It's Who Knows You - Promotion Amongst Victorian Railway Clerks

Britain’s railways have two stories that run like a thread through them. On the one hand, there were the events that took place in the head offices and amongst senior managers that shaped what actually happened on the railways. On the other, there were the myriad of stories that played out at stations, yards and on trains around the network amongst railway employees. Therefore, the role of the railway historian is to either choose to focus on one aspect of these tales, or, to look at their interaction.

This fact was brought to mind when, on visiting the National Railway Museum’s (NRM) archive on Monday, I looked at a book by W. Buckmaster called Railway Reminiscences. Produced after his retirement in 1937, this small pamphlet detailed his career as a member of the clerical staff of the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) and his subsequent rise into management. Indeed, it was his management activities that consistently brought to my mind the diary of another L&SWR clerk, Sam Fay (Shown), which I have in my possession. What was interesting was that Buckmaster showed how senior managers approached the promotion of clerks within the company, while Fay’s diary starkly detailed the strains, pressures and hopes that clerks had while trying to gain these promotions. Thus, what I have now is a view of promotion amongst the L&SWR’s clerical staff from those being promoted and those doing promoting.

Buckmaster started his L&SWR career in 1875 when he became a clerk in the company’s Goods Department. After spending seven years at what he called his ‘home station,’ he then became a clerk at a ‘busy goods depot’ for another seven. He then spent three years as a relief clerk, was posted at the Superintendent of the Line’s office in around 1892 and was appointed ‘Chief of the Traffic Department Staff’ a few years later.

Thus, for the five years that Buckmaster was in this post he was the man who best understood the Traffic Department’s staff from a management perspective, gaining ‘a thorough insight’ into the staff’s ‘character, temperament, disposition etc.’ Thus, with such knowledge he was seemingly the one who had control over clerks’ career paths as it enabled him to ‘form an opinion as to their fitness and ability to undertake other and more responsible duties as and when vacancies occurred.’ Subsequently, he controlled ‘to a great extent their destinies.’[1] This suggests that single senior managers had the most say in who was promoted within the Traffic Department. Furthermore, the recommendations that these managers made as to who should be promoted were simply based on their subjective opinions of individuals’ suitability to fill vacancies.

But what about the process clerks went through in applying for jobs? While some were clearly approached directly to fill positions within the Traffic department by senior management, as Buckmaster himself was,[2] evidence from Sam Fay’s diary, written during his time as a clerk in Kingston, shows how the L&SWR’s clerical staff went about applying for positions (If you would like to know more about Fay’s life at the time see HERE.)

Firstly, within the company there was seemingly a network whereby individuals would acquire knowledge about vacancies, whether it were through letters, news stories or through word of mouth. Thus, on the 25th February 1878 Fay, who was looking to advance his career at this point, ‘asked Mr Pettit [the station master] on Friday if he had any objection to my applying for Queen's Road as I heard the Chief Clark was about to leave.’[3] Additionally, in April 1879 F. Mears, Agent at Bournemouth died. Such was the dissemination of this knowledge that Fay reported that there was ‘over 100 applications for the latter job.’[4] Of course, occasionally information regarding potential opportunities was received too late for vacancies to be applied for. When in November 1879 a vacancy came up at Reading, Fay applied. However, a Mr Goffe in the General Manager’s office replied to Fay’s application stating that ‘Stacey late agent at Midhurst had been appointed there.’[5]

However, what is evident from diary is that while there was an internal labour market, whereby individuals applied for jobs en masse and competed for vacant positions, a clerk’s chances were more likely to be shaped by the knowledge that those above them in the management hierarchy had. Indeed, this confirms Buckmaster’s assertion that senior managers were key to clerks’ promotional prospects. In October 1878 Fay ‘asked the governor his opinion about applying for vacancies caused by the opening of Holsworthy line.’ However, because Petit was ‘strongly against [him] applying,’ he gave up the idea.[6] Indeed, there is evidence that Station Agents had some sway over who left their stations and on the 25th February 1878 Fay ‘asked Mr Pettit on Friday if he had any objection to my applying for Queen's Road as I heard the Chief Clark was about to leave.’[7] Lastly, in August 1879 Fay himself went up to see the company’s General Manager, Archibald Scott, about a vacancy at Andover if ‘Lawrence goes to Midhurst.’[8]

Thus, Fay’s superiors, from his direct line manager, Petit, to the General Manager of the company, Scott, all played a part in advancing or holding his back is career. Therefore, within the late Victorian railway company, while competition for posts clearly existed, career advancement was more dependent on how superiors thought of individuals, how aware they were of them within the organisation, and their subjective opinion of their abilities. Indeed, this puts a ‘human’ element into the studies of social mobility within the Victorian railway, which have seemingly only seen career advancement as a logical outcome of good education and start-of-life opportunities. Indeed, this small study has shown that it wasn’t always what you knew or who you knew that got you advanced, rather, it was who knew you that sometimes did the trick.

[1] Buckmaster, W. Railway Reminiscences, (London, 1937), p.7
[2] Buckmaster, Railway Reminiscences, p.4
[3] William Fay Collection [WFC], Sam Fay's Diary, Monday, 25th February 1878
[4] WFC, Sam Fay's Diary, Tuesday, 22nd April 1879
[5] WFC, Sam Fay's Diary, Tuesday, 28th November 1879
[6] WFC, Sam Fay's Diary, Wednesday, 16th October 1878
[7] WFC, Sam Fay's Diary, Wednesday, 16th October 1878
[8] WFC, Sam Fay's Diary, Monday, 25th February 1878

Love, Leisure and Rowing - The Pleasures of a Railway Clerk in Kingston in 1878

As the last blog post that I wrote on the diary of Sam Fay generated so much interest, I thought I’d just do a general piece about it as it is not a something that could be published (at only 47 pages long). However, it is probably one of the few examples of a personal diary from the late Victorian period that is just a record of everyday events. Apart from one important set of entries pertaining to a major event in the history of the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR), the contents to the author must have been quite mundane. Yet, for the social historian it is a fascinating insight into the lives of individuals who, like you and I, were just trying to go about their lives.

But first, a little bit about Sam Fay, one of Britain’s great railwaymen. He was born in Hamble-le-rice in Hampshire in 1856 to Joshua Fay, a farmer. He went to Blenheim House School in Fareham, and because his farther had contacts within the L&SWR’s Audit Office, joined the company as a junior clerk at Itchen Abbas station in 1872. After moving around various stations in 1876 he was posted to Kingston, and after some time there he was moved into the Traffic Superintendent’s office in 1884 as second clerk. Soon he was promoted to Chief Clerk and was eventually removed to the Storekeeper’s Department, becoming the Storekeepers Assistant in 1891.[2] He resigned a year later take up the post of General Manager on the ailing Midland and South Western Junction Railway. After turning the company around, was appointed the L&SWR’s Superintendent of the Line in 1899, staying only three years before becoming General Manager of the Great Central Railway (GCR) in 1901. He retired from the post in 1922. In his time at the GCR, he had also been deputy of the Railway Executive Committee (REC), that run Britain’s Railways in World War One, and in 1917 was appointed Director of Movements for the War Office.[3] For more information, read the Wikipedia page, however, for now, let us go back to 1878 when Fay was working at Kingston.

Fay was in love. Frances Ann Farbrother, or ‘Trottie’ as Fay called her, being the object of his affections. He wrote on the Sunday 10^th January that ‘I seem to love her more and more, not so passionately perhaps, but with a purer, holier love than of yore.’[4] Evidently, by 1878, Frances was part of Fay’s fantasies about the future; ‘in sober moments,’ he commented ‘my thoughts plan out my future, they make me chief clerk at some good station with my darling Trottie, in charge of a small country station and eventually of a large one – “man proposes but God disposes.”’[5]

They had been courting for some time, and by May they were engaged. However, this was seemingly behind his family’s back. A diary entry about a potential visit to his family in Hampshire, states that he had sent a letter to his father asking whether he was allowed to bring Frances with him. He wrote, ‘he [father] does not know Trottie and I are engaged, the result will be a row.’[6] It is clear that there was something amiss in Victorian society against engagements occurring without the family being aware. His father wrote back that Trottie was welcome to visit and stay as long as she wished. Indeed, his mother ‘will also be delighted to meet my friend.’ Evidently, until it was official in the eyes of the family, a friend was all Frances would be.[7] Ultimately, Fay’s fears about the secrecy of his engagement seem to be unfounded, and it is clear that Frances was soon absorbed as part of the family. When the visit finally came in early June ‘Trottie got on first rate with all of them.’[8]

Sport was one of Fay’s great loves. I have written in this blog about football amongst railwaymen, however, it seems that Fay was a regular player of an early version Rugby Football. On the 16^th January he played against the Clarendon Club at Kingston, who ‘got one try the best of us.’ Indeed, Fay was ‘ducedly knocked about, a good kick in the shins, a bloody nose and various knocks and ugly tumbles.’[9]On the 16^th March he played against Kings College and ‘beat them by one goal and a try.’[10] Yet, ‘Football,’ as he called was not as important to Fay as rowing, a love affair that was started on 20^th March when he was elected a member of Kingston rowing club.[11] Once elected, this seemingly consumed his free time, ‘Trottie doesn’t like this rowing business because it keeps me away from her rather late.’[12] However, rowing was seemingly done by most of the clerical staff at the station, including Osborne, a fellow Clerk,[13] and Mr Petit, the Station Agent.[14] Thus, it may have been a social norm that members of the salaried staff at Kingston joined the rowing club. Once rowing, Fay competed in regattas against his fellows at the club,[15] as well as against teams from others.[16] In the winter, when things were more sedate, ice skating was the order of the day. And on Christmas Day Fay and Walter, Frances’ brother, went skating in Bushy Park.[17]

Entertainment beyond sport did not seem to be a great part of Fay’s life, probably because of the lack of theatres or music halls in Kingston at the time. On the 12^th February did Fay and Frances go to the ‘Drill Hall,’[18] whatever that was. However, London seemed to be where Fay went to be entertained. In August he went with someone called John for some ‘music’ in London, after which he had some ‘lager beer and a glass of good wine at a House on the Strand where they keep it on draught.’[19] Two days later, he visited the Criterion Theatre, with John and Walter, and saw ‘Pink Dominos,’ which he ‘enjoyed very much.’[20] This was followed by a tip with Frances to the Alhambra Theatre which he did not find so agreeable.[21] In mid-November the fair came to Kingston and on the evening of the 13^th Fay strolled around with his fellow clerk, Osborne. It seems this caused a disagreement with Frances who wished to go. In his diary Fay commented that he did not take her because ‘I do not consider it a proper place for females to go.’[22] What it was about the fair that led Fay to this conclusion is unknown. However, what this entry does reflect is the trend that shines through in the diary, that Frances’ social life was very much tied to that of Fay’s and that she had little say in her social activities. Thus, the diary reveals the patriarchal nature of Victorian society and the social positions that men and women were expected to take at the time.

Socialising with others, whether it was with Frances, Fay’s friends, fellow club-members or relatives, was a big part of his life. It is clear that he did a lot of walking with people, ‘went for a walk round Surbiton with Trottie in the afternoon to Ham Church.’[23] Indeed, it seems a lot of this ‘walking’ took place in the local area and included Ham, Surbiton, and the local tourist attraction of Hampton Court. ‘For a walk with Trottie to Hampton Court in the afternoon, got caught in a snow storm, it also blew a hurricane and as we came over Bushy Park it nearly blew us off our legs.’[24] In October Fay ‘went up to Uncles in the evening sung a few hymns, smoked a cigar or two done a glass of whisky and home to bed.’[25]

However, aside from these leisurely activities there were parties to attend. In May Mrs Gardiner of the Adelaide Inn in Teddington (a pub I have frequented many a time) got married to Mr Craddock, a grocer from Kingston market place. Fay rather annoyed Frances by having several dances at the reception with ‘Miss Tilbury, Miss Hall, Miss Louie Gardiner and Miss Dawn.’ Indeed, it seems that she was most annoyed by Fay ‘doing a step with young Gardiner.’ However, things were soon smoothed over as they ‘had a stroll around the garden with the Old Lady [Frances] about midnight.’[26] In late October it was the rowing club dinner hosted by the Mayor of Kingston and the menu was quite special; ‘turbot and oyster sauce, then stewed eels, turkey and sausages, a leg of fowl, a half a partridge, then some hare, jelly, cheese and celery, finishing with desert; a bottle of Hock, 2 quart bottles of pale ale, 2 bottles of champagne between the four of us.’ Indeed this was accompanied by some ‘speeches and songs’ to what Fay called a very ‘select party.’[27] Celebration, of major events or just parties, was clearly a part of the social life of a railway clerk.

I think sometimes we are quick to see the Victorians, especially what would be termed ‘respectable individuals,’ as being very stoic and boring. While from the diary it is clear that Sam Fay worked very hard at his job, it is also evident that he had a very rich life in Kingston engaging in sport, entertainment, tourism, leisure and love. Indeed, I have not included everything that Fay did in 1878 as this would double the length of this post. Overall, Fay never seemed to complain about his life and remained positive about what was in his future. In many ways, Sam Fay was just like you or I, trying to get on in the world, trying to be happy and having a good time as he went.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Fay

[2] The National Archives [TNA], RAIL 411/492, Clerical staff character book No. 2, 1838 – 1919, p.711

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Fay

[4] Bill Fay Collection [BFC], Sam Fay Diary, 10^th January 1878

[5] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 11^th March 1878

[6] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 16^th May 1878

[7] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 22^nd May 1878

[8] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 7^th June 1878

[9] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 16^th January 1878

[10] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 16^th March 1878

[11] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 20^th March 1878

[12] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 7^th May 1878

[13] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 12^th June 1878

[14] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 4^th April 1879

[15] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 3^rd July 1878

[16] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 1^st August 1878

[17] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 25^th December 1878

[18] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 12^th March 1878

[19] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 27^th August 1878

[20] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 29^th August 1878

[21] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 28^th October 1878

[22] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 13^th November 1878

[23] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 10^th January 1878

[24] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 24^th March 1878

[25] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 6^th October 1878

[26] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 13^th May 1878

[27] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 30^th October 1878

Victorian Railway Employees Complaining About Victorian Railway Employees

Having been employed in a number of different workplaces over the years, the one constant that I have encountered is that those individuals that I work with will, invariably, talk about their colleagues. This is part of the natural ebb and flow of the office, factory or anywhere else where Homo sapiens toil. Therefore, it is unsurprising that the Victorian railway employer did the same, complaining about other employees’ behind their backs. Evidence of this day to day activity is hard to find, however, the diary of Sam Fay (shown), which records his life as a clerk on the London and South Western Railway at Kingston Station between 1878 and 1881, details the many occasions when railway workers got irritated by their co-workers. Furthermore, on reviewing the diary, it has brought home to me that in some respects that the people of the 19^th century were just like us.

While I presume complaints were made by railway employees against their direct superiors, the senior management seem to come in for a rough time in the diary. On the 5^th of April 1878 Fay took a stroll to Teddington Station to see the staff there.[1] Shortly before changes had occurred in the Telegraph Department and it's head, Mr Blake, had been replaced by a newcomer Mr Goldstone. Clearly, Blake had run his department in quite a relaxed manner. On arrival Fay had a ‘jaw’ with Goddard, a fellow clerk who was of a similar seniority to him having been with the company the same amount of time.[2] Goddard stated that the clerks were giving Mr Goldstone a bad name. Apparently, he was ‘too sharp to please them and has no favourites like old Blake had.’ Yet, even though Fay had heard the complaints of Goddard, Fay’s assessment of the situation was that Goldstone was the ‘right man in the right place.’[3] Clearly, he did not agree with his colleague’s assessment.

Indeed, at the same point Fay’s career was advancing and was becoming General Manager of the North and South West Junction Railway, in 1892,[4] Goddard was still at Teddington, and was reprimanded for being ‘short in his cash’ to the tune of £36 4s 2d. As a result, he was moved from the station to the Nine Elms Goods Depot.[5] Perhaps, Goddard’s issue in 1878 was that he was no longer the favourite of his superior, an arrangement which previously had hid his own mediocre performance under Blake. Indeed, this factor may have held his career back in later years as Fay’s advanced.

Mr Jacomb had been the L&SWR’s Chief Resident Engineer since 1870, and his remit covered the maintenance of the line and buildings.[6] But, working in a different department to the Kingston Station staff, who were in the Traffic Department, he would have had his own agenda regarding just when and where repairs and alterations were required. Thus, when the Station Agent at Kingston, Petit, stopped Jacomb’s men doing what Fay (and presumably Petit) thought was ‘a lot of unnecessary work,’ the Chief Engineer complained about him. The result was an inter-departmental controversy, for which Fay had to write ‘down three sheets of foolscap to Mr Scott about the affair.’[7] Clearly, inter-departmental resentment and complaining was alive and well.

Yet, it wasn’t only superiors that were in the firing line, and Fay had a run in with one of his colleagues in May 1878. The W.H. Smith bookstall at Kingston was staffed by a man named Compton. Whether this meant that he was employed by the L&SWR or Smiths is unknown. Presumably to save on his own costs, on the 6^th of May, Compton travelled with four persons from Waterloo to Kingston using used tickets he had obtained from the Kingston booking office.[8] Fay, and a fellow Clerk, Osborne, who has been working at the station since 1875,[9] reported this to Mr Pettit. Petit, naturally took action and forced Compton to pay the fares. Fay recorded that Compton thought ‘it a very shabby action on our part, he has circulated a yarn of his own about the town saying nothing of the crew and tickets he had with him, we shall not, I presume, be on speaking terms for some time over it.’[10] Of course, I am only getting Fay’s side of the story on this. However, it is unlikely that this would be the sort of thing that he would make up.

Also, there is a case of Fay simply not liking someone. On Monday 17^th January 1881 he wrote in his diary that he had heard that Wright, who was based at Fulwell, was about to be dismissed. Presumably through nosiness, Fay wrote to the General Manager’s office to ascertain if this was true.[11] Goffe, one of the General Manager’s clerks,[12] wrote back stating that this was not the case. Fay for some reason thought this was unfortunate. The reason he disliked Wright is unknown. However, given that it is known that Fay was a stickler for good management and efficiency, I suspect it was because he perceived Wright to be inefficient.

While Fay did, on occasion, praise his colleagues, the majority of the comments on the quality of others’ work were negative. Thus, these case studies show that while the setting is very different to any modern workplace, the Victorian railway worker had the same complaints about the actions and efficiency of fellow workers as many of us do today.

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[1] Bill Fay Collection [BFC], Sam Fay’s Diary, 5^th April 1878.

[2] The National Archives [TNA], RAIL 411/492, Clerical staff character book No. 2, 1838 – 1919, p.254

[3] BFC, Sam Fay’s Diary, 5^th April 1878.

[4] TNA, ZPER 11/22, South Western Gazette, March 1905, p.9

[5] TNA, RAIL 411/492, Clerical staff character book No. 2, 1838 – 1919, p.254

[6] TNA, ZPER 11/6, South Western Gazette, June 1887, p.90-91

[7] BFC, Sam Fay’s Diary, 28^th May 1878

[8] BFC, Sam Fay’s Diary, 6^th May 1878.

[9] TNA, RAIL 411/492, Clerical staff character book No. 2, 1838 – 1919, p.456

[10] BFC, Sam Fay’s Diary, 6^th May 1878.

[11] BFC, Sam Fay’s Diary, 17^th January 1881

[12] TNA, RAIL 411/492, Clerical staff character book No. 2, 1838 – 1919, p.234

A Victorian 'Railway' Christmas - Parcels, Pastimes, Profit and Poetry

Christmas on the late Victorian railway has not, to my knowledge, been covered at all in the literature. As the railways were the main way to move goods and supplies around in the period, naturally, the festive season was one of the busiest times of year for the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR). 

Clearly, a lot of traffic carried by the company in the weeks before Christmas Day was of a ‘Christmassy’ nature. In January 1888 it was noted that between the 17th and 24th December 1887 the Nine Elms Goods depot handled 6,595 tons of ‘foreign poultry traffic,’ which exceeded over 500 tons in weight.[1] Not unsurprisingly, figures provided by the Gazette show that overall there was a massive growth in goods and passenger traffic on the network in the week before Christmas. In the week ending 16th December 1883 traffic earned the L&SWR £41,356. Yet, in the week ending 23rd December 1883 the company earned £55,979, a 35.6% increase. Lastly, Sam Fay, a clerk at Kingston Station between 1876 and 1882,[2] noted in his diary that in the week before Christmas Day 1880 the traffic was ‘very heavy.’[3]

Within this massive growth of traffic parcels formed a very large part of stations’ work. In the week before Christmas day in 1888, Richmond Station staff received and delivered a staggering 2010 parcels and an extra delivery man had to be employed. [4] Nine years earlier, on Christmas Day 1879, Sam Fay wrote in his diary, ‘Have had to work duced hard this week with the parcels work.’[5] Such was the volume of parcels work, that a clerk at Richmond, W. Morris, wrote a poem in honour of the service which was ‘cleverly reproduced on cut card board, and enframed with variegated holly.’ The poem was as follows:-

May every parcel sent from here
Contain a hearty Chris’mas cheer;
And my those parcels we deliver
Enclose a gift from a cheerful giver;
And lastly, those that we transfer
Contain a wish for a bright new year.[6]

 

Because of the increased traffic in the Christmas season, many extra trains were timetabled and advertisements in newspapers show that these ‘specials’ were run throughout the Christmas period.[7] Additionally, by the 1880s and 90s ‘going to the races’ was a key Bank Holiday activity for many. The L&SWR served many race courses such as Sandown Park, Hurst Park, Kempton Park and Ascot. Thus, the South Western Gazette, the company’s staff magazine, reported in January 1895 that on the Christmas Bank holiday 1894 (presumably Boxing Day) the company put on twelve special trains for the Kempton races.[8]

This growth of traffic meant that while most of the year L&SWR employees would have worked between eight and ten hour days, during the Christmas period many stayed later into the evening to cope with the rush of business. Many were also obliged to work on Christmas Day as many services still operated. A passenger timetable from 1868 states that on ‘Christmas Day the trains on all lines will run as on Sundays, with additional trains as shown on bills which will hereafter be issued.’[9] Furthermore, extra ‘special’ trains on Christmas Day were advertised in the 1880s.[10] Lastly, instructions sent to staff in December 1914 detailing ‘Special arrangements’ for the delivery of parcels traffic on Christmas Day, suggest that throughout the late Victorian period stations were still well staffed on the day.[11] 

What proportion of the staff actually had the whole day off is unclear. However, I suspect most had part off at least. Sam Fay recorded his Christmas Day activities between 1878 and 1881. On Christmas Day 1878 he wrote, ‘On Duty in the Morning, Skating in Bushy Park with Walter in the afternoon, had a convivial in the evening.’[12] A year later he ‘Dined at Mr Farebrother’s.’[13] Lastly, in 1880 Fay had all of Christmas Day off and spent it at his future wife's (Trottie) home.[14]

Presumably, because most L&SWR employees spent so much of the festive season in the workplace, much was done to celebrate there. Stations decorations ranged from what we would consider traditional fare, to the more unusual. The January 1884 edition of the SWG recorded that:-

‘The Christmas decorations of suburban stations are quite up to the standard of past years; Norbiton, as usual, being foremost with an almost endless supply of wreaths, &c., a novelty in the shape of many Chinese lanthorns being added this year. The effect at night is exceedingly pretty, and reflects great credit upon the designers. The Teddington staff have also expended much labour upon their station with capital result.’[15]

Further, the Gazette stated in January 1888 that at Richmond Station the parcels office staff had:

“…vied with their parcel brethren at other stations in the way in which they have recognised this season of the year by wreathing and other decorations on the walls and around the windows of their office; the result has been very successful…a considerable quantity of evergreen has been expended in all decorations of this Richmond parcels office. We hear it is as well as any in the vicinity.’[16]

Another way that the staff expressed the Christmas cheer was through competitions. In 1888 at Wimborne station ‘Messrs A.J. Webb, W. Perkins, A Webb and G.Brake’ ran a prize draw, presumably for local residents. The Gazette noted that ordinarily they were able to give out 100 prizes, but such was the success of the Christmas 1887 draw that they were able to give out 120 in 1888. The bounty they awarded would seem familiar to us, including ‘Turkeys and Geese, tobacco and cigars with various edibles and viands plentifully besprinkled.’[17]

 

It seems that poetry was another way railway employees expressed their feelings over the Christmas period. Charles Marshall, an author of poems that appeared frequently in the Gazette, wrote one which showed, firstly, the patriarchal nature of Victorian society, but also expressed some of the unhappiness that railway workers and their families felt about the fact that the railways were still operating on Christmas Day. It was called ‘The Railway Guard On Christmas Eve’:

She sat beside the cottage fire
Their only offspring in her knee:
He prattled as an infant should,
And seem’d quite full of childish glee.
Yet years stole down the mother’s cheeks –
Tears a wife devoted only feels:
Tears welling from the heart of hearts,
And deep affection firmly seals.

She praye’d for him who she had wed
On Christmas day two years before.
But now was on his engine track
A hundred miles away—or more
A night so fierce is seldom known;
The pelting storm grew still more wild;
While he, with true heroic breast,
Thought of his duty, wife and child.

O’er moss and brake, by glen and glade,
The train with swiftest speed was borne;
The engine driver long’d to be
At home before it was Christmas morn.
His breast with love and hope was fill’d
He heeded little of the storm;
But as he sped on his way
His thoughts were growing still more warm.

His wife at home still vigil kept,
The babe asleep upon her knee;
She listen’d as each foot-fall pass’d
And wish’d that each one might be he
Arriv’d at last, the journey done:
The storm subsided, stars shone bright,
And soon from ev’ry hallowed fane
There burst a merry peal that night.

Then homeward soon he made his way,
And gently tapp’d the window pane;
The bolt’d door was open’d wide,
His wife was in his arms again.
Their wedding day had once more dawn’d,
They kissed their little darling boy;
Then pray’d through coming years that they
Might health and happiness enjoy.[18]

Yet, it should be noted that in the poem the wife’s unhappiness primarily stems from the fact that it was her wedding anniversary the day after, and not that her husband may be working on Christmas Day. Thus, taking this fact into account, and looking back on what has been learnt about Christmas on the L&SWR, it is evident that Christmas Day was not as special for the late Victorians as it is for us. This said, the Victorian period is when much of Christmas as we know it evolved, and there is evidence here of how many of the yuletide traditions that we have today can be traced to that time. Furthermore, I have perhaps also shed some light on how the railways facilitated these traditions’ development, by taking them to all parts of the nation.

Lastly, all there is to say is a very Merry Christmas to all my readers!

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[1] TNA, ZPER 11/7, The South Western Gazette, Jan 1888, p.8

[2] TNA, RAIL 411/492, Clerical staff character book No. 2, p.711

[3] Bill Fay Collection, Sam Fay Diary, 25^th December 1880

[4] TNA, ZPER 11/7, The South Western Gazette, Jan 1888, p.11

[5] Bill Fay Collection, Sam Fay Diary, 25^th December 1879

[6] TNA, ZPER 11/7, The South Western Gazette, Jan 1888, p.11

[7] ‘The Country Gent: A Sporting Gazette and Agricultural Journal.’ December 19^th 1885, p.1616

[8] The National Archives [TNA], ZPER 11/11, The South Western Gazette, Jan 1895, p.8

[9] South Western Circle Collection [SWC], Passenger Timetable, December 1868, p2

[10] ‘The Country Gent: A Sporting Gazette and Agricultural Journal.’ December 19^th 1885, p.1616

[11] SWC, Christmas Parcels Traffic: Special Notice

[12] Bill Fay Collection [BFC], Sam Fay Diary, 25^th December 1878

[13] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 25^th December 1879

[14] BFC, Sam Fay Diary, 25^th December 1880

[15] TNA, ZPER 11/3, The South Western Gazette, Jan 1884, p.2

[16] TNA, ZPER 11/7, The South Western Gazette, Jan 1888, p.11

[17] TNA, ZPER 11/7, The South Western Gazette, Feb 1888, p.2

[18] Marshall, Charles, South Western Gazette, January 1888, p.6