The Great Western's Last Year
eBook - ePub

The Great Western's Last Year

Efficiency in Adversity

  1. 240 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Great Western's Last Year

Efficiency in Adversity

About this book

Despite being one of the best-known and admired rail companies in the country, by 1947 the GWR was at the lowest ebb of its entire history. Worn out by war, there had been no maintenance for six years and the government couldn't supply the steel it needed for repair. The latter half of the 1940s presented a multitude of challenges to overcome, some due to the recent war and others individual to the GWR: the staff coped with rationing, a desperately cold winter and a blazing hot summer, and dealt with floods, collisions, broken rails and failing locomotives. The incredible strength of character and can-do attitude of GWR workers kept the railway running through it all. This history, taken from GWR papers and illustrated from them throughout, reveals the details of every day, as well as the problems and difficulties the staff faced. Above all, it shows how well they overcame their problems with only muscle power and a steam crane to help – and, of course, no health and safety regulations and arguments to slow them down. Adrian Vaughan's unique history of this famous rail company shows just how special the GWR was right through to the end of its very last year.

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APPENDICES

Appendix I

The Board of Directors of the Great Western Railway in 1947
The year(s) each person was appointed and/or served follows the name in italics
Chairman Appointed to the Board
Viscount Portal (1885–1949) PC, DSO, MVO, GCMG, 1927 to 1938
Served in the Devon Yeomanry and Lifeguards in the First World War.
Parliamentary Secretary to Ministry of Supply 1938.
Minister of Works and Planning 1942–44.
Formally Appointed Chairman
Friday 28 March 1947 by Minute 1 of that date. See Rail 250/63.
Annual fee as Chairman £6,000.1 After tax £3,975.
Directors’ fees, see Rail 250/782.
Deputy Chairman
William Ward MC, 3rd Earl of Dudley (1894–1969), 1936
Described as ‘The greatest land and factory owner in West Midlands’. Owner of the Round Oak steelworks and Baggeridge colliery.
Annual fee as Deputy Chairman £3,000. After tax £1,650.
Directors
Sir Charles Hambro KBE, MC (1897–1963), 1930
Coldstream Guards 1916–18. Military Cross for ‘conspicuous bravery’.
Director of Hambros Bank, 1922. Director of the Bank of England, 1930.
Deputy Chair of GWR 1934–40. Succeeded Viscount Horne as Chairman in 1940 but secret war work took up much of his time.
Awarded KBE in 1941 for his work with the SOE. He was Head of Sections dealing with Resistance Groups in Norway, France, Belgium and Germany.
He guided the financial affairs of the GWR from 1934. The GWR was the most successful of the four. (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)
Annual fee £1,091 8s 9d. After tax £491 1s 3d.
Lt Col J.J. Astor (1886–1971), 1929
Country gentleman.
Served in the Life Guards in the First World War.
Held several Honorary Colonelcies.
Director of Hambros Bank and Barclays Bank.
Owner of The Times, 1922–66.
Annual fee £918 0s 6d. After tax £505 9s 6d.
The Honourable A.W. Baldwin (1904–76), 1937
Stourport Foundry. Son of thrice Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.
Annual fe...

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Contents
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. Introduction: The Transport Bill
  6. JANUARY
  7. FEBRUARY
  8. MARCH
  9. APRIL
  10. MAY
  11. JUNE
  12. JULY
  13. AUGUST
  14. SEPTEMBER
  15. OCTOBER
  16. NOVEMBER
  17. DECEMBER
  18. APPENDICES
  19. Copyright