Never Mind I Stopped My Train

Oldtuberadio

July 18th 1898: The heroism of driver, Walter Peart and fireman, Harry Dean when the boiler of their Great Western Railway steam engine horrifically exploded.  Martin Sorrell recreates the background to this story which acts as a tribute to all railwaymen.  Narrated by Martin Jarvis and Joanna Myers. With Ann Windsor as Ada Peart, Nicholas Murchie as Edmund Mears/William Jarrett and Jonathan Tafler as John Hodges.  Director: Martin Jenkins  First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1992.  Do you enjoy the variety on Oldtuberadio? Like, Share and Subscribe to be notified of our new shows #radio #crime #thriller #drama To Support this channel please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/oldtuberadio https://ko-fi.com/oldtuberadio98 https://www.patreon.com/oldtuberadio https://locals.com/Oldtuberadio

Transcript

00:00Never Mind I Stopped My Train by Martin Sorrell

00:14Martin Jarvis and Joanna Myers recount the events of July 18, 1898

00:19and the heroic efforts of Walter Peart and Harry Dean,

00:22employees of the Great Western Railway.

00:48The Times. Tuesday the 19th of July, 1898.

00:52Accident on the Great Western Railway.

00:55Whilst the 415 Great Western Express from Windsor to Paddington

00:58was passing between Ealing and Acton yesterday,

01:01the connecting rod broke and the boiler was torn out of the engine.

01:05Both driver and engineman were thrown onto the line

01:08and horribly scalded and mutilated.

01:10They are not expected to live.

01:12That newspaper report got it partly right.

01:15There was indeed a horrific explosion on the engine of the 415.

01:19The boiler was torn apart.

01:21And because of the massive backdrop created in a speeding steam locomotive,

01:25the contents of superheated steam and water rushed back through the firebox and onto the footplate.

01:31The two men would have just had time to leap to the back of their cab.

01:35They were not, in fact, thrown onto the line.

01:38Instead, remarkably, they kept their nerve and fought their way back through the steam and flames to the controls.

01:45They wrestled with the brake, the regulator handle, the reversing gear,

01:49until they got the train under control and sensed that it was coming to a halt.

01:54Then, and only then, did they jump off, or rather stagger off, the footplate.

02:01By that time, they'd been virtually burnt alive.

02:05They fell onto the side of the track, semi-conscious and delirious, until help arrived.

02:11The papers of the day were full of verses penned to mark the gallantry of the two men.

02:17Canon H.D. Rawmsley provided this contribution in the Daily News.

02:21Now let the tear involuntary start, when that fierce fire drake only you could tame

02:28spat in your faces all its wrath and flame, because it was self-wounded to the heart.

02:35Blind, burnt beyond imaginable smart, you shut the valves and to a standstill came.

02:44Once nameless, both now evermore with name, you dared to play the hero's part.

02:52Once nameless, these two heroes rapidly became famous across the country and beyond during that summer of 1898.

03:01Driver Walter Peart and engine man Harry Dean.

03:05Walter, a neat and slightly mournful-looking man, dressed like no local man today,

03:11in crisp buttoned-up white shirt, tie and lapelled jacket.

03:15His wavy hair nicely parted, plus his full trim beard, make him look rather more than his forty-two years.

03:22Not patrician, exactly, but dignified and serious, like the sailor on the old player's cigarette packets.

03:30Harry Dean does look his age. He's only twenty-five.

03:34Like Walter, like all great western engine men of the time, he's well turned out in his three-piece suit,

03:40looking as if he's off to an interview.

03:42Harry's short haircut and his carefully-shaped moustache give him almost a trendy 1980s feel.

03:48Both men look serious and dependable. Both would have been in their right place on one of Her Majesty's naval destroyers,

03:54cutting sharply through the Solent, standing in the wheelhouse, back straight, eyes steady.

04:00London. And the great Western Railway's running sheds at Westbourne Park, just a quick shunt out of Paddington.

04:14It's twelve noon on Monday, the 18th of July, 1898.

04:18Walter Peart and Harry Dean arrive to sign on for the day's shift.

04:22Walter is almost as senior as you can get, a second-class driver.

04:26Not quite top-link, to use the jargon, but that final step is not far off.

04:31He's actually classed as a spare man, meaning he's required to run goods, passenger or special trains of any kind as the need arises.

04:39He's been in the railway service for over twenty-three years, eleven of them as a driver.

04:45Being a spare man, he has no regular engine of his own.

04:49Harry is fireman first class. He's been with the company for eight years, and fireman for the last seven.

04:56It's quite probable that as a senior driver, Walter Peart has handpicked Harry Dean as his colleague.

05:03Certainly they've been a team for the last six months.

05:09There has to be harmony and trust, and silent understanding on the footplate,

05:14where communication by word of mouth is often made impossible by noise.

05:19Well, they were good men. Can't say I knew them that well.

05:33Harry was from Devon somewhere.

05:36Walter had been at Westbourne Park for under a year.

05:40Walter, well, he was at Didcut Shed before he transferred here.

05:45Our newest trade, Walter. Railway man, through and through.

05:51Walter and Harry were so proud to be part of God's wonderful railway.

06:03July the 18th, and driver and fireman already know what the day's work is going to be.

06:07They were told two days ago.

06:09They look at the notice boards for details of signal alterations, permanent way restrictions,

06:14anything concerning their stretch of line.

06:16The depot's chief locomotive foreman, Alf Atwood.

06:19I rostered them out on the 1.05pm Paddington-Windsor stopping train,

06:24back with a 4.15, stopping only once at Slough,

06:27and then a couple more round trips before finally returning to the sheds at 9.30 to sign off.

06:32A long day, but not that long by our standards, when a 12-hour shift is routine.

06:37Owing to an engine failure, the two men have been assigned a rugged,

06:41no-nonsense replacement engine.

06:43Worthy and not a bit glamorous,

06:46despite its copper-topped chimney and brass dome and safety valve cover.

06:50It's really a freight engine.

06:53Number 238.

06:55A 30-year-old veteran built in the renowned GWR shops at Swindon.

07:00Walter and Harry would have gone to the stores to supply themselves with the oil,

07:03cotton waste and other material which they'd need for the day's work.

07:06Walter would have satisfied himself that the right amount of coal was in the tender,

07:10examined all the springs, tested to set bolts,

07:12got his long feeder oil can with its spout like a curlew's beak,

07:16and gone round the engine making sure that all the various working parts of the 238 were well lubricated.

07:22Harry, meanwhile, would have got the keys of the toolboxes from the office,

07:26and put out the various tools needed for the trip.

07:29Then would have tested the water gauge to see that it was working properly,

07:32had a good look at the fire, which would have needed to be watched.

07:35The coal well distributed to burn with maximum efficiency.

07:38You see, cost-effectiveness is a watchword on the railways today,

07:42and there's a bonus paid to crews who use as little fuel as possible.

07:45Next, Harry would have examined the smoke box to see that it was shut tightly.

07:50He checked the sandboxes.

07:51They must be full of dry sand, ready to be funneled down onto the track if the rails are slippery.

07:56Then he satisfied himself that the ash pan was properly cleaned out and the tender full of water.

08:02There were no problems, apparently.

08:04238 was, by all accounts, in fine fettle.

08:07It had been overhauled under a year ago,

08:09and Walter knows that it ran to and from Henley the day before

08:13on one of the so-called Red Lion Express weekend special trains,

08:17taking day-trippers down to the river on cheap away-day-style tickets.

08:21These specials are heavy and quite fast trains,

08:24and 238 did the job.

08:26Anyway, these locomotives regularly run non-stop on 80-mile routes,

08:30working much more exact in freight trains at speeds of around 50 miles per hour.

08:35So, on the fatal day, no one is concerned that 238 is a replacement for the rosted engine,

08:44which happens to have failed at Trowbridge and is stranded there.

08:49Paddington, 12.45pm, and a special train carrying the Cabinet of Lord Salisbury's Government down to Windsor

09:07for an audience with Queen Victoria gets underway.

09:10On the next platform, Harry Dean checks his fire, cleans it, breaks up any clinker,

09:15spreads the white-hot coals evenly around the firebox,

09:18and puts some good-sized lumps into the back corners,

09:21so that the fire will shake down nicely into the grate with the motion of the engine

09:24once they are up and running down the main line.

09:27Peart is talking to William Jarrett, the guard,

09:30who is telling him how many carriages make up the 105 departure,

09:33and what the total weight is.

09:35Walt has already tested the vacuum brake, and everything seems in order.

09:40The trip down to Windsor is slow and uneventful.

09:53They arrive on time at 2pm, uncouple their engine,

09:56and travel back light to Slough to turn it around.

09:59Next comes the routine of replenishing the tender with water,

10:02trimming the coals, and checking for hot axle boxes,

10:05a major cause of breakdowns on engines, carriages, and goods trucks.

10:10As Walter goes round 238, all looks absolutely normal.

10:15There's no way he can detect a fatal flaw in the inside connecting rod.

10:20Time to put their feet up in the loco men's mess,

10:23before once again they back down to the station,

10:26and wait for the right-of-way from Windsor on the 4.15 semi-fast to Paddington,

10:30due in at 4.47.

10:32After stopping at Slough, some hard running is required

10:36if they're going to complete the journey to time,

10:38especially as the 11-coach load isn't a light one.

10:41But journey's end for Walter Peart and Harry Dean

10:45came at 4.40, just after Acton Station.

10:49The time. The accident to a great western engine.

11:00The driver and stoker were overwhelmed by fire and steam,

11:03but although shockingly burned and scalded,

11:05they remained at their posts and succeeded in bringing the train to a standstill.

11:08The Acton pressed.

11:10It appears that the connecting rod of the engine had broken,

11:14with the result that at each revolution of the wheel,

11:17the broken ends pierced the casing of the boiler and firebox.

11:21A violent explosion followed,

11:23a mass of steam, fire, cinders and piping being thrown out.

11:27The driver and firemen received the full force of the explosion in their faces,

11:31the steam and red-hot cinders inflicting frightful injuries.

11:34Fortunately, they retained their self-possession, applied the brake,

11:39and by other means tried to stop the engine.

11:42They did not succeed immediately, however,

11:44the train having just cleared the station before it came to a standstill.

11:49For the space of 200 yards,

11:51the men seemed to have faced the fire of steam and cinders issuing from the boiler,

11:55manfully standing to their places and doing their best to stop the train.

12:00But before the railway station was reached,

12:03they were either forced off the engine,

12:05or the limit of human endurance having been reached,

12:08they fell off.

12:09Imagine an express train travelling at a rate of 50 miles per hour,

12:13having sped through Ealing, suddenly left to its own guidance,

12:16just at the point where signals begin to get thick

12:19and the utmost vigilance in approaching Westbourne Park is needed.

12:22This was the thought that must have passed through Peart's mind

12:25upon realising what had happened by the sound of the beating bar of steel

12:29as it plunged again and again into the boiler,

12:31working havoc at each stroke.

12:33A driver's hand is never off the levers in these days of high speed,

12:37and Peart would have instantly shut off the steam valve

12:39and applied both brakes before he thought of himself.

12:42Meanwhile, clouds of steam were scalding him and the fireman to death.

12:46My name's Edmund Mears,

12:48a plate layer on the section of the line which includes Acton.

12:52I was working there at the time of the incident.

12:55I heard the train approach him, but I didn't see it.

12:58Before it came into view there were two loud reports

13:00and a hissing of a dense volume of steam.

13:03When the train stopped I ran down the line and jumped on the footplate,

13:07but both the driver and the fireman were missing.

13:09I got down off the engine and ran back along the track

13:12for a short distance beyond the end of the train

13:15and found the men lying there.

13:17Hodges, John Hodges.

13:20I'm a plate layer in the employ of the GWR like Mr Mears.

13:23I was also working on the track at Acton.

13:26After the train stopped I saw the two men lying on the ground.

13:30I helped put them in the brake van of the train and we set off.

13:33The driver asked me as he lay there,

13:35Where am I?

13:36And I answered, At Acton.

13:38He said, I thought so.

13:40Is my face cut much?

13:42Yes it is, old boy.

13:44The driver said, Never mind.

13:46I stopped my train.

13:48How did you stop it?

13:51I put the brake on.

13:52The driver talked all the way to Westbourne Park.

13:56He said, I've got no bones broken.

13:59He didn't tell me anything about the accident.

14:02He then asked me, Where is my poor mate?

14:05And I said, He's behind.

14:07They're bringing him along now.

14:09He asked, Is he hurt much?

14:12To which I replied, I'm afraid he is, old boy.

14:15He said, Poor fellow.

14:19He took a rest for a while.

14:22Then he looked at me and said, I stuck to my engine.

14:26Did you not jump off? I asked.

14:29Mr. Peart said, No.

14:32When it happened first, I got back out of the way.

14:35And then the train seemed to be going as fast as ever.

14:38So I went back to put on the vacuum brake.

14:41Then, as I was going back again, my foot struck the connecting rod.

14:45The Times.

14:46At Paddington, an ambulance arrived and a staff of local ambulance men rendered every assistance.

14:51The injured men were speedily transferred to St. Mary's Hospital.

14:55Dr. Legg, the house surgeon, immediately attended to their injuries.

14:59Walter Peart was seriously burned on the face and hands and was badly cut in several places.

15:04On Monday, it was hoped he might pull through, although he was then in a precarious condition.

15:08The Acton Press.

15:10The fireman was in an even more critical condition.

15:13His face and head were very severely burned and cut all over, and both his arms and legs were fearfully injured.

15:19On Monday night, he was very restless, and his condition gave the greatest anxiety.

15:25Several of the passengers from the train made straight for the hospital, when they eventually got to Paddington, to inquire after the two engine men.

15:34Many left their names and addresses with the railway authorities, asking to be informed of developments and offering help in whatever shape or form.

15:42One distinguished passenger was the Right Honourable G.J. Goshen, the First Lord of the Admiralty, returning from an audience with the Queen.

15:50Presumably, he'd travelled down earlier in the day on the cabinet special, just ahead of Walter and Harry.

15:56He later sent the railway company a letter, expressing his high sense of the self-sacrificing devotion of the fireman and engine driver.

16:04I came to my husband Walter's bedside that Monday night.

16:08He was conscious, and he recognised me.

16:11It was piteous to see him.

16:13All the skin was gone from his face and hands, and most of his hair had burned away, too.

16:18He was so uncomfortable and restless, and he would keep saying over and over,

16:25I saved her, Ada, I saved her.

16:30I wanted to touch him, try to make it a bit easier for him.

16:35But he was in too much distress, and the nurses said I should just sit still and leave him be.

16:41That was best.

16:42Walter!

16:43Walter, you poor man!

16:44What am I going to tell the children?

16:45What is to be carous?

16:46Miraculously, the coaches from the train were quite undamaged.

16:59Nobody was even slightly hurt among the passengers.

17:02But for the two engine men, a terrible night followed.

17:05Walter's agony lasted until around six o'clock on the Tuesday morning,

17:09Harry's three or four hours more.

17:12The cause of death, later recorded on Walter's death certificate, shock and exhaustion,

17:18scalds by steam from engine which was pierced by piece of connecting rod which broke from a flaw in it.

17:25Accidental.

17:26Shock and exhaustion.

17:31Probably shorthand for fifty or sixty percent burns, producing massive fluid loss and kidney failure,

17:38and what's called blast lung, when the lung tissue is destroyed as a result of a violent explosion,

17:45the sort of injury that causes huge numbers of fatalities in modern warfare.

17:50What a dreadful night those two must have endured.

17:54Mercifully, they had been given large doses of pain-killing laudanum,

17:58and the nurses would have covered them in dressings of soothing oil, giving at least some relief.

18:04Wherefore, Aeolian music down the line, sings for your souls a requiem today,

18:15and every sobbing engine calls us back to that last cry we heard upon the track,

18:22greater than human, when in power divine you saved our lives that cast your own away.

18:32The events of July the 18th were relived at the inquest, held by Dr. Danford Thomas at Marylebone Coroner's Court,

18:40on Friday the 22nd of July, 1898, only four days after the accident.

18:46Please tell the court your name and address, and state your relationship to the deceased.

18:52Ada Jane Peart, I live at 2 Kensal Place, Harrow Road, London.

18:56I'm the wife of Water Peart. I identified his body in St. Mary's Hospital. He was 42 years old.

19:02Thank you. Now, you, sir, would you kindly do the same?

19:10Henry Dean, cabinetmaker, resident of Dawlish in Devon.

19:14I am the father of Fireman Henry Dean, and I identified his body.

19:18He was 25 years old, married, and resided at 29 Alberton Street, Queens Park, London.

19:24On behalf of all assembled here, and of the directors of the Great Western Railway Company,

19:32the court wishes to express its deep regret to the bereaved families for this most unfortunate occurrence.

19:38The deceased were men of exemplary character, and they appear to have met their deaths through devotion to duty

19:44by standing with great bravery on the footplate under circumstances of the utmost danger to themselves.

19:50A serious accident has been avoided. These two men remembered what was due to the passengers under their charge.

19:58Please call the guard of the train.

20:03My name is William Jarrett. I was the guard in charge of the train in question.

20:07Every day for one week in three I was in charge of that service.

20:11I knew the driver, Walter Peart, but not the fireman.

20:14The train passed south all to time. After passing Acton West Box, I noticed a volume of steam enveloping the train.

20:23I looked out, but saw nothing. I felt the heat, and thought we had rushed into a fire.

20:29Hearing a crackling sound, I was about to apply the vacuum brake, and found it was already on.

20:34We were going at good speed from fifty to fifty-five miles an hour.

20:38The train pulled up in about four hundred yards, about a hundred yards after passing Acton Station.

20:43I went to the engine, and a plate layer called out, they're both gone, meaning that the men had left the engine.

20:51The engine was quiet. I ran back to the station and called out that there had been an accident,

20:57and seeing some men go to the assistance of the deceased with a stretcher, I went to the signal box to stop other trains.

21:04Then I went to prevent my passengers from alighting.

21:07I found that there had been an explosion, but I didn't know exactly what had occurred until afterwards.

21:14Eventually we had another train and went on to London.

21:18Thank you. Mr John Armstrong, please.

21:21I'm Divisional Superintendent of the Locomotive and Carriage Department, Paddington.

21:28I examined engine 238. It was built in 1867, and has been renewed since that time with new boilers and other items.

21:36The connecting rod in question is examined by the driver every time the engine is used, both when he takes it out and brings it in.

21:43It's the inside right hand connecting rod.

21:46After the accident, the engine was taken to Westbourne Park.

21:50It ran along the line all right.

21:52The severed end of the rod had broken its way through the two plates of the firebox, between which is the water space.

21:58The outside crank possibly caught the driver by the legs and knocked him off.

22:03To my knowledge and in my experience, we've only had one other breakage of the inside rod in 15 years.

22:08The internal floor is very apparent in this broken section. Please show the rod to the jurymen.

22:13The rod is about six feet long and two and a half inches thick by four inches deep.

22:19To your benefit, gentlemen, I have a diagram. It shows that the connecting rod runs from the steam cylinder to the axle of the driving wheels.

22:34It must therefore move at high speeds with a to and fro motion, taking the drive to the wheels. It is a vital component.

22:41The floor would have been indiscoverable when the rod was whole.

22:44I understand these things and no man could have detected it. Does its having been in use for so long injure it?

22:50Yes, it's difficult to know when the floor came there. It might have been in the manufacture or it might have opened.

22:55Such a thing might exist for a long time without it being discovered from the outside?

22:58Yes, it may have been going on for ten years.

23:00This was what you know on the line as a goods engine?

23:03Yes.

23:04Yet on the day in question it was used to run an express passenger train?

23:08Yes.

23:09Was there any special examination of the engine before it was put to that work?

23:12The regular examination before it goes out. These engines are capable of running fast trains and are doing so constantly.

23:19How long is it since the new boiler was put in?

23:22I cannot say.

23:23Was anything else done?

23:24It would have had new boilers, new wheels, new tyres and very likely new rods.

23:28And very likely not. Is there any other examination except by the eye?

23:33Oh yes. There are examinations by sounding and by a very powerful glass.

23:37That is the test at Swindon?

23:39Yes, it is.

23:40Do you say that this engine was suitable for this kind of train?

23:43Yes. It was built both for this purpose and for heavier trains as well.

23:46It is capable of doing fifty or sixty miles an hour. This train was only timed for forty-six miles an hour.

23:52How was it that this engine came to be used on that day?

23:55It was used with the train because another engine had failed.

23:58In point of fact it had never been used for that train before.

24:01Oh yes. I have no doubt it had been used.

24:03What work had it been doing recently?

24:05It had been on the Henley Specials.

24:07What is its regular work? Heavy loads?

24:09Yes. And fast Exeter Expresses.

24:12You would call it an obsolete engine nowadays for express trains?

24:15It depends on what you call express trains.

24:18We should not think of putting it to the Flying Dutchman for instance,

24:20but this was not really an express but a local train.

24:23The overall weight of the train would affect the strain on the rod to some extent?

24:27Yes.

24:28Is there any reason why this engine should not have been used on this train?

24:32None whatever.

24:33Thank you, Mr Armstrong. That is all.

24:36The jury was instructed that it had the whole case before it.

24:40After a brief interval for deliberation, it returned and handed the coroner its written verdict.

24:46Death from an accidental cause.

24:51We also wish to place on record our high appreciation of the conduct of the two deceased men in applying the brake and keeping at their posts,

25:00thus probably averting a serious catastrophe and danger to the lives of the passengers of the train.

25:07The jury also remarked, apparently against Mr Armstrong's expert evidence, that the said engine was not a fit and proper one to be used for drawing express trains.

25:20I do not see that this remark by the jury can be justified.

25:27I know my engines. I know what they can do.

25:30Two-three-eighths, really what you'd call a mixed traffic locomotive, passenger as well as goods.

25:37It was built by Swindon. It's been regularly overhauled by Swindon.

25:41To my way of thinking, there's no finer praise, no more need be said.

25:45Swindon men are the best trained engineers and fitters in the land.

25:48No. I'd say in the world. And they're loyal and happy workers.

25:53The Great Western looks after its people properly. All railway men know that, whatever company they're with.

25:58Swindon is the benchmark.

26:01Two-three-eighth was properly maintained, and it was quite suitable for the 415 Windsor.

26:06Not really an express, no.

26:09The floor in that connecting rod was only three inches long, and it was right at the heart of the metal.

26:15No-one could have detected it. The coroner himself said he understood that.

26:20How it got there in the first place the Lord only knows, when it was manufactured in Germany.

26:25That's the likely explanation.

26:28If we'd made it ourselves at Swindon.

26:31A three-inch bubble of air separating two men from their deaths.

26:36The accident was a sad and unfortunate business for John Armstrong.

26:39He'd been unfairly criticised at the coroner's inquest for allowing 238 to operate the Windsor semi-fast.

26:45They were looking for scapegoats, really.

26:48And Armstrong was right to be proud of Swindon.

26:51Its equipment was constantly updated, and the best tools and appliances anywhere in the world were to be found at Swindon, as a matter of course.

26:58The machine tools were capable of operating to a thousandth of an inch.

27:02But the nation couldn't help feeling that faulty workmanship had led to the deaths of the two men.

27:08Their funerals became major public expressions of mourning for two dedicated railwaymen.

27:14Dean was taken back to his hometown of Dawlish, a town wrapped in dark sorrow.

27:21The parents of the deceased Henry Dean wished to have their son buried at Dawlish.

27:28And for this purpose the body was conveyed from London to this town by the train reaching here at 219.

27:35The remains of the unfortunate young man being accompanied by his father.

27:40The mournful procession started from the railway station soon after three o'clock,

28:01and the coffin was preceded by over sixty tradesmen and other inhabitants of the town.

28:07When the funeral cortege reached the London Hotel, the mournful strains of the beautiful dead march in salt floated in the air,

28:16and gave a thrilling effect to the solemn scene.

28:19And not until the whole length of the strand had been travested did the band cease to play tribute to the heroic dead.

28:25Very touching indeed was the service, and many a tear fell from the eyes of those who had known Dean when he lived amongst us.

28:33But to know him was to like him.

28:36Among the wreaths which were received was one with a card in which was written,

28:41A token of much sympathy and respect in memory of the brave Mr. Dean, Duchess of Rutland.

28:50A floral harp was sent by the engine men of the great Northern Railway Company.

28:55At the evening service at St. Mark's Church, the preacher in the course of his remarks said,

29:02We are thinking today of a most honorable action done by one of our Dawlish men, and we feel proud of him and his action.

29:13If we were asked what we thought of it, we should say it was a glorious deed.

29:19He was a hero on earth, and will be one in paradise.

29:24The Great Western Magazine, August 1898.

29:28We are reminded of how tenderly the lines of Tennyson are fitted for such as them.

29:34Not once or twice in our old island story, the path of duty is the way to glory.

29:41If Dean's burial was a Devon affair, Walter Peart's, two days later, was metropolitan.

29:46It even had something of a national event about it.

29:51The Daily Telegraph.

29:53A remarkable demonstration of public sympathy was witnessed in London yesterday, upon the occasion of the interment of Walter Peart.

30:00The proceedings partook of the nature of a public funeral, and most affecting were the scenes enacted at the graveside,

30:06in the vicinity of which a vast concourse of sympathisers had congregated.

30:11The Acton Press.

30:13It was shortly before three o'clock when the carriages, generously provided free of charge by Mr. Lutie, drew up in front of the house in Kensal Place.

30:22And by this time the crowd had assumed imposing dimensions, leaving scarce an inch of unoccupied ground in the narrow roadway.

30:30Slowly the chief mourners' coaches, which were drawn by two horses, made their way to the cemetery gates.

30:35And in their wake, bareheaded and stricken with sorrow, walked six comrades of the dead man, to whom had been assigned the privilege of bearing his body to the graveside.

30:44Among the floral offerings was the one sent to the bereaved widow by the Duchess of Rutland, with the words,

30:50In much respect and sympathy for the memory of the brave railwaymen.

30:55So vast were the throngs that followed the cortege, that it was not deemed advisable by the cemetery officials to admit all who sought admittance,

31:03and in this way not a little disappointment, perchance inevitable, was occasioned.

31:09Two hymns were sung, the first being Thy Will Be Done, and the second, which was given out at the close of this part of the rites,

31:16Sleep on, beloved, sleep, and take thy rest.

31:20At the graveside, the minister took occasion to say a few words by way of a brief funeral erasure.

31:27Lives like his are glorious, and it is well to live in a land that gives birth to such men and appreciates their valour and their self-sacrifice.

31:36This good man and his noble mate met their fate like the immortals of Balaclava, riding through the valley of death.

31:44I would express my fervent hope that the people of this country, who never fail to admire noble deeds and chivalrous actions,

31:52will not suffer the widow and family of this brave fellow, who has sacrificed his life at duty's shrine to go in want.

32:00With such words as these, words that went straight to the hearts of all to whom they were addressed,

32:06came to a close the memorable proceedings that saw Walter Peart, engine driver, and one of England's heroes, laid to his eternal rest.

32:16I can scarcely believe it's true even now.

32:20I'm always fancying that he's going to come back to me.

32:24I don't feel brave, but I suppose I'm just going to have to be.

32:28What's going to happen now? What sort of future have we got? I never dreamed that he'd go like this.

32:34The other wives get frightened, a lot of them.

32:38A driver's life is nasty and dangerous.

32:40The company doesn't believe in putting proper protection on its engines.

32:43Those men stand out there where anything can get at them.

32:46They're denied shelter in case they doze off or miss the signals. That's what I've heard.

32:52But I never once thought this would happen to him.

32:55Mrs. Ada Peart is a brave woman.

32:58The sudden blow prostrated her with grief, but she has nerved herself up to face the future.

33:03She is keenly appreciative of the public sympathy manifested in so many forms.

33:08In her little home, soon to be broken up, the fresh mourning of the children appeals to one so strongly,

33:15and the empty chair at the head of the table tells its own tale.

33:19Upon the wall of the little sitting-room in Kendall Place is a framed certificate.

33:24The Great Western Company gave Walter that in 1875, when he was first registered as a fireman at Didcot.

33:31Oh, well. I should have liked to keep the family together, but I've made some plans.

33:39I should be able to manage financially, just.

33:42Walter's pay was seven shillings and sixpence a day, and quite a few extras, too, so we did live nicely.

33:48What I'd like to do, when I've taken measures for all the children, is rent my mother's house from her.

33:54She lives near the engine shed.

33:56Well, then I could let out lodgings to double home railwomen.

34:00You see, I understand their ways, and my husband was well known.

34:04A double home man is the driver whose work takes him, say, two nights away from where he lives, and therefore he needs lodgings.

34:11These I should provide.

34:14But her keenest anxiety at the present moment pertains to the uncertainty which attaches to the career of her eldest son.

34:21Walter is sixteen years old, has been a pupil teacher for one year under the school board,

34:27and will be in receipt until July next of an allowance, which is little more than sufficient to buy his books and pay occasional tram fares.

34:35Provided he secures a Queen's scholarship, he will be competent to enter college,

34:39and for the space of two years, whilst the training is completing, he will not be a burden to me,

34:45apart from the college entrance fees of fifteen pounds to twenty pounds.

34:50Sissy, that's my eldest, she's been serving in a shop, but she may decide to become an under-nurse.

34:56She's very fond of children.

34:59I've had an offer of help for two of my boys through Mr Armstrong.

35:04A gentleman has said that he'll place Ernest and Sydney in the Alexandra orphanage.

35:10They're ready to go. I shall accept.

35:14I shall then have my youngest girl, Daisy.

35:18I can't let her go. I must keep her.

35:23The Daily Telegraph.

35:25Mrs Peart has no idea of embarking upon what is usually the forlorn hope of widows, a general shop,

35:31and her little capital will therefore not be risked in such a venture.

35:35What her means may be she does not know.

35:37That the Workman's Compensation Act would entitle her to probably three hundred pounds was a surprise to her.

35:43Apart from this, the benefit societies to which her husband belonged will pay her forty pounds as a widow's allowance,

35:49and eighteen pounds and five pounds in death grants.

35:52She also expects to receive four shillings a week from another railway fund to which her husband subscribed.

35:58There were also several GWR benefit funds available which the families of the two men might expect to come to their rescue.

36:04The Providence Society started in 1838.

36:07The Locomotive Department Sick Fund, the Great Western Railway Medical Fund Society,

36:12the Mutual Assurance Sick and Superannuation Society founded in 1865.

36:17And finally, there was the Salaried Staff Widows and Orphans Pension Society,

36:22which should have been tailor-made for the victims of the accident,

36:25had Walter and Harry not been debarred from it for not being in a sufficiently exalted grade of company employees.

36:31I don't want to go back up to London.

36:33I can't stay in that house now, Harry.

36:35Now he's...

36:37I want to be with my family here in Dalish.

36:39I'm a Devon girl.

36:40I'll stay on after my baby's born and my mother will take care of us.

36:43I've got all my friends here.

36:45It weren't like that in London.

36:47It was lonely.

36:48I don't understand City Vault's ways.

36:51I haven't got any reason to stay up there anymore.

36:54The Daily Telegraph.

36:55The confinement of Mrs Eliza Dean, the fireman's widow,

36:58is so close at hand that the effects of the shock and of the travelling were regarded with apprehension.

37:03Mrs Dean, it is estimated, will receive in compensation 200 pounds and 40 pounds,

37:08as her widow's allowance, together with about 4 shillings a week,

37:11so long as she does not marry again.

37:13The men at the Westbourne Park Locomotive Depot opened their own subscription.

37:17There was a suggestion that some of the money raised should be expended in floral emblems of mourning,

37:23but Divisional Superintendent John Armstrong advised that it would be better used to give it directly to the bereaved.

37:29Throughout that summer of 1898, donations of all sizes flowed into appeal offices,

37:35sent in mainly from Britain, but also from abroad.

37:38Sir, I have only this day seen an account of the plucky action of those English engine drivers, Peart and Dean.

37:44In the name of my wife and myself, I have pleasure in sending a cheque for 5 pounds, 5 shillings for their families.

37:50Other countries may outbuild us in ships, but anyway we seem still to continue breeding men who are men.

37:56Yours faithfully, C.J. Cutlereth Hine, Hotel Royal, Ulster, Italy.

38:02Sir, I have much pleasure in enclosing you 35 shillings, which amount I have collected at the lunch table of the Crichton Club,

38:08towards the fund you are raising. Yours faithfully, Sidney Bartram.

38:12Sir, enclosed is a post-lauder for the widows and orphans of the railway heroes,

38:16from one who knows the widow's sorrow. The Lansdowne Hotel, Cork.

38:20As an English schoolboy, I should like to send, as I am extremely interested in English railways,

38:24especially the Great Western Railway, 2 shillings to the fund. I remain yours truly, J.F. Reid.

38:30I shall be glad if you will kindly add the enclosed sum of 8 shillings to the fund,

38:34collected yesterday at Leighton during the ethics v Kent match. Yours obediently, a sympathiser.

38:39When I first saw the account of the accident in your paper, and the words Peart and Ealing in close conjunction,

38:45I thought it was something about myself, being the only Peart in Ealing.

38:49I sent a small subscription, and hoped that every other Peart would do the same, and the Deans follow suit.

38:54Yours obediently, H.J. Peart.

38:57The nation had taken the two men to their hearts.

39:00The contributions flowed in. The accumulated total reaching £1,303, 8 shillings and 9 pence.

39:08A huge sum of money by today's standards. Trust funds were established for both families.

39:13Even man's most faithful friend was enlisted in the drive to raise money.

39:17We have a new supporter in the person of famous collecting dog Jim at Slower Station.

39:22His owner, ticket collector Wardle, wrote to Paddington and asked whether Jim might collect for a fortnight.

39:27Permission was given, and the dog is now collecting for that purpose.

39:32More than 90 years after the accident, Harry Dean's resting place has weathered better than Walter Peart's in the grime of London.

39:39Harry's neat and well-tended grave lies towards the top of a gentle slope in the high part of Dawlish Cemetery,

39:45within Sound of the Sea and the Birds.

39:48Walter's, though, is rather the worst for wear in the systematic repetition of leaning and disabled headstones

39:54in God's huge acreage at Kensal Green.

39:57Ironically, not all that many rows away from Walter's grave stands an imposing vault, light-coloured,

40:05and conspicuously well-kempt among the down-and-out masonry, keeling over in the rank grass.

40:12Its large and simple headstone bears the name of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

40:18Steam and fire and dread and anguish, yet the Britons must and will, rising over all triumphant,

40:28nerved them to be faithful still.

40:31Through the veil of death they thundered, at the mouth of hell they stood,

40:35till had passed the hour of danger and was stemmed the fiery flood.

40:40Then and only then the heroes left their post,

40:44and never yet in our crown of heroism brighter jewel air was set.

40:49Aye, in spite of day's commercial and the love of golden gain,

40:55in the Britons' blood undaunted runs the old heroic strain.

41:01Finally, their memory also lives on in a curious little monument put up a few years after the accident.

41:10Under the skirts of St Paul's Cathedral hides one of London's lesser-known public gardens, Postman's Park.

41:16Here is a series of commemorative plaques made of Dalton pottery,

41:20all dedicated to Victorian heroes and heroines of humble life.

41:24Among the 47 tributes on their polished tiles is this one.

41:29Walter Peart, driver, and Harry Dean, fireman, of the Windsor Express, on July 18th, 1898,

41:38whilst being scalded and burnt, sacrificed their lives in saving the train.

41:42The story of Walter Peart and Harry Dean is one of undoubted bravery.

41:48But the irony is that probably they didn't need to fight back through the flames to wrestle with the engine's brakes.

41:55Improved technology ensured that the train's automatic vacuum braking system was applied the moment the boiler burst and ruptured the brake lines.

42:05But what they knew instinctively was that they had an obligation to their passengers

42:10and that they must not think of themselves until the train was stopped.

42:14They died in the belief that they had saved their train.

42:21I tell the tale in words of gold.

42:28Go spread it far and wide.

42:30From east to west, from north to south, tell how two brave men died.

42:34Two men of England, sons of toil, a stoker and his mate,

42:38who for the sake of other lives have met a hero's fate.

42:42Such men as these have nations made, have built a country's fame.

42:47Men worthy to be kings of men, all honoured be their name.

42:51Until the Britain's race is o'er, the memory lord keep green

42:55of engine driver Walter Peart and stoker Harry Dean.

43:01Martin Jarvis and Joanna Myers recounted the story of Walter Peart and Harry Dean

43:15in Never Mind I Stopped My Train by Martin Sorrell.

43:20Ada Peart, Anne Windsor, Eliza Dean, Cyril Jenkins, David Evans, Peter Penry Jones,

43:26Alf Atwood and the coroner, John Church, Edmund Mears and William Jarrett,

43:31Nicholas Murchie, John Hodges, Jonathan Tafler, and John Armstrong, John Webb.

43:37Other parts were played by members of the cast.

43:40The director was Martin Jenkins.

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