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Company Servants' welfare

GWR Widows' and Orphans' Benevolent Fund

Whilst investigating the links between Culham Station and Nuneham Park, we found that the Park hosted a fête in aid of the GWR Widows' and Orphans' fund no fewer than five times. This caught our interest and so it was decided to find out a little bit more about where similar fêtes had been held.

It is not intended to be a history of the fund, which would be a huge and complex task, but we include a few contextual notes for background interest. We would be very happy to hear from anybody reading this who may have anything to add or correct.

A brief introduction

During our research we found the fund referred to by various similar names. We believe that several different schemes were constituted under the GWR for different grades of staff, or new ones brought into being to replace older ones. In our collection is a booklet entitled Rules of the Great Western Railway Salaried Staff Widows' & Orphans' Pension Society which gives the date of its establishment as 25th December 1922. The membership rules mention '...any person who is a Member of an existing Benefit Fund of the Company which makes provision for Widows and Orphans...', thus implying that several such schemes were running concurrently but falling under the general umbrella title of the Widows' and Orphans' Benevolent Fund, possibly benefitting from a single fund which was held in common. The fund no longer exists as a separate entity, and we think that it was amalgamated with other similar funds during the 1970s and finally became part of the overall Railway Pension arrangements in the 1990s. It has proved difficult to determine when the fund came into being, but one press report suggests it was constituted in 1842 whilst the GWR was under the chairmanship of Charles Russell, who was also M.P. for Reading at the time. There are some suggestions that Daniel Gooch may have been the first chairman of the fund which was initially for the benefit of salaried staff only. Funds were raised in a number of ways, the GWR made annual grants, the public contributed by way of concerts, special church services, organised outings, and other similar fund raising activities organised at a local level, or by bequests. Members also contributed fixed sums which were deducted from their wages.

By far the most important method of raising funds was the annual Grand Fête. When one reads of attendances of 10,000 to 30,000 it is easy to appreciate the income generated. It wasn't all plain sailing though, as in 1876 it was reported in several newspapers that the annual fête would not be taking place that year. In the event, at least one local fête (at Ashton Park, near Bristol) and the 21st Grand Fête (at Oakley Park, Cirencester) did take place. However, in 1877 and 1878 a fête wasn't held at all due to a dispute over the Company proposing to pass on only a proportion of the proceeds from the sale of special rail tickets. It was argued that any reduction would render the fêtes unsustainable. This issue was resolved and they restarted in 1879 at Blenheim Park but this appears to have been a final swan-song as no reference has been found for subsequent company wide Grand Fêtes. Reference has been found to large annual fêtes held at Malvern in 1883 and 1884 in support of the fund, but these were locally arranged. It was felt that the annual Grand Fête had become too large and disruptive to the normal operations of the railway and the Company undertook to make payments in lieu following the 1879 one at Blenheim.

The Railway Servants' Orphanage - Derby

The fund made payments to widows and orphans, either via the local station or by Postal Order. The company also supported the Railway Servants' Orphanage which was founded on August 5th, 1874 in Derby and grew in size until by 1887 it could accommodate a total of 300 boys and girls accepting orphans up to the age of 12 from all over the country. Children had to leave upon reaching the age of 15 however. Numbers at the orphange fell after the Second World War and so the large old building was demolished and replaced by two smaller houses in 1977. By 1982, only one of these houses was needed and, in 1993, the home was closed.

The August 1930 edition of the Great Western Railway Magazine covered a visit the previous month by Viscount Churchill, chairman of the GWR, and Lady Churchill for the annual prize giving. It was noted during the speeches that Viscount Churchill had visited seven years previously and that Mr.A.E.Dean, who was secretary and manager of the Orphanage, had served a total of 48 years. The annual report stated that during the previous year 23 boys and 17 girls had been admitted, and 25 boys and 9 girls left with all finding employment, over half the boys with railway companies. It was noted that altogether 225 children whose fathers had worked for the GWR had been accommodated so far and that 30 were resident at that time. See some more photographs from the report by clicking or tapping on the thumbnail image.

We were pleased to be contacted in late 2023 by Linden Collins who told us about his mother, Anthea Borlase, who was one of the 30 GWR orphans at the time of the visit mentioned above. It is noted in the edition of The Derbyshire Advertiser from 4th July that she recited the poem 'Sherwood' by Alfred Noyes to the distinguished guests. She had entered the home aged ten in September 1926 following the death of her father, Anthony Borlase, the previous year. He had retired as Station Master at Thatcham in early 1919, but there is a local connection as he was Station Master at Culham from December 1884 until August 1886. We include his mother's story here with Linden's kind permission.

Another charitable organisation started as a home for 'fatherless girls' in Clapham. This was the London and South Western Railway Servants’ OrphanageClick or tap to reveal our hidden page about this organisation, now more simply called Woking Homes which was founded in 1885 and went on to occupy a very large site in Woking providing support for both boys and girls, and after WW2, accommodation for retired employees also.

Collecting dogs

One seemingly unusual method of eliciting small public donations was that of using collecting dogs. In fact, collecting dogs became quite an institution in Victorian and Edwardian times and served as collectors for many charities, and other less genuine purposes, as trained collecting dogs could be hired by anybody wishing to make a collection for whatever cause they wished. Donation boxes would be attached to a special harness and the dogs were left to wander and many performed tricks or barked in recognition of coins being placed in their box. Official station collecting dogs became well known and liked characters at their station, both with passengers and the station staff who looked after them, some becoming quite famous and featuring in newspapers of the day.

In its August edition from 1907, The Great Western Railway Magazine carried a two page article telling the story of many of the collecting dogs at that time. It was accompanied by a photo collage of eleven collecting dogs with the title Friends of the Widows and OrphansGreat Western Railway Magazine
August 1907


Author's collection

Click or tap link for a larger image.

The November issue of the Great Western Railway Magazine in 1921 records that Bob the Collecting Dog
From the Great Western Railway Magazine, November 1921 who worked at Gloucester station had died on August 28th. He had raised almost £370 for the GWR Widows and Orphans Fund in 11½ years. The same magazine reported in its April 1911 edition that Prince at Reading station had collected £104 6s.11¼d. in just over two years for the fund. Paddington had Tim and Swindon Bruce, but possibly the most famous was Station Jim who was at Slough from 1894 until his sudden death in his harness on the platform on the evening of November 19th 1896. Like many other station dogs Station Jim made the occasional excursion by train turning up at Paddington, Windsor and even Leamington stations. He made such an impression on the staff and passengers that they subscribed to have him stuffed and mounted in a display case with a collecting slot and inscription describing his life story. At the time of writing Station Jim could still be seen in his glass cabinet on platform 5 at Slough. Other collecting dogs were similarly preserved and displayed. Several have been found new homes in museums, most notably a couple can be seen in the private museum at Fawley Hill near Henley.

Balls, outings and other locally organised events

Many local events were arranged throughout the GWR in aid of the fund, some one-offs and others taking place more often, sometimes annually. These ranged from special excursions and picnics, church parades and services, concerts, and large fêtes (such as those at Malvern), being too numerous to list even a representative selection.

Of particular local interest however, was the annual Ball held for many years each January in the Oxford Town Hall. Our page from the Illustrated London News from 1860, seen below, refers to it as being the eighth annual ball so implying the first took place in 1853. At the time of writing, reports can only be found for balls up to 1864 but it is possible that they continued to be held after that date. As a point of interest, these balls would not have taken place in the building as we know it today. The present building was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1897. The previous building, dating from 1752 and on the same site, would have hosted the balls, it was demolished in 1893.

The Town Hall also hosted at least one fund raising concert, with one known to have been held on Friday 22nd February in 1884. A new Corn Exchange was built behind the Town Hall and opened in 1863. It had a relatively short life however, as it too was demolished in 1893 when the whole site was cleared for rebuilding. The Corn Exchange provided an alternative venue for functions and hosted a fund raising concert on Thursday 29th November 1888.

This engraving by John Le Keux, from a drawing by F.Mackenzie and dated 1st July 1836, was first published in 1837 in the book Memorials of Oxford - volume 3 by James Ingram D.D. who was President of Trinity College. The books were printed by S.Collingwood, 'Printer to the University' and published in Oxford by John Henry Parker, H.Slatter, and W.Graham, and in London by Charles Tilt.

The annual Grand Fête

As previously mentioned, the biggest single fund raising event in any year was the annual Grand Fête. These would be held in large private parks with reasonable access to a GWR station by the kind permission of the owner who tended to be associated with the Company, a local politician, or a local philanthropist (possibly all three). Many extra trains would be laid on to convey visitors from far and wide, with special all incusive tickets being produced to cover both the train fare and entry to the fête. Such trains were provided to the organising committee free of charge by the GWR, all proceeds from ticket sales going to the fund, with tickets only being valid for use on the fête specials.

These Grand Fêtes were initiated by one held just outside Cirencester in 1856, and the second one was held in 1857 at Nuneham Park with special trains being run to Culham station. There were a couple of years that a Grand Fête did not take place, and the last known one, being the 22nd, was at Blenheim Park in 1879.

These fêtes grew to be very popular indeed with local towns treating the day as a holiday, and featuring in both the local and national press, sometimes with illustrations. Vast amounts of food and drink were consumed and some of the special trains grew to enormous lengths, albeit with (probably) shorter four wheel coaches. Unfortunately, on occasion, the anticipation of a fête was ill-founded as the summer weather sometimes played havoc with the best laid plans and so dampened the enthusiasm of potential visitors on that and the following year. In 1871 an outbreak of small-pox caused many to stay away. Catering arrangements were often carried out by local business and hotel owners who presumably stood to make a good profit, but also had to carry the loss for any unsold stock. We have seen an advertisement for the auction of traders' pitches at the Abingdon Horse Races, and it is possible that similar arrangements were entered into for the various stalls and sideshows at the GWR fêtes. Entertainment in the form of bands and popular artistes from the Crystal Palace, London theatres, and Music Halls was paid for by the organising Committee, but was sometimes given gratis.

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Click or tap on any thumbnail of a print from our collection to see an enlarged version
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