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.
Who was George Abbott?
The 1911 Census shows him working as a railway signalman and living at 9 Market Lane, Havant, with his wife. She was Emma Harriet Abbott, aged 41, a housewife who was born in Alton. Their son, George Thomas Abbott, was 14 and had been born in Pevensey. A boarder working at Havant Tannery made up the household. George Senior was said to be aged 42 giving a date of birth of 1869.
The 1901 Census has him working in Havant as a railway signalman aged 32, with the same family details save for a different boarder who was a railway clerk.
Tracking George back through each census shows him in Newhaven in 1891 working as a railway porter and living as a boarder at 18 Clifton Terrace, Newhaven.
In 1881 aged 14 he was living with his father, John Abbott (a shepherd), his mother Emily, and several siblings at Netley Farm in the parish of Hound in Old Netley. George is an under shepherd.
Previously he was aged 3 and living at Farm Houses in Hound with his family in the 1871 Census. He was baptized on 16 June 1867 in the parish of Hound, and his birth is recorded in 1867, Quarter 3, vol 2c, p 42 in the District of South Stoneham.
Moving forward to George’s marriage, the entry for 1 April 1895 says he was 27 and working as a signalman at Westham, near Pevensey in Sussex. His son, George Thomas Abbott, was baptised on 28 March 1897 at Westham adjacent to Pevensey.
Where did he work?
The UK Railway Employment Records 1833 – 1956 on Ancestry give a selection of entries for G Abbott. By focusing on the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway records, and using his Union number and the person who recommended him, Mr. Goldring, we can add details of his railway career to the above, mainly from the Registers of Employees at Stations and Union Membership records. The records are not always easy to date.
He entered service in July 1889 with a birth year of 1868, and was a porter aged 19 and then 24 at Hayling. The main station there was at South Hayling.
He then moved to Newhaven Harbour Station on 7 October 1890 and was subsequently recorded as a shunter there. On 3 June 1893 he moved to Pevensey as a signal porter from Rowfant, outside Crawley.
The records for Havant are difficult to date but describe him as a ‘signalman (west)’ from 3 December 1899. We know he was in Havant from 1901 onwards from the Census.
Courtesy Ralph Cousins.
We can see he has worked his way up from porter moving from station to station to become an established signalman working in Havant and living in the centre of Havant close to the station.
Courtesy Ralph Cousins.
This photograph is taken from the footbridge over New Lane facing west. The locomotive in the centre is on the main line, with the goods sidings on the right. The coaches on the left are part of the ‘Puffing Billy’ service to Hayling Island. On the far left is the east signal box.
This is the same view today showing the main line and the car parks over both the Hayling line and the goods sidings.
What do we know about his accident?
The National Union of Railwaymen Disablement Fund gives the initial details for Mr G. Abbott, membership number 373512, of the, Portsmouth Branch which he joined on 25 October 1912. He was 46, and employed as a signalman on the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. On 3 February 1915 George was awarded a sum of £20 (around £2200 in 2025) for an accident that occurred on 23 July 1914. No details are given for his accident.
Searching Find My Past Newspapers reveals an unexpected accident involving George.
Courtesy FindMyPast Newspapers
An entry in the “Remarks” column for one of the Railway Employment Records gives more information. George’s entry says he was incapacitated on 1 September 1914 (following the accident on 23 July 1914) and granted an ill-health pension. This would fit with the Union Disablement Fund records but gives no specific detail.
His death
Sadly, George died on 26 April 1920 at the age of 52 at 9 Market Lane, Havant. The cause of death was a dilated heart, which may have made him increasingly unwell and less able over time. He had been working as a coal merchant’s clerk after being pensioned from the railway. His son, who was resident at Herne Bay, was present at the death.
Probate was granted for just over £147, worth about £7,500 today. The local papers did not report on his funeral, but George’s wife posted her thanks for the support she received.
Courtesy Find My Past Newspapers
The New Lane Municipal Cemetery is George’s last resting place, a couple of hundred yards from his signal box. The Cemetery plan shows the grave site.
Looking from the spot marked with a red cross in the direction of the red arrow the grave marked in blue still has its gravestone. It is visible here as the grey gravestone with the cross. George’s grave marked in yellow lies between the path and this gravestone.
What happened to George’s family after his death?
The 1921 Census shows his widow, Emma, had moved to live with her son and his family at Herne Bay. She was working as a charwoman at the Isolation Hospital. Her son has married Lilian Maud Ashby, a widow with five children aged 5 to 15. Her first husband died in the horrific accident at Faversham in 1916 when over a hundred people were killed in an explosion at the gunpowder mill. Since then, she and George Junior had a two-year-old daughter Joyce as the sixth child. George Junior was working as a general gardener at the large Railwaymen’s Convalescent Home at Herne Bay. Was this a post he had obtained through his family working for the railways? Or did his father spend time there?
The story of the ten Railway Convalescent Homes is available here. This website describes how the combination of John Edwards Nichols, Cashier of the London, Chatham & Dover Railway and John Passmore Edwards, the newspaper owner and great philanthropist, led to the Convalescent Homes being established. Herne Bay was the first home to be built and opened in 1901 and cared for Railwaymen until the 1970s.
A photograph of George?
This photograph has been taken looking south into North Street and shows the Havant west signal box. And is this George at work inside?
by Geoff Robinson