A Seminar with the Guild

The Guild of One Name Studies held a seminar today at STEAM the Museum of the Great Western Railway in Swindon attended by over 70 Guild members and visitors.

The topic of the day, naturally enough given the venue, was "Railway Workers". The list of presentations included David Hawkings on Records of Railway Ancestors; Martin Sanders, Senior Assistant Archivist, of the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University talking about Railway Trade Union Sources; as well as a couple of others.

I was very interested to attend as I (we) have a railway ancestor - Henry Walter. He has become the Head of Engineering on the Geelong-Melbourne Railway by the mid 1850s. Unfortunately on the inaugural run of the route, he fell from the engine's footplate and was subsequently fatally injured by the train.

I have read accounts of his death in the Geelong Advertiser and have the location of his grave in Geelong (yet to be visited) but I do not know anything of his life before this point. According to the inquest form, his father Joseph was from Bristol. I have not found evidence of Joseph emmigrating to Australia so I assume, at this point, Henry was also born in Bristol and quite probably had his apprenticeship on the railways in that location too. This would put him firmly under the auspices of the Great Western Railway Company.

As a result of todays presentations I have had a few more avenues of research opened up for me - now I just need to get the time to persue them...