BTPHG member Graham Satchwell has highlighted a website dedicated to railway policing in the United States.

The Railroad Police was developed by Special Agents Matt West and Paul Miller of the Union Pacific Railroad Police to promote the history of Railroad Policing as well as explaining the duties of the modern-day Railroad Police Officer.

The site details the history of railroad policing, together with many historic photographs, memorabilia and items such as badges and patches.

The website has been added to our links page.

Perhaps not directly Police related, but certainly of historical significance to the railway, a new online resource has been launched.

It is called Peterborough and the Great War.
Hundreds of messages written by servicemen as they made their way to fight in World War One have been published for the first time.  Members of the army, navy and Royal Flying Corps often stopped at a now derelict station in Cambridgeshire. Many wrote in visitor books kept in the tea room at Peterborough East railway station between 1916 and 1917. A team of volunteers transcribed the 570 entries which have been published online.
Richard Hunt, archives manager for Vivacity, which recruited the volunteers, said the messages provided a “unique insight” into the authors’ thoughts and feelings.  “Some are simple words of thanks, others talk of love and hope. We have found out some of the facts of some of their lives but are appealing for their descendants to come forward to add colour to the stories of these heroes,” he said.
Army Cadet Miller Jamieson from North Shields stopped at the station in December 1916. He was presumed killed in action in Flanders five months later.
He wrote: “When the war-drum throbs no longer, may I – going North – be here again.”
Stretcher-bearer Alfred Davis from Peterborough features in the project, after joining the army aged 18. Researchers found he accidentally killed his friend Corporal Arthur Rawson while the men were sleeping. It is believed a button on his coat caught the trigger of his rifle. He was discharged from the army after losing a leg while rescuing a wounded officer at Ypres in May 1915 and went on to work as a railway signalman before he died in 1965.
The tea room was run by the Peterborough Women’s United Total Abstinence Council, and was started to discourage servicemen from drinking alcohol.
Other stations also had volunteer-run tea stalls but it is unlikely they had visitors’ books, the Imperial War Museum said.
The three-year project was funded by a £99,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Our World War One Roll of Honour team have been continuing their good work on this important project.

This time they have found one of our forebears who had been misidentified. Lance Corporal Herbert John LAUGHLIN of the Grenadier Guards was a PC in the Great Western Railway Police prior to his war service. He died, aged 34, on 26th July 1917 and is buried at the Canada Farm Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery, in Belgium.

He had been misnamed as J LOUGHLIN.

This mistake, on CWGC graves registration report, dated 1921, was shown on his gravestone and had been repeated on the Railway Staff RoH held by the National Railway Museum, and on the BTPHG RoH.

Project team member Ed Thompson, visited the GWR museum in Swindon and together with the museum curator carried out extensive research. They found an entry on the GWR Magazine dated 21/10/1914 which states H Laughlin, Policeman Traffic Department, Paddington, was wounded on active service. There is no further mention of him, however on the Railway Staff ROH held by the NRM there is an entry for H J LOUGHLIN indicating he had been Killed in Action and was a GWR Policeman. The curator carried out extensive searches but could find no reference to support this however the GWR ROH stored in the museum also shows the same entry. He is named as J LOUGHLIN on the CWGC. The curator was convinced that PC Laughlin recovered from his wounds and sent back into action and was subsequently killed on 26/07/1917 and advised Ed to concentrate his research on this fact.

Ed continued his research, including finding an entry in the Army “Soldiers Effects” Register. He also established that H J Laughlin was married to Alice Maria Reade on the 13/01/1912 in Stoke Newington, London, his occupation shown as a policeman.

Ed liaised with the Commonwealth Graves Commission and they have now accepted the misspelling error. The official records have now been amended, their website updated, and the gravestone will be amended in due course.

UPDATE: February 2018
Ed Thompson is pleased to report that he has been advised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission that the gravestone of Lance Corporal H J Laughlin has now been amended. They have sent this photograph.

 

In the last few months BTP History Group members have been responsible for getting two fallen railway policeman fully recognised on their gravestones at Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries. In each case they had been awarded the Military Medal, but the this was not shown on the headstone.

Corporal George JAY of the Military Foot Police had been a PC with the Great Eastern Railway Police prior to his war service. He died from his wounds, aged 35, on 24th March 1918 and is buried at the Ypres Reservoir Cemetery, Belgium.

Thanks to efforts by Peter Zieminski, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission acknowledged the omission, and in May 2015 we were pleased to hear that the letters ‘MM’ had been added to the headstone. In September 2015, Ed Thompson and Steve Beamon visited the grave, and were able to photograph the stone. They were pleased to note that the cross left by BTPHG members on a previous visit was still in situ.

Sergeant Frank Victor BEWSEY of the 15th Brigade Royal Horse Artillery had been a PC with Great Northern Railway Police. He was Killed in Action on 15th November 1917, aged 26 years, and is buried at Adinkerke Military Cemetery, Belgium.

Our World War One Roll of Honour team (Richard Stacpoole-Ryding and Ed Thompson) have been continuing their efforts on this important project and identified that as with George JAY, the record that Frank BEWSEY had been awarded the Military Medal was missing from his gravestone. Earlier this month Ed was able to report that his contact with the CWGC had been successful and that BEWSEY’s records have been updated and put on their website. The headstone will be amended in due course.

The CWGC certificates can be seen here: JAY_G   BEWSEY_F_V

 

 

The 2015 Poppy Appeal has been launched by the Royal British Legion. Their website can be accessed by clicking on the poppies.

 

One of the highlights of this month’s additions to the website is the short silent film taken at the official opening of Tadworth, then known as the British Railways Police Training School.

Discovered by BTPHG member David Hoare in the Imperial War Museum’s film archive, a copy was purchased for the BTPHG and is now available to view on this website. Quite how a film that was produced by the Southern Railway Film Unit in 1948, gets a British Transport Films reference, and then ends up in the Imperial War Museum is anybody’s guess – but we are pleased it did.

The video is available on the Official Opening of Tadworth page.