Privilege and penalties of travelling first class

sir – In the Thirties, Weymouth grammar school did not accept the sons of tradesmen. Consequently, a large number of us travelled daily by rail to Dorchester, where the local grammar school was less choosy.

At peak travel times – in order to relieve congestion in the corridors, and on promise of good behaviour – the train guards would shepherd us into the otherwise empty first-class compartments. In subsequent years my late brother, a commander in the Navy, applied the same principle while commuting to the Admiralty in civilian clothes on the Brighton line.

As you reported at the time, he was fined a considerable sum. How vindicated he would feel now.

Roy Hawkes

Teignmouth, Devon