NETWORK RAIL AND RDG MARK THE ROLE OF RAIL IN WARTIME
Published at 19:24 on Tuesday 5th August 2014
Tags: RDG, Network Rail, Wartime, WW1
During wartime, the railways have played a vital role in transporting men and equipment. Brian Morrison
When war was declared between Great Britain and Germany on 4th August 1914, it was the rail network that enabled the rapid mobilisation of the British forces and their equipment to France.
The centenary is marked on 10th August, when 100 years to the day the first troops mobilised at London's railway stations to travel to the South Coast before onward travel to France, and to mark the occasion and the rail industry's critical role in the War, the Rail Delivery Group and Network Rail are hosting a rolling stations exhibition that will tour the country over the next four years.
It will formally start at Waterloo main concourse and remain there for one month, and then tour five other stations within the Capital and across England.
Over the weekend of 9th/10th August, a regiment of living historians, the Khaki Chums, will re-enact the journey of the WW1 soldiers arriving at the station on Saturday evening, and sleeping on railway land overnight and departing on a train bound for Southampton on Sunday. They will perform a march through the station on Sunday morning, giving a short speech to pay their respects to those who stood in their shoes 100 years earlier.
Also to commemorate the 100th centenary of WW1, First Great Western and the garden volunteers at Charlbury station held a commemoration service at the station. The event took place next to 60 yards of poppies that were planted by the garden volunteers, and the ceremony included the reading of WW1 poetry, songs and a fitting performance of the Last Post by a bugler. The poppy seeds were planted in May, and are named after Northew, the village in Devon that lost a higher proportion of the male population than any other community in Britain. Among the poppies are signposts naming the battlefields that claimed the lives of over 50 Charlbury soldiers.
Elsewhere, c2c has launched a new online war memorial commemorating the names of local railwaymen who were killed during World War One was commemorated at Fenchurch Street station on 4th August. A total of 88 men who worked for the London, Tilbury and Southend section of the Midland Railway, died during WW1. c2c would still like to hear from anyone who can help confirm details of more than 20 men who are listed on the Midland War Memorial but have yet to be traced in the Royal British Legion’s database. The online Roll of Honour can be viewed at www.c2c-online.co.uk/about-us/c2c-history/war-memorial
