ENGINEERS AT REST
Documenting the final resting places of our most beloved CMEs
We revere steam locomotives, but what about their creators? Steam Railway has compiled this list of the great men - their birthplaces, their railways and where they died - and talks to one man who is showing his respect by restoring their final resting places
The North Eastern Railway… Darlington Works… The name Sir Vincent Raven will always be associated with locomotives that enjoyed long careers in the Durham and Northumberland coalfields and worked rural passenger branches that linked into the East Coast Main Line. But what about the man himself? He wouldn’t have spoken in a Geordie accent, but quite possibly broad Norfolk as he was born over 200 miles away in deepest East Anglia. He died while on holiday in Felixstowe, Suffolk in 1934, and his family decided against burial near his beloved Gateshead works, but opted for cremation instead. His NER predecessors, the Worsdell father and son dynasty of Thomas and Wilson, were not North Easterners either, hailing from Liverpool and Crewe respectively, and laid to rest many miles away in Lancashire and Berkshire. Realising that being appointed as the Chief Mechanical Engineer of any railway often had very little to do with where they originally came from creates an emotional conflict between the long-held loyalties of railwaymen (and Steam Railway readers) for a particular territory. Oliver Bulleid, for example, had very little to do with the West Country or indeed life south of London’s King’s Cross station before he was appointed to the Southern Railway in 1937. Having been born in New Zealand, he lived as a child in Wales, was educated in Accrington in Lancashire, and spent much of his working life with the LNER based at Doncaster. When he died in 1970, he was living in Malta and was buried there, the only CME neither born nor interred in Britain. Prompted by SR reader Stephen Walsh’s fascination with discovering the final resting places of famous engineers - and admitting that he was several dozen short of a complete catalogue of locations - we decided to conduct some additional research ourselves, and share our findings with our readers. We haven’t quite completed the task, and look forward to your observations to try and produce a definitive list. Some graveyard locations are, of course, well known. Over the years, we have reported on the
restoration of the cemetery stones of the LNER’s Sir Nigel Gresley at Netherseale in Derbyshire, and the LSWR’s Dugald Drummond at Brookwood in Surrey. Only last year, there was a national discussion on the ethics of moving the remains of the Great Western Railway’s Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who is the subject of a planned £7 million museum in Bristol intended to recapture his innovative spirit for a modern audience. Yet his tomb at Kensal Green in London has been the subject of an exhumation order, because it sits 100ft over the preferred route of the HS2 high speed line from London to the north. Stephen Walsh wants people to pay some attention to the individuals behind Britain’s steam legacy by showing consideration for their resting places. “I have been researching great CMEs and their burial places for some time,” says Stephen. “I was disappointed to find that the first grave I located was in a poor state: half-buried kerbstones and overgrown with grass and weeds. These were all great men in their time, many with OBEs and some with knighthoods.” The contribution of these figures to railways is unquestionable, feels Stephen. “I believe that their graves should reflect some of their stature in life,” he says. “We should be able to spend a little time and effort to keep these memorials clean and tidy.” Stephen’s is a line of thinking that is only just coming into being, in a time of growing appreciation of social history and Britain’s industrial past. So far, he’s mostly worked alone to track down the resting places of steam’s great minds. “Finding the graves can be quite a task, requiring many e-mails, telephone calls and archive searches,” he says. “Fortunately, my wife has an interest in genealogy, so her input has been invaluable.”
Maunsell’s rest
The first grave Stephen found was that of Richard Maunsell - chief mechanical engineer of the Southern Railway until 1937 - in Ashford, Kent. “It was in a sorry state,” he says, “but I spoke to the council and they said I could tidy it up, but add nothing nor take anything away to be replaced. So that’s what I did.” Stephen paid for someone to set the stonework right and clean it. He intends to go back from time to time, to keep it tidy. “I have just discovered William Dean’s [GWR chief mechanical engineer from 1877-1902] location too, and have yet to make a start on the tidying process,” he says. It is not a free-for-all of course, and it is essential to consult the owner of the cemetery before undertaking any work. Cemeteries may be the responsibility of a local authority and visitors are bound by regulations. On church land, it is normally the duty of the parochial church council to maintain graves in good order, and it may take a dim view of unauthorised interference because it may wish to contact the family first. Nevertheless, offers of help are generally welcome. Says Stephen: “Please, if a grave is near to you, go along. If it’s scruffy, spend ten minutes cleaning it up.” We have been fascinated by some of our own discoveries. The LNER’s Edward Thompson, successor to Sir Nigel Gresley, is also something of a mystery, but we can confirm that he was cremated at Wrexham following his death in town in 1954. Legend has it that he requested the service be carried out with nobody in attendance except for those in accordance with rites. Others laid to rest outside ‘familiar territory’ include the Lancashire & Yorkshire’s George Hughes (Berwick, Cambs), the Great Northern’s Henry Ivatt (Cuckfield, Sussex), the Great Central’s John Robinson (Bournemouth), the LNWR’S Charles Bowen-Cooke (Roseland, Cornwall), the LBSCR’s Douglas Earle Marsh (Salle, Norfolk), and the NER’s Wilson Worsdell (South Ascot, Berkshire).