Directors of the Midland Railway

Compiled by Graham Bocking

Members who attended the MRSoc AGM in 2001, or who have a particular interest in the Midland’s organization and its leading lights, will no doubt be familiar with Roger Brettle’s excellent Presidential Address on the MR Directors, and perhaps also his later contributions to the Journal, including one on the Audit Committee. Drawing on Roger’s address and his extensive collection of additional information (also contributed by his fellow former MRSoc President, Chris Rouse), as well as some new research of my own using online sources not available and searchable electronically in 2001, we have put the details together in an Excel spreadsheet, containing a summary of the MR Directors, their terms of office, additional roles with the Midland or other railway companies, their careers and lives more generally.

The data, which started as an attempt to record specific details of the Directors for another project, is certainly no substitute for other works, including Roger’s address (available from MRS Commercial Publications Officer, Andrew Cholerton) or books and articles on the more famous individuals such as Hudson or Paxton, but it does try to draw together for the first time in one place a complete listing of the Directors over the years. It is hoped that it may serve as a useful reference document, to help when looking more closely at the background to the Midland’s Board including geographical, political or business connections, and also to provide an index which can itself be searched, to assist in further research. Whilst it is hoped that the details are now accurate, having been crossed-checked as far as possible, there are cases of different contemporary sources containing slightly different details, although the overall picture is reasonably clear and certain. Nevertheless new contributions would no doubt be of interest, for example based on local records, personal connections or just anecdotes highlighting a less-known aspect of an individual’s life and work.

Key to codes used in the data

# — Elected (exact date if known, otherwise date noted by Proprietors'/Shareholders' Meeting)

* — Resigned/Retired (exact date if known, otherwise date of meeting at which noted)

† — Deceased (whilst in office)