Thomas Beck

Thomas Meeson Beck was born and baptised in Aston, Birmingham in 1819, son of a button-maker. In 1841 he was still at home in Aston, working as a clerk (no detail given). When he married in late spring 1851, again in Aston, he was living in Ashchurch and working as an office clerk. But he has not been found in the census of that year. After marriage he must have returned to Ashchurch with his wife, for children were born and baptised there between 1855 and 1859. He became stationmaster there in March 1960. During his stay in Ashchurch Thomas was described as stationmaster (baptism of son Frederick in 1855 and daughter Mary in 1856, and in the railway employment records of 1857-66) and as a railway clerk (baptism of son Henry in 1859 and the census of 1861). His successor was in post by April 1861 and he himself had left Ashchurch by 1862, when the first of two daughters was born in Wolverhampton, where he would remain until his death in 1888 at the age of 68. He did not remain with the railway. He was a railway clerk in 1871 but a builder's clerk ten years later. His sons did not follow him into railway employment.

George Peck
and son Henry George, railway clerk

George Peck was stationmaster at Ashchurch from 1861 to 1875. He was born in Leicester in about 1832. He was in Tamworth, Staffordshire, in 1855 and Lincoln in 1857, where children were born. He was in post at Ashchurch in 1860, living at Ashchurch station in 1861 and in one of the "Broad Row Cottages" in the village in 1871, presumably the Midland Railway houses. He had come from Thorpe in Northamptonshire where he had been stationmaster. Three more children were born in Ashchurch between 1862 and 1865, one of whom died soon after birth. Shortly after the birth of the last, who was given a private baptism, George's wife Elizabeth died at the age of 37. In 1869 George married again in Kidderminster and a son would be born in 1880, after the family had left Ashchurch.

The family had left Ashchurch by April 1875, and there followed short spells at Evesham in Worcestershire and at Tewkesbury, before transfer to Southwell in Nottinghamshire, where George would remain as stationmaster until his retirement. He had retired by 1891, still in Southwell, and died in Kings Norton, Worcestershire in 1899 at the age of 67. He had been well enough off to have kept a servant in his latter years, and after his death his wife Jemima was living in Birmingham on private means. On her death in 1911 she left an estate of some £1300.

There were two sons, one of whom (Henry George) had a career with the Midland Railway, though not at Ashchurch. He started in 1882 at Southwell, where his father was stationmaster, first in the goods depot, then as a machine youth and finally a clerk. In 1884 he moved to Walsall as a parcels clerk and then to Keighley in Yorkshire, where he resigned in 1889. In 1891 he was still in Keighley, boarding, and working as a photographer's assistant. But by the turn of the century he was back as a clerk in Midland railway, now in London, and was still there in 1911.

There is no evidence that George's second son, George Alfred, worked for the railways. In 1901 he was living in Edgbaston, Birmingham and working as an auctioneer's clerk. In 1911, still in Edgbaston and still living at home, he was a self-employed estate agent and insurance broker. When, now married and still living in Birmingham, he attested for army service in 1915 he gave his occupation as 'estate agent, rag merchant, cartage agent'.

Background

William Lewin, stationmaster
and sons William George, Ernest Arthur, clerks, and Archibald

William Lewin was born in 1844 in Leicestershire the son of a lime burner, also William. He was at home in the county until at least 1861 when, aged 16, he was working as a clerk - no further details. In 1868 he married Louisa Adams in her home county of Bedfordshire, and the birth of a son followed in the next year. By 1871 he was stationmaster at Bitton in Gloucestershire at the early age of 26. Bitton was a small station with a goods yard on the Mangotsfield to Bath branch line. Two children were born there, in 1870 and 1872.

In 1873 he moved to the Midland Railway Superintendents Office at the Midland Railway headquarters in Derby with the rank/grade of inspector. One of his sons died there. In the summer of 1875 he became stationmaster at Ashchurch. Perhaps he had moved there a little earlier for a son was born there earlier in the year. Ashchurch was a bigger station than Bitton, a junction with far more staff. Here he would remain as stationmaster until he retired in 1900. He seems to have added a few strings to his bow, for in 1891 he is described in the census as stationmaster and coal merchant, and in Kelly directories of 1889 and 1897 as stationmaster, and coal, coke, lime and salt merchant at the station. At first he lived at the stationmaster's house, but in 1889 he was the owner of a house in the nearby hamlet of Housedowns, where he may have gone to live from the early 1890s. He resigned in 1901 and went to live at Eckington, near Pershore in Worcestershire, though still owning property in Ashchurch. In 1909 he is described on the marriage certificate of his son Archibald as 'gentleman'. He died there in 1918 at the age of 74.

At least one of the children had an extended education. When daughter Rose was confirmed in the church she was 16, still a pupil at Tewkesbury High School.

sons William George, Ernest Arthur and Archibald

Two of William's three surviving sons followed their father into railway employment and started their service in Ashchurch. A third may also have had railway-associated employment. First and second sons, William George and Ernest Arthur started as goods clerks at Ashchurch when they were 15, Ernest taking over from William when the latter was posted elsewhere. William was at Ashchurch from 1884-1886, Stonehouse 1886 to probably 1891 and Worcester from 1891, a booking clerk throughout. Railway records show that he absconded from there in July 1891. Nothing more is yet known.

Ernest Arthur was at Ashchurch 1886-1888, Sharpness to probably 1893, Ilchester in 1893 and Market Harborough to at least 1901 and possibly at least 1908. He was variously a goods clerk and booking clerk throughout. Again there is as yet no further information.

Archibald, had moved to London by 1901, when he was working as a harness maker. This same description was given on his marriage certificate in 1905. In 1911, still in London, this was modified to harness maker for a Railway Company. In 1939 he was still a saddler/harness-maker, now in Marylebone in London, where he died in 1962.

Background (William)

William Watkins, stationmaster
and sons Frederick and James, clerks

A railway family, with one son achieving great success in his career.

William was born in 1858 in Herefordshire, son of an innkeeper. He did not follow into the family business but at the age of 14 was working for the Midland Railway as a clerk at the local railway station. Within a decade he was working as a railway clerk in Derby, presumably at the headquarters of Midland Railway which was located in the town. He was in Gloucestershire during the 1880s, at Stonehouse, where he was stationmaster in 1891. In 1898 he was stationmaster at Bromsgrove, near Birmingham and by 1901 he had been appointed stationmaster at Ashchurch junction. Here he was living in a house called West View, perhaps the stationmaster's house, newly named, that William Lewin had abandoned. This would be the residence of following stationmasters. William remained there until his death in 1922 at the age of 65. His wife had died the previous year.

There were four surviving children, two girls and two boys. The girls both married. The boys followed their father into salaried posts on the railways. Frederick Charles, the elder, worked as a clerk at stations in Gloucestershire until at least 1927. The younger boy, James, started as a clerk at Ashchurch where his father was stationmaster. He rose through the ranks at Derby, the headquarters of the railway company, finally occupying one of the senior posts in British Railways and a seat on the British Transport Commission. He also had a very successful military career during the war as an infantry officer. Details of all this are given in an appendix to this site.

Background

Anthony Swift

Following the death of William Watkins Anthony Swift occupied West View from 1923 to 1928, the Kelly directory of 1927 identifying him as stationmaster. He was born in Shardlow, Derby, in about 1866. His father was a stationmaster and Anthony followed his father's example, joining as an assistant porter at his father's station in Hazlewood, Derbyshire. His progression was fast, railway foreman when he married in 1889, aged 23, then stationmaster at Willenhall, Staffs, in 1891, at Defford, Worcs in 1901 and at Beckford, Worcs, in 1911. After his five years in Ashchurch he moved to Cheltenham in 1929, where his wife Catherine died the following year and he died in 1938 at the age of 72.

Henry Frank Vercoe

Henry Frank Vercoe was stationmaster in January 1929 at the time of the accident when a mail train collided with trucks at Ashchurch. He was mentioned, almost in passing during the public enquiry as being in his house next to the railway buildings when the accident occurred. He was certainly there with his wife Alice at West View in Ashchurch in 1931, but by 1933 he had moved to Bedford. In 1939 he was in Alfreton, Derbyshire at the LMS Railway Assistant Controlling Authority. Little more is known about him at present. He may the Henry Vercoe who was born in Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, in 1886, who married Alice Glenister in Nuneaton in 1923 and who died in Berkhampstead in 1957, probate to widow Alice.

George Stanley Jones

George Stanley Jones was the next occupant of West View, from 1938 to beyond World War 2. The 1939 record confirms that he was stationmaster. He was been born in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire in 1889, his father an innkeeper. He was a railway booking clerk at Lydney, in the Forest, in the immediate pre-war years and was still living there in the 1920s. He married in Tewkesbury in 1933 and was in Ashchurch as stationmaster by 1938. He was still there after World War 2. He died in Tewkesbury Hospital in 1963 at the age of 74, still living in Ashchurch but at an address other than West View.