This page is one of a series introducing railway staff who worked on the south coast of England before 1939. They’ve been researched as part of the ‘Portsmouth Area Railway Pasts’ project – which you can read more about here, including accessing details of the other railway workers featured.
Research was undertaken from November 2024-July 2025, by a small group of volunteers from the Havant Local History Group, working with the University of Portsmouth’s History team. The work was funded by the University of Portsmouth’s Centre of Excellence for Heritage Innovation.
The workers featured were selected from staff who appear in the Railway Work, Life & Death project database of accidents to pre-1939 British and Irish railway workers.
As with all of the people the Portsmouth Area Railway Pasts project has researched, a key question of telling their life stories is where to start? At the beginning, of course … but is that with their birth? Do we go further back, and look at their parents – or even earlier? Alfred Stanford was a case in point.
Before Alfred – family connections on the railway
Alfred’s parents, George and Alice, were born in Horsham, Sussex – George in 1869 and Alice in 1870. George joined the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (LBSCR) in May 1886 as a porter at Warnham station. Intriguingly, listed on the staff roster there’s also a ‘Mrs Stanford’, as a gatekeeper. However, we haven’t been able to find a direct link to George and then to Alfred; perhaps she was part of the wider family?
Courtesy National Library of Scotland Maps.
On the 1891 Census George was recorded as a railway signal porter. He, Alice and their first two children were living in Croydon. At some point George came under Holmwood station, being recorded in the LBSCR records as a gatekeeper and signal porter. In 1901, George and the family were living at Lodge Farm Crossing, Holmwood. His occupation was given as a gateman. This begs the question: had he suffered an injury at work before 1901 which resulted in disability sufficient that he was re-employed as a gatekeeper?
Alfred Edwin Mafeking Stanford
Alfred Stanford was present on the 1901 Census entry, one of George and Alice’s three children. Alfred had been born on 6 May 1900 – whilst the South African town of Mafeking, now known as Mahikeng, was under siege during the Second Boer War. Clearly George and Alice had a patriotic streak, given Alfred’s middle name – an interesting reflection on how empire could be reflected in daily life for some British citizens.
In January 1905 Alfred’s mother, Alice, died. His father, George, remarried late in 1906, to Martha Emily Bailey, in South Stoneham, Hampshire. How they met is unclear, but perhaps the wish to be closer to her family led Martha’s new family to move to Hampshire. George’s LBSCR record shows a move to Langstone, south of Havant, in October 1907. Clearly the family accompanied him, as the 1911 Census shows George and Martha living with a son from their marriage, born in 1908, and George’s two sons from his first marriage.
A railway monopoly
George moved to Langstone to become a toll collector for the LBSCR. He collected tolls for passage on the road bridge to Hayling Island. The railway company effectively controlled all land access to the Island, owning the road and railway bridges from the mainland.
Courtesy National Library of Scotland Maps.
Its ownership was a quirk of transport history. When the Portsmouth and Arundel canal was cut in the early 1800s the route severed a causeway that linked Hayling Island. In its place a road bridge was built. Eventually the LBSCR bought out the rights to the canal company – including the road bridge.
This also gives credence to the question of whether George might have been on ‘light work.’ Still a railway employee, collecting the tolls from road traffic would have been less physically demanding than many other roles. On the 1911 and 1921 censuses George and his family, including Alfred, were living at Toll Gate, Langston. George was recorded on both censuses as a toll collector – but curiously, his LBSCR record shows he retired in January 1915.
Courtesy National Library of Scotland Maps.
George appeared on the same page in the LBSCR staff register as his eldest son, William – employed at Langstone station as a porter since June 1915. William’s tenure with the railway was relatively short-lived, however. His record notes ‘Services dispensed with 2/7/20’.
Alfred’s railway work, accident & subsequent life
Alfred also worked for the LBSCR. His railway work began in June 1914, joining as a lad porter at Hayling Island station. He was paid 12 shillings per week. His recommendation for railway work came from school – but had his father helped secure a place for his son?
In June 1916 Alfred was moved – to Chichester, but only for a brief while, as in November 1916 he was moved to Havant, as a porter, on 17 shillings per week. He could have walked, cycled or even caught the train from Langstone toll gate to his various workplaces over the years. Whilst at Chichester he joined the National Union of Railwaymen, though it seems he transferred to the Havant branch when it was established in 1918.
In June 1918 Alfred was transferred back to Hayling Island station as a signal porter, with pay increased to 19 shillings per week. He stayed there for at least as long as the LBSCR records continued – until 1922. Whilst there he suffered an unspecified accident which led to a sprained knee, on 16 January 1921. He was off work for two weeks, and received £4.19.2 in compensation – around £275 today.
Alfred remained with the railways until at least 1939, by which time he was a signalman. He had married Florence Kite, and they were living in North Hayling. He died in 1962.
Once again, from a relatively brief mention in the accident record, it’s possible to put one life in context and build a picture of a railway family and the nature of their work. We can see all sorts of wider social aspects too – how families might be altered by death, how empire impinged upon people’s consciousness, how life in the Hayling area was influenced by the railways, and more.
Mike Esbester
I’m Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Portsmouth, and one of the wider Railway Work, Life & Death project co-leads. I’ve greatly enjoyed the Portsmouth Area Railway Pasts project and have valued the chance to learn with and learn from Neil, Ann, Geoff and Alan – and to share what we’ve uncovered here.