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This postcard was produced around 1908, with the photograph taken at Tynemouth station. It was sold by the ASRS to raise money to support the Orphan Fund – which would in turn would have been supporting the children pictured here. How common such postcards were is impossible to say, but we are aware of at least one other example (also shown in the MRC exhibition).
Although challenging, we can start to work out who might be shown in the image of the Percy Main orphans. From other records, it looks like this might include:
- John Legg, son of fireman Lancelot Legg; there might also have been another son or daughter of Lancelot; and
- Thomas and Margaret Dalziel, children of platelayer (track worker) James Dalziel.
We are trying to identify others, too.
This account is one of over 20 life stories featured in the Railway Work, Life & Death project’s ‘Lives on the Line: Railway Workers, Accidents & Union Action’ exhibition at project partner the Modern Records Centre, from October 2026 until mid-January 2027.