Remembering rail worker’s amazing 72 years’ service
PLANS are under way to commemorate the centenary next month of the death of a Derby railwayman who spent 72 years of uninterrupted service with the same company.
Newton Hibbert was 85 when he died on November 1, 1921. Now a plaque has been re-sited to mark the anniversary of his passing, and it is hoped that the city’s 21st-Century train makers will also mark the occasion.
On October 22 that year, Mr Hibbert left his home in Haddon Street, Derby, to go for a shave. That afternoon, William Charrington, a nurseryman working in gardens at The Glebe, between Whittaker Road and Porter Road, heard an unfamiliar noise. He ran to the road, where he found a man lying unconscious on the pavement. It was Newton Hibbert. An ambulance was called but, nine days later, Mr Hibbert died from “apoplexy”.
His remarkable story is told on the website of the Midland Railway Study Centre, a partnership between Derby Museum and the Midland Railway Society.
Mr Hibbert, the eldest of six siblings, grew up in the Lodge Lane area of the town, and worked as a Silk Mill hand before, at around the age of 13, finding employment as a labourer at the Midland Railway’s Carriage and Wagon Works in Litchurch Lane.
Widowed twice, after his second wife died he moved from the family home in Uttoxeter Old Road to live with his newly-married eldest daughter, Harriet, in Haddon Street. Records show that his final day at work as a fitter at the Midland Railway was October 21, 1921, the day before he collapsed in the street. It means that he had clocked up more than seven decades of uninterrupted service with the company.
He was laid to rest at Nottingham Road cemetery on November 4, 1921. Reporting his funeral, the Derby Daily Telegraph described him to be “considered to be one of the oldest railway employees in the kingdom” and said that “the interment took place amid manifestations of great regret, a good number of his fellow workers preceding the hearse”.
An inquest held on the same day as Mr Hibbert’s funeral was told that he had first been taken to the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary but was then moved to the Derby Union Workhouse Infirmary “as the case was thought to be a suitable one for the latter institution … deceased seemed stupid and dazed and could give no account of himself ”.
Of course, he had suffered a stroke. A verdict of death from natural causes was returned.
Dave Harris, the co-ordinator of the Midland Railway Study Centre, said: “We intend to mark the anniversary of his passing. After his death, his workmates commissioned a plaque, and, as a first step, this now has pride of place in the Railways Revealed gallery of the new Museum of Making at the Silk Mill. Visitors can view it and reflect on what Newton Hibbert’s story represents as they also enjoy the magnificent model railway that dominates the space.”
Kevin Owen, who works for train maker Alstom, which is headquartered at the Litchurch Lane works where Mr Hibbert began his long association with Derby’s railway industry, is hopeful that it, too, will acknowledge the anniversary: “His was the most amazing career, spending over 70 years with the same company.
“It would be fitting if today’s company could also do something to mark the centenary of his death.” More information can be found on www.midlandrailwaystudycentre.org.uk/NewtonHibbert.htm
The interment took place amid manifestations of great regret. Derby Daily Telegraph