First black driver commemorated

A PLAQUE has been unveiled at King’s Cross to commemorate Britain’s first black train driver. Wilston Samuel Jackson began driving in 1962, and went on to drive famous trains such as ‘The Flying Scotsman’ and ‘The Elizabethan’. Wilston was born in Jamaica in 1927 but moved to London in 1952 to join Britain’s efforts to rebuild after the Second World War. He started as a locomotive cleaner before rising through the ranks to fireman and then driver. A rail accident in 1966 broke both his legs, but he recovered to rejoin the railways before moving to Zambia, He passed away in September 2018 aged 91.