lad clerk in 1876.
Rly Mag, 1899, 4,
383
Wieland, George Bradley
Died Mentone on 26 March 1905, aged 67. Born in London and joined
the London & North Western Railway in the general manager's office. In
1873 he became Secretary of the NBR until 1892. On retirement, appointed
a Director and in 1901 became Chairman. He was closely involved with the
building and furnishing of the North British Station Hotel and the stocking
of its wine cellars. He was a collector of works of art, but sold these when
he returned to London. NBRSG website and Scotsman obituary.
Wigram, Reginald
Born on 15? January 1843. Died at Caley Hall, Pool on 18 April 1915.
Educated at Marlborough College and apprenticed to John Penn & Sons of
Greenwich. He then gained experience as a sea-going engineer and at Crewe
Works. In 1866 he joined John Fowler & Sons as a Partner. In 1887 he
became a Director of the Great Northern Railway. In 899 Ivatt led a party
of four from the Great Eastern and Midland Railways to the United States
to investigate automatic couplers and this was joined unofficially by Wigram.
Ivatt's daughters called him "Old Wiggy" (H.A.V. Bullleid Master
builders of steam). He was inventor, or co-inventor of the following
patents GB 60/1869. Horse ploughs. published: 8 January 1869. GB
14242/1894 Improvements in steam engine valves and gear for working
them. Applied 24 July 1894, published 25 August 1894. GB 7294/1898.
Improvements in steam engine valves and gear for working them, with
James Thompson Marshall. Applied 25 March 1898, Published 11 March 1899.
GB 13662/1900 Improvements in or relating to fluid-pressure engine valves
and valve-gear, with James Thompson Marshall .Applied 30 July 1900, Published
11 May 1901.
Wilkinson, Christopher Newman
Retired due to ill-health:
Loco. Mag. 1903, 9,
350. Secretary of North Eastern Railway for 32 years.
Dawn Smith for Christian names.
Willmott. Harry
Died on 11 April 1931 aged 79 at Guildford. Joined Great Eastern Railway
in 1865; rising to goods manager for the London district. In 1895 he was
appointed general manager of the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast
Railway (see Backtrack, 2018,
32, 206 and 727). After its
absorption by the Great Central he became chairman of the Stratford-on-Avon
& Midland Junction Railway. From 1911 he became chairman of the Isle
of Wight Central Railway, general manager of the Sheffield District Railway
and chairman of the Edge Hill Light Railway.
See Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev.,
1931, 37, 161
Wilson, Alex
Divisional Manager, Southern Area, LNER, formerly of the North Eastern
Railway: Hughes (Railway
World, 1981, 42, 638) called him "a likeable, but somewhat
impulsive Scot" and possibly complicit in the Locomotive Exchange between
the A1 Pacific and the Castle class which followed their exhibition at Wembley
in the British Empire Exhibition
Wilson, Reginald Holmes
Born 10 July 1905; died 1 January 1999. Educated St Lawrence, Ramsgate
and London University. Partner in Whinney Murray & Co. between 1937 and
1972. Member of British Transport Commission 1947-1962.
Bonavia (First twenty five years)
called him "forceful" Comptroller 1947-1953, and noted his "fertile brain"
and "Sir Reginald in fact had been immersed in power politics since
nationalisation, as Comptroller of the Commission, in which capacity he had
put together the finances of the BTC's oddly-assorted collection of businesses
in a masterly fashion. He was the unquestioned 'financial wizard' of nationalised
transport. But although Sir Brian [Robertson] might find RHW's views, often
original and always vigorously expressed, rather hard to follow, he appreciated
their quality sufficiently to appoint him Chairman of, first, the Eastern
and later the London Midland Area Board, where his invigorating influence
upon railway policy could be most directly exercised.". Who Was Who
for dates of birth, death and education.
Woods, William
Born in Bolton, Lancs in 1787. Died 12 June 1864 at Eldon Square,
Newcastle. Banker. Served in Peninsular War. Secretary of Newcastle Fire
Office from 1819. Founded Middle Dock and Woods, Spence & Co at Sunderland.
Director of Newcastle Subscription Gas Light Co from 1830 and chairman Newcastle
and Gateshead Union Gas Light Co from 1839. Financial interest in ropeworks
of Grirnshaw & Co. Director, Newcastle Subscription Water Co from 1839,
Darlington Junction Railway and NER. Chairman N&CR 1853-1862. Rennison,
R.W. The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway and its engineers; 18291862.
Trans. Newcomen Soc., 2001,
72, 203-33.
Woolton, 1st Earl (Frederick James
Marquis)
Born 24 August 1883; died 14 December 1964. Director of LMS. Educated
Manchester Grammar School and Manchester University. Chairman and Senior
Managing Director, Lewiss Investment Trust, Ltd and its subsidiary
companies and other companies. Past President Royal Statistical Society,
Research. Fellow on Economics, Manchester University; Very full and varied
life, which included a key role in WW2 in Churchill's Cabinet described by
Michael D. Kandiah in the ODNB
Wortley, John Stuart
Subsequently 2nd Lord Wharncliffe. Chairman of the Great Indian Peninsular
Railway. Born Egham, Surrey, on 23 April 1801, graduated BA from Christ Church,
Oxford, in 1822, with a first class in mathematics and a second in classics.
He represented Bossiney from 1823 to 1832, Perth burghs in 1830, and the
West Riding of Yorkshire from 1841 until his succession to the peerage. He
died of consumption at Wortley Hall, near Sheffield, on 22 October
1855.
Wright, Francis Beresford
Born 21 December 1806 probably in Derbyshire and died on 24 February
1873. Director of the Midland Railway and Chief Executve of the Butterley
Company. Devout member of the Evangelical side of the Church of England and
paternalist, but puritanical, employer. Built Osmaston Manor, outside Ashbourne
as family seat. ODNB entry by Robert Pearce.
See Leadbetter. J. Rly Canal Hist.
Soc., 2008, 36, 33. and correspondence
following from Jean
Lindsay.
Wright, John
Of Lenton Hall, Nottingham. 1758-1840, Father of Francis Beresford
Wright (above). Founded Butterley Company and involved in Cromford &
High Peak Railway. Absent from ODNB but mentioned by
Penny Watts-Russell in J. Rly Canal
Hist. Soc., 2011 (210), 34-46
Wrigley, Thomas
Bury papermaker, art collector (substantial bequest to the Art Gallery
of both building and major paintings) and railway investor: He was a Unitarian,
but gave funds to rebuild the Parish Church. He was not a member of the LNWR
board, but was a major investor and highly critical of Moon. He died in 1880
according to Braine: The railway
Moon (includes a portrait on page 208).
Wymer, Francis John
Born 6 December 1898; died 26 March 1976. Educated Merton Court, Sidcup
and Eltham College. After military serce during WW1 joined SE&CR in 1920;
Assistant to Traffic Manager, Southern Railway, 1932; Divisional Marine Manager,
Dover, 1934; Assistant Continental Superintendent, 1938; Assistant to General
Manager, 1942; awwarded CBE in 1943; Assistant Docks and Marine Manager,
Southern Ry, 194547; Assistant Chief Regional Officer, Southern Region
195155. Member of Railway Chairmen's Commission during WW2. Mainly
Who Was Who.
Yorke, James
Appointed assistant superintendent of York District of NER (formerly
in traffic department at Hull and in charge of goods department at Castleford
before that) Locomotive
Mag., 1903, 9, 158 and
189.
Young, John
Chief Accountant Cheshire Lines Committee since August 1896 (in 1899):
previously with Accounts Departtment on
LCDR. Rly Mag., 1899, 4,
385.
Younger, George, first Viscount Younger of
Leckie
Born on 13 October 1851 at the Brewery House, Bank Street, Alloa,
Clackmannanshire, the eldest of six children of James Younger (18181868).
Died of a heart attack, while attending the theatre in London, on 29 April
1929, and was buried at Alloa. Member of the Clackmannanshire county council
from 1890 to 1906 (convenor, 18951906); a member of the royal commission
on the licensing laws in 1896; vice-president of the County Councils Association
of Scotland in 19024; and president of the National Union of Conservative
Associations of Scotland in 1904. After unsuccessfully contesting Clackmannan
and Kinross (1895, 1899, 1900) and Ayr burghs (1904), he was elected Unionist
MP for Ayr burghs in 1906, representing it until 1922. He was recognized
as a capable debater in the Commons, notably when opposing the people's
budget in 1909. He became a respected and popular Scottish whip, and
was a candidate to succeed Lord Balcarres as Unionist chief whip in 1913.
He was awarded a baronetcy in 1911. Younger achieved historical significance,
however, not as a parliamentarian but as a party organizer and adviser to
successive party leaders. Board member NBR in 1913. Board member of Southern
Railway (The Times). See Simpson,
>NBR Study Group J., 2000, (78), 27.
Mainly D.M. Cregier in ODNB.
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