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.
The 1911 & 1921 Census together suggest that Robert Spicer was born in Dover in April 1855. Indeed, the General Register Office (GRO) gives a registration there in the September quarter, with a mother’s maiden name of Decent. Robert was baptised on 29 August 1855 at St James Dover, the son of James and Anne Spicer.
The 1861 Census allows the creation of a basic family tree showing John to be the eldest son of John and Ann Slattery of Dover born around 1814. John was born in Herne, 20 miles away on the north Kent coast in about 1814.
Investigation of GRO births and deaths fills in the family considerably:
In the 1871 Census his father is defined as a bricklayer, and Robert as a butcher aged 15. In the 1881 Census he is still in Dover, boarding at 49 Military Road, as a grocer’s labourer aged 27.
The railway records show that he joined the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway with an employment number of 7630, on 7 October 1882. He would have been aged about 28, shortly before he married Louisa on 7 December 1882 in St Mary, Lambeth. He was initially employed at Battersea Wharf as a checker, then later a shunter. He was promoted to guard on 9 August 1884.
They remained in the London area for some years as two children were born in Lambeth and three more in Battersea. Robert was employed as a railway goods guard. All the children were baptised at St Phillips, Battersea, as a ‘job lot’ on 28 May 1890. This might just have been convenience as they were living at St Philips Cottages, presumably close to the church. The building now houses an Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
By 1891 they have moved and are living at 73 Telephone Road in Southsea. This runs between Fawcett Road and Francis Avenue, close to Fratton Station and parallel to the railway line which is clearly visible in the top left corner of this map. Robert is still employed as a goods guard.
By 1901 they have moved just two streets further north to 49 Jessie Road Portsmouth; two more children have been born in Southsea in 1893 and 1895. Robert continues to be employed as a goods guard. He was moved to Havant and employed as the gatekeeper on 27 December 1910.
In the 1911 Census the family are settled in the Gate House at Warblington Halt where Robert is now employed as the gatekeeper. The younger daughters have now followed their older sister into the tailoring trade.
Robert is recorded in the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants union Disablement Register on 27 January 1913; at this point he is 58 years old. Having been employed at gate 65, late gate 18 (I suspect the gates had been renumbered) from 1910, on 24 January 1913 he was retired for pension on 21 shillings.
He is living, still with his wife Louisa, at 16 Thorney Road, Hermitage, Emsworth in 1921. Although I know she outlived him, still being alive in 1939 and a widow, I cannot confirm a death date for Robert.
The seven children continued to prosper but living descendants have not yet been discovered despite extensive investigations.
Neil Spurgeon
Neil Spurgeon, one of the researchers for the Railway Work, Life & Death, Portsmouth Area Railway Pasts project, is now on his third career, but he doesn’t get paid for this one!
Following 30 years in the Royal Navy culminating as a Chief Communications Yeoman training Saudi Arabian Mine Countermeasures crews for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, he retired taking up posts in the teaching and training industries with lecturing roles in Further and Higher Education, as an Advisor on Electronic Government Development to West Sussex County Council and ended as IT Manager at Fareham College.
He is now Chairman of the Havant Local History Group which meets informally each month at The Spring Arts and Heritage Centre to investigate local history and through which research projects such as Portsmouth Area Railway Pasts are investigated. This has led, in turn, to an annual Havant Heritage Festival each September for which Neil leads a consortium of local interested groups to offer insight into local history and heritage.
References
GRO Births Dover 1855 Volume 02A Page 595
Dover Union 1849 Volume 05 Page 125
Dover 1851 Volume 05 Page 142
Census RG9/549
Brighton, London and South Coast Employment Records 1838-1884 Battersea Wharf Page 46
Brighton, London and South Coast Employment Records 1854-1910 Willow Walk and Newhaven Harbour – Portsmouth Joint Staff Page 61
Brighton, London and South Coast Employment Records 1861-1922 Willow Walk and Newhaven Harbour – Portsmouth Page 61
Brighton, London and South Coast Employment Records 1856-1912 Havant Page 200
Brighton, London and South Coast Employment Records 1864-1917 Havant Page 199