Great Western Society mourns founding member Graham Perry
GRAHAM PERRY, one of the Great Western Society’s founding members, died on February 9, just a few weeks short of his 80th birthday.
Graham, along with schoolfriends Jon Barlow, Angus Davies and Mike Peart launched a fund in 1961 to preserve a ‘14XX’ 0-4-2T for posterity, as one had not been included on the British Transport Commission’s list of locomotives to be preserved. Graham served as the society’s treasurer from its inception in 1962 and, in April 1964, the society purchased No. 1466, which is expected to return to steam for the first time since 2000 at a special event at Didcot Railway Centre on May 10-12.
Graham then took over as chairman of the GWS in 1968, by which time the society had started moving its growing collection into the former GWR steam shed at Didcot. Paying tribute, the GWS said: “There were many highlights during those years with Graham in charge: No. 1466 being allowed out of the engine shed in 1968 to run on the Wallingford branch line, despite British Rail’s steam ban; and the first open days at Didcot in 1969. The Vintage Train of the 1970s, plus the construction of the carriage shed. The continuing development of Didcot Railway Centre in the 1980s, with the Transfer Shed and broad gauge. Then, in 1985, the 150th anniversary of the Great Western Railway with Didcot providing the main event.
“The 1990s brought major new-build projects, with
Fire Fly under construction, 6023 King Edward II moving to Didcot for restoration, and the ‘Saint’ rebuild commenced. Graham also drove the project in the 1990s for the organisation to go beyond merely being a railway by gaining Museums Registration (now Museums Accreditation).”
Graham served as GWS chairman until 2001, when he handed over the reins to Richard Croucher. In 2002, Graham was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for “services to railway heritage.”