Railway Work, Life and Death project

There are copies of the Medical Fund Society Yearly Reports in Local Studies, Swindon Central Library and I recently published a blogpost about the Accident Hospital.

During 1885 there were 30 patients treated in the Medical Fund Hospital who had sustained injuries during an ordinary working day. Men like Henry Kent 44, a goods guard from Salisbury, who suffered fractured ribs and shoulder and died after 2 days in hospital. Thomas Tuck 38, a labourer from Wootton Bassett, who suffered a scalp wound but was discharged after 10 days in hospital. There are more details available about William Ball 56, a driver from Swindon, who fell off an engine while in motion and fractured two ribs and injured his head. He spent 29 days in hospital and was ‘discharged convalescent.’

Yesterday evening the Friends of Swindon Railway Museum’s monthly lecture, entitled ‘Into the Jaws of Death – working and dying on Britain’s railways 1900-1939,’ was delivered by Mike Esbester from the University of Portsmouth. The subject was the danger railwaymen faced on a daily basis whether working on the trackside or in railway factories such as Swindon Works.

In 1913 30,000 railway workers across the UK were killed or injured and yet responsibility was largely put on the men themselves – that they were careless!

In Mike’s presentation he talked about not just unsafe working practices and conditions but the pressure on workers to complete tasks at sometimes unrealistic speed; when wages were docked if targets were missed. Despite a railway inspectorate that highlighted dangers and trade unions that demanded change, railway companies were reluctant to act, and as Mike emphasised the onus was firmly placed upon the railwaymen themselves. Their personal safety was their responsibility.

In 2016 a joint initiative by the University of Portsmouth and the National Railway Museum saw the beginning of the ‘Railway Work, Life & Death’ project to try to make railway worker accident records more accessible and to see what could be learnt from them. These records are of interest not only to museums and archives professionals but to railway enthusiasts, family historians and the current railway industry. To date volunteers have transcribed around 50,000 surviving records, which are available to view on the project’s website.

Mike’s lecture was both compelling and revelatory. To discover more visit www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk.

And if you would like to join the Friends of Swindon Railway Museum visit their website. http://www.fosrm.org.uk/

Images of the Medical Fund Hospital published courtesy of https://swindonstory.uk/stories/gwr-hospital/

Charles Adolphus Sylvester Toogood

With such a distinctive name as Charles Adolphus Sylvester Toogood it should be easy to trace this gentleman, and up to a point it is. His employment records provide a birth date, December 13, 1869 and his entry into the GWR company as September 20, 1886. And from 1891 to his death in 1946 we can trace him through the census records. But there is a gap – something catastrophic appears to have happened to the family between the 1871 and 1881 census’s. It seems likely that Charles Toogood’s mother died before 1881; neither she nor his father Alfred can be reliably traced on the 1881 census. However, a ten year old boy by the name of Adolphus Toogood can be found in the Lyncombe & Widcombe Workhouse. Could this be Charles?

Charles married Florence Ann Greenaway at St. Mark’s Church on January 31, 1895 and the couple had five daughters, the youngest Pearl died before her first birthday.

The following account was published in the Great Western Railway Magazine when Charles retired in 1930.

Mr C.A.S. Toogood, of the Chief Mechanical Engineer’s Department, Swindon, retired from the Company’s service on December 13, after nearly 44 years’ service, practically the whole of which was spent in the Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon divisional superintendent’s office, at Swindon. With the abolition of the Swindon division in May 1922, Mr. Toogood, with others of the staff, was transferred to Bristol, but he returned to Swindon in December 1928 and has been attached to the accounts section since that time. Mr Toogood received a handsome timepiece and notes as a parting gift from his past and present colleagues.

Great Western Railway Magazine March 1930.

Charles Adolphus Sylvester Toogood died in 1946 and was buried on November 27 in grave plot C983 where he joined his wife Florence who died in 1937.

James Henry Sadler – much respected

Most of the time I am entrenched in Radnor Street Cemetery – but occasionally I venture out, sometimes to neighbouring churchyards and cemeteries. And sometimes my work with the Friends of Lydiard Park collides with Radnor Street Cemetery. I am presently transcribing the diaries of Hook farmer Elliot Woolford. On March 30, 1929 Elliot writes:

Saturday March 30, 1929

I went to James Henry Sadler Esq funeral at Lydiard Millicent this afternoon he was taken to Church on a farm wagon there was a lot followed he was much respected.

A short biography is published in the ‘Wilts Book’ discovered by Radnor Street Cemetery friend and colleague Mark Sutton.

Sadler. – James Henry Sadler, J.P., Lydiard House, near Swindon; son of the late Samuel Champernowne Sadler, J.P., F.R.C.S., of Purton Court, Wilts; born at Purton, August 17^th, 1843; educated at Hoddesdon, Herts, and Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. Landowner and agriculturist, farming some of his own property; Justice of the Peace for Wilts; member of the Wilts County Council since its formation, representing the Purton Division; Captain, Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry (retired); Chairman of the Cricklade and Wootton Bassett Board of Guardians, and Rural District Council; formerly, and for some years Chairman of the Purton and Lydiard Millicent Parish Councils, North Wilts Liberal Association, and Swindon Chamber of Agriculture. Recreations: hunting, and shooting. Married, in 1879, Ann Matilda, daughter of the late T.P.W. Butt, of Arle Court, Cheltenham.

Photograph published courtesy of Duncan and Mandy Ball.

Accident Hospital

The Accident Hospital was opened in December 1871 and as the name suggests, that was its sole purpose in those early years. This postcard image published on the Local Studies flickr page has the annotation – ‘For use in case of accidents which are of daily occurance in the GWR Factory.’

On January 12, 1886 doctors Swinhoe, Howse and Bromley made their Accident Hospital Doctors’ Report to the Medical Fund Committee as follows:

Gentlemen,

The New Year of 1885, found us with three Patients in our Accident Hospital. Since then, twenty-seven new cases have been admitted, making a total of thirty for the twelve months. Of these, twenty have been discharged convalescent, six have died, and one is still under treatment and doing well.

We enclose tabulated list for your better information.

We are, Gentlemen,

Your obedient Servants,

Swinhoe, Howse, & Bromley.

Among the injuries treated during 1885 were leg fractures, a crushed foot and fractured ribs.

Of the six deaths that occurred in the hospital four of the deceased were buried in Radnor Street Cemetery.

Fireman Charles W. Nicholls aged 23 of 13 Medgbury Road died from having his ‘chest crushed in’. Charles Nicholls was buried on September 6, 1885 in grave plot A309.

George Turnbull aged 33, Charge Man in B2 Shop died from a compound fracture of the skull having spent 3 days in hospital. George Turnbull was buried on April 2, 1885 in grave plot A727.

Thomas Edwards who worked in the Saw Mill was admitted with a rupture and spent 40 days in hospital where he died of consumption. He was 33 years old. Thomas Edwards was buried on March 28, 1885 in grave plot A204.

William Collett of 40 Princes Street was admitted to the hospital suffering from extensive burns. He died 2 days later. He was 49 years old. William Collet was buried on March 26, 1885 in grave plot A628.

The Astill dynasty continued

Yesterday we met Ellen Victoria Astill. Today let me introduce you to three more Astill siblings. Quigley, Ella and Annie occupied consecutive placing in the Astill line up. Quigley was born in 1878, Ella in 1880 and Annie in 1882.

Annie Kathleen Wootton Hall Astill

Quigley, along with his brothers, attended King William Street School. There is no mention of the girls in the family attending this or any other school. There were several private girls’ schools in Old Town at this time, so perhaps they attended one of these.

Annie in particular must have had some further education as she later became a nurse. The 1911 census records her working as a Rescue Worker at a home for unmarried mothers and their babies in Ladywood Road, Birmingham.

Quigley Wallace Astill seated in deckchair and surrounded by family members

Quigley trained as a printer, presumably in the family firm. However he later went on to work for the Swindon Press where an accident lifting heavy machinery left him disabled.

Ella Alice Ward Astill

The unmarried Astill siblings lived at a couple of addresses in Old Town including 14 Springfield Road, but by the 1920s they were settled at 28 Avenue Road. We have already discovered Ellen living here in the 1920s. Quigley and later Ella and Annie also lived at this address.

Apparently Annie and Ella had a volatile relationship. In old age the two sisters were admitted to St. Margaret’s Hospital where they had to be accommodated on separate floors because they argued so much. Annie died on February 14, 1966. Ella died just a month later on March 17. With the death of her lifelong adversary she lost the will to live.

The two sisters were buried together in Christ Church churchyard where they joined their brother Quigley who died in 1957.

Many thanks to Rhonda in Australia and the late Eric Barrett from Wroughton for information, photos and family memories.

The Astill dynasty

Sometimes I get lucky…

A blogpost published last year about the Astill printing establishment was recently seen by Rhonda in Australia. Rhonda is the great great granddaughter of Robert and Margaret Astill and has an ongoing family history research project that she has been kind enough to share with me, including some fab photos.

Here is Robert Astill, founder of the printing business.

And here is Margaret, his wife.

Robert Astill married Margaret Hall on October 27, 1866 at the Baptist Chapel, Fleet Street, New Swindon.

The Astill family numbered 13. Two daughters died in childhood, Frances in infancy in 1881 and Emma aged 3 in 1870.

The surviving children were all baptised at Christ Church – eight in one go – on February 8, 1880! Ella Alicia Ward Astill was baptised the following year on August 28, 1881 and Annie Kathleen Wootton Hall Astill and Lily Blanche Astill on April 4, 1900.

In 1891 all 11 surviving siblings were living at 2 Bath Road – 7 sisters and 4 brothers – their ages ranging from the eldest Margaret Florence Marionne who was 21 to the youngest Lily Blanche aged 6.

Ellen Victoria, known as Nellie, was the sixth child, born on March 12, 1874. Family memories of Ellen speak of a charming lady who didn’t have much of a life. In 1911 she appears on the census returns as living at Roves Farm, Sevenhampton where she is described as a servant. Farmer Herbert Haine and his wife Edith have two young children and it is likely Ellen’s work was of a domestic nature.

By 1923 Ellen had moved to 28 Avenue Road, Swindon where she worked as a dressmaker and lived with various siblings across the years. In 1939 she lived there with her brother Quigley and sister Ella. It was there that she died aged 72 in April 1946.

And here is Ellen Victoria seated between her sister Mary and her niece Violet. Ellen is the daughter buried with her parents in grave plot E8601.

Many thanks to Rhonda in Australia and the late Eric Barrett from Wroughton for information, photos and family memories.

John Oliver Warren – accounts clerk

We’ve already met the Warren family on this blog. John was the younger brother of Lilium Lancifolium Warren, infact, she was named as a witness at his wedding in 1915 and when he died in 1930 she was awarded probate of his will.

John was born on September 27, 1886, the son of Alfred Warren, a goods guard, and his wife Marcellina.

His employment records with the GWR reveal he began work on May 5, 1902 and as his obituary states ‘he had been in the Company’s service for 28 years, the whole of which time he had spent in the accounts section.’

He married Frances Alice Iles at St. Paul’s Church, Swindon on April 12, 1915 and served in WWI. Unfortunately his military records are incomplete and all that survive indicate that he served as an Acting Sergeant in the Royal Army Medical Corps and that he was discharged on July 11, 1919.

His many friends will learn with regret of the death of Mr. J.O. Warren, of the Chief Mechanical Engineer’s Department, accounts section, Swindon, who died on January 20, after a short illness. Mr. Warren was 43 years of age and had been in the Company’s service for 28 years, the whole of which time he had spent in the accounts section. He leaves a widow and one little girl, and his loss is greatly deplored by his colleagues, many of whom attended the funeral on January 24.

Great Western Railway Magazine March 1930.

John Oliver Warren died on January 20, 1930 and was buried in grave plot E7367 where he joined his baby daughter Marjorie Olive who died in 1916 and his wife Frances Alice who died in 1926.

Richard Renwick Pattison – another story from St. Mark’s churchyard

It is seldom possible to read the words of our working-class ancestors, after all, what time was there to write diaries or even letters, but there is one source where occasionally we can hear their voice and that is in contemporary local newspapers.

In 1874 Richard Renwick Pattison retired from the Great Western Railway Company after a career spanning more than thirty years and the men with whom he had worked all that time had a whip round.

Richard Renwick Pattison was born in Houghton le Spring, Durham in 1819, the son of Christopher and Jane (Renwick) Pattison. He married Sarah Bellwood in Heighington, Durham on December 31, 1839 and by 1843 they had moved to Swindon, the new railway town in Wiltshire.

The GWR records state that Richard R. Pattison, engineer and fitter, was the third foreman of the Erecting Shops appointed in 1843 alongside Thomas Atkinson and Walter Mather. He is recorded as being a member of the team who erected the first engine built at the works, the “Premier,” completed in under two weeks in 1846 and later renamed the Great Western.

When Richard retired in 1874 the Swindon Advertiser covered his testimonial in some length:-

‘On Saturday week, the workmen employed in the B Shed, over which Mr. Pattison had been foreman, presented him with a silver inkstand and a very handsome writing desk, nearly all the men and lads in the department having contributed to the testimonial fund.

The subscribers and friends having been assembled in the B Shed, at the close of the day’s work, the desk and inkstand were duly presented to Mr Pattison by Mr Evans, accompanied by a few brief remarks expressive of the feelings which had dictated the offering, and hoping that the recipient of it might be spared to enjoy it, retaining always the good-will of those over whom for so many years he had acted as foreman.’

Richard then took to the floor and gave the following address:

‘I need not tell you how pleasing it is to my feelings to have this mark of respect shown to me on our separation, for it is really more than I could have expected, for I have done nothing more than to fulfil my duty as a foreman between master and man, and which duty I have endeavoured to fulfil impartially, and without favour. If I have in any way failed in this it has been an error in judgement. But, really, a foreman’s position is the most difficult to properly fulfil that I know of, for what with engines, masters, men, and those confounded boys – a toad under a harrow has a more comfortable life.

However, I may truly tell you all one thing, and that is, that I have never made one favourite in the shop, and those amongst you who have been promoted or raised one step higher up the ladder, have been promoted entirely through your own merit; at least so far as my judgement and conscience enabled me to judge fairly between you. And I am proud to say that there is not a shop in the kingdom that can surpass us for steady good workmen.

Another thing I should like to refer to, and it is this; we have had less change of men than in any other shop, and I sincerely hope this state of things will continue. And I have every reason to believe it will, for I have no doubt my successor will do all he can to pursue the same path; and I hope this splendid testimonial will be an inducement to him so to act, that should the day come when he shall be enabled to retired from his work, he also may receive a similar reward or mark of respect.

Now, fellow workmen, let me once more seriously thank you for this splendid testimonial and mark of respect which I shall highly prize, and which I hope may be handed down by my children for generations to come. But before we part I should like to ask one favour of you all, and that is forgiveness for past hard words, which perhaps was my greatest sin. But then, when you had the word you had the worst. There was no after sting or malice, for that is a thing unknown to me; and I am pleased to be able to say that I take farewell of you all with the best and kindest feelings and wishes, and I assure you I feel the separation more than I can express.’

That same evening the members of the testimonial committee entertained Richard at the Queen’s Arms Hotel. Following a toast to his health Richard spoke a few words, reminiscing on his time in the Works, saying ‘there were one or two things he should like to refer to, because they formed the foundation of his success.’ He went on to say that he had always kept his time in the works and that he could honestly say that for the first two years of his being at New Swindon he never lost ten minutes, and when, after he had been there about three years he lost his first quarter, he thought it would have broken his heart. He and a companion were talking and did not hear the bell ring, and this put him behind, and he could assure them he had never forgotten the circumstance.

He continued – another thing was this: whenever he had a pound he put it by – he put it in a building society, and in fourteen years it became two. This was a point he had always carried out: whenever he could save a pound he saved it, and when he had once saved a pound he never afterwards spent it, but left I to make more.’

The Works foremen had huge power and influence and were not the best loved of colleagues, but it would seem that Richard Pattison might have been of a different mould, for he received not just one, but two testimonials.

‘On Saturday afternoon last, after the day’s work in the shop, the boiler makers employed in the same department, but under another foreman, presented Mr Pattison with another testimonial, consisting of a silver goblet, and a pair of gold eye glasses.’

Again, we have the opportunity to read the words of Richard:

‘Mr Amos, Mr Sharps, and fellow workmen: This mark of respect is truly more than I could expect of you, for it is no secret that we have been continually at war with each other – my shop against the boilersmiths’ shop. But then it was only a friendly war in our effort to get the company’s work forward. You all know that your esteemed foreman (Mr Sharps), always liked to steal a march over the fitters, and then he quietly enjoyed a laugh at us. But then, we not unfrequently had our laugh at the blessed boilermakers. However, it is very gratifying to find that in our struggle to get the company’s work done we have preserved good fellowship, which is due in a great measure to your good and valuable foreman, Mr Sharps, whom you ought all to esteem, for he is truly a good man.

Now, my friends, you will not expect a long speech from me, but I must again express my sincere thanks for this splendid testimonial and mark of respect, and I wish the goblet had been full of wine so that I might have drunk all your healths. However, I hope you will all have an opportunity of drinking out of it yet, for I hope to have many a quaff from it in memory of bye gone days in the B shop, and of my kind friends there. (Loud and long continued cheering).’

Sadly, after so many years hard work, Richard Pattison did not enjoy a long retirement. He died aged 60 at his home in Sheppard Street on December 4, 1879 and was buried in the churchyard at St Mark’s.

Archie Bown – Swindon Town FC player

The names of James Thomas Bown and his wife Mary Jane may not mean much to you. He was a clerk in the Works and she was a wife and mother. She was probably a lot of other things as well but wife and mother are the roles we know her by on official documents.

They married on August 20, 1881 at St. Mark’s Church and had four children of whom three survived to adulthood.

Now the Swindon Town football fans among you may have heard of their eldest son Archibald James William Bown. Born on July 22, 1882 Archibald entered the Works on January 11, 1897 as a draughtsman in the Carriage Department. It was something of an inauspicious start. Written in the margin of his employment records on February 24, 1897 was the comment ‘unsatisfactory character.’ He had been at work less than 2 weeks and was just 15 years old. He would show them!

Archie played his first game for Swindon Town on February 10, 1902 – an away game at West Ham. He didn’t score a goal – not that day. In a career that spanned 12 seasons Archie played a total of 291 games in which he scored 142 goals. He remains the Town’s fifth highest goal scorer in the club’s history.

In 1906 he married Beatrice Annie Scott and in 1911 the couple lived at 37 Roseberry Street with their two daughters Gladys and Trissie. Throughout his career with Swindon Town Archie continued to work as an Engine Fitter in the Works.

He also played for Swindon Casuals, Whiteheads, Southampton (as a guest) Bristol City and Weymouth where he ended his career and opened his own Sports Department. He died in 1958.

Archie’s parents continued to live in Swindon at various addresses including Commercial Road, County Road and Cumberland Road where Mary Jane died in December 1938. She was buried on December 26 in Radnor Street Cemetery, grave plot B2843. James married Alice Knee in 1944. He died three years later aged 87 years and was buried with his first wife on October 10, 1947.

It is also believed that Archie was related to athlete James Kibblewhite whose story featured on this blog recently. His grandfather was James Kibblewhite Bown born in 1836. More research is required to establish the connection kindly provided by Andrew Griffiths.

Meet the Margetts family

When the churchyard at St. Mark’s was forced to close to new burials in 1881 it came as a great sadness to the railway families of New Swindon. During Victorian times death was a large part of life; there were funeral rituals to observe and traditions to be kept and large, municipal cemeteries were not so common outside the big cities. But now Swindon was to have one and the first families to have moved here in the 1840s were to be separated in death.

During my recent walk around the churchyard I came across the grave of George and Susannah Margetts. George was born in Buckingham in 1783 just as the Industrial Revolution was picking up pace and more than 50 years before the birth of New Swindon.

In 1841 George was landlord at The Ship in Wantage, Berkshire where he lived with his second wife Susannah and five of his 10 children. But by the late 1840s he had arrived in Swindon where the family lived in Exeter Street. Aged 67 he was working as a carpenter, presumably in the Works as he lived in one of the company houses. Still living with his parents was youngest son Samuel, an apprentice boilermaker.

Another son, Jesse, had also arrived in Swindon where he married Martha Townsend at St. Margaret’s church in Stratton St. Margaret on Christmas Eve, 1849. In 1851 he was living in Taunton Street with Martha and their 10 month old daughter named Susannah after his mother. Jesse worked as a labourer, again presumably in the Works as he too lived in the railway village. Jesse and Martha went on to have a large family of at least 10, possibly 12, children.

The first person buried in the St Marks grave plot was not George, but that of his six year old granddaughter Ellen, one of Jesse and Martha’s children, who died in 1862. There was obviously money enough to buy this plot and in due course an elegant headstone – not every family could afford this as is evident by the paucity of memorials in the churchyard. George died in 1868 having attained the impressive age of 85. His wife Susannah died in 1871.

When Jesse’s wife Martha died in 1885 she was buried in the new Swindon Cemetery, which later became known as Radnor Street Cemetery. She was buried in grave plot E8294.

Jesse quickly married again and in 1891 is living at 72 Albion Street with his second wife Eliza and his youngest son John who is employed as a boilermaker in the Works.

Eliza Margetts, Jesse’s second wife, died in 1904 and was buried in grave plot E7886.

When Jesse died the following year he had the choice of two wives and two burial spaces. He chose to be buried with his second wife Eliza. The remaining space in this grave was later occupied by his sister Rosa who died in 1920.

Sadly, the inscription on Martha’s headstone had partially disintegrated but the burial registers reveal that she does not lie here alone. Her son, also named Jesse, died in 1916 and was buried here with his mother.

I’m sure further research will discover plenty more members of the Margetts family buried in Radnor Street Cemetery, and maybe some at St. Mark’s before the churchyard was closed in 1881.