Cannon Street Station in 1866

On the 1 September 1866 the South Eastern Railway opened its Cannon Street Station. This image, from the Illustrated London News a week later, shows the two turrets at its entrance that were designed by John Hawkshaw and which the Daily News described as having a 'very imposing appearance'.[1] It occupied a site that had previously been steel yards and the wharfs of the Victoria Dock Company.[2]

-------------

[1] Daily News, Monday, 3 September, 1866
[2] The Pall Mall Gazette, Saturday, 1 September, 1866

The Other Victims of the Staplehurst Accident - 1865

The fame of the Staplehurst Accident of 9 June 1865 stems from the fact that Charles Dickens was on the train, travelling back from Folkestone to London with his mistress, Ellen Ternan, and her mother. Naturally, in the wake of the accident Dickens' presence and his subsequent attempts to help the dying and the injured garnered much attention. This is entirely understandable. However, the ten passengers who were killed have largely remained anonymous. They were as follows:


Emma Beaumont - Spinster
Anne Bodinham - Wife of Frederick Bodinham, Solicitor
Charlotte Chaunhay-Faithful - Wife of Faithful, Judge at Bombay
Hannah Cundliff - Wife of Martin Cundliff, Hotel Keeper
James Dunn - Warehouseman
Adam Hampton - Surgeon
Hippolite Mercia - Cook
Amelia Rayner - Wife of Lloyd Rayner, Merchant
Lydia Whitby - Wife of George Whitby, Merchant
Caroline White - Spinster

A quick search of the census found the background of only one of the accident's other victims, Amelia Rayner. Amelia had been born around 1827 and lived in 1861 lived with her husband, George - listed in the census as being a 'General Broker' - in Toxteth Park, Liverpool. They had five children, Lloyd Jun. (6 years), Ellen A. (5 years), Maurice E. (3 years), Amelia May (1 year) and Hugh (5 months). Clearly Lloyd's business was successful, and the family were employing five servants, which shows the family's not inconsiderable wealth. Furthermore, it would seem from the 1871 census that George and Amelia had another son, Norman, who had been born in 1865, just before the accident. However, by 1871 Lloyd had found love again, and had married Anne S. Brown in 1868.

If you would like to know more about the Staplehurst accident, last year I wrote a post for the main Turnip Rail site HERE.

Meet a Railway Luminary No 3: Myles Fenton

An interview with Myles Fenton in Chums magazine from 1898 was suitably titled, 'From Office Boy to General Manager'.[1] Indeed, this adequately described the career of one of Britain's most well-travelled general managers. Born in 1830, Fenton started his railway career on the Kendal and Windermere Railway in 1845 as an office boy in the Secretary's Office.[2] In 1847 he moved to the East Lancashire Railway as a audit clerk and, after much graft through the ranks, was made its secretary in 1856, becoming the youngest individual to hold the post in Britain. Chums states that thereafter 'One cannot follow him in all his many changes, nor describe every seized opportunity that came within his grasp'. However, he worked in later years for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire, South Western and Great Eastern Railways.[3] In 1865 he was appointed general manager of the Metropolitan Railway, taking up the same position on the South Eastern Railway in 1880. Finally, when this company merged with the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1899 to become the South Eastern and Chatham Railway, he was made a director.[4]  While general manager his fame was largely overshadowed by the controlling force behind the Metropolitan and South Eastern Railways, Sir Edward Watkin, who was the chairman of each.[5] But despite this, Fenton was a respected and influential chief executive throughout his later career. He died on 14 March 1918.[6]

-------------

[1] Chums, 20 April 1898, p.550
[2] Strand Magazine, 9 (Jan 1895), p.9 
[3] Chums, 20 April 1898, p.550
[4] The Times, March 15, 1918, p.12
[5] Hodgkins, David, The Second Railway King: The Life and Times of Sir Edward Watkin 1819-1901, (Landybye, 2002)
[6] The Times, March 15, 1918, p.12