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.
With a name like ‘Thomas Smith,’ the hopes weren’t high about finding out much about him. There would be a lot of contenders to choose from. Trying to work out which one was ‘our’ man would be challenging. And yet it proved possible: this is his life story.
Early life
Thomas Smith was born in Petersfield on 21 May 1879, to Thomas and Alice Smith. They were both born in Hampshire – Alice in Petersfield, Thomas in Selborne, nearby (and better known for being the home of the naturalist Gilbert White). On the 1891 Census Thomas (senior) was ‘general dealer’, and the family was living on Dragon Street in Petersfield. Thomas (junior) was the fourth of six children – in 1891 given as ‘Tom’ on the Census return. At this point he was still in education.
Thomas has proven more difficult to find on the 1901 Census. His parents and three of his siblings were living in Petersfield, still on Dragon Street. His father appears to have been a ‘furniture and potato dealer’ – an unusual combination. Thomas’s elder sister, Amelia, was a ‘lady help’, and his younger brothers were a coach smith (Edwin) and a chemist’s errand boy (Herbert).
Thomas might have been boarding in Croydon. Certainly a ‘T Smith’, born in 1880 in Petersfield appears on the Census return made by G Burgess. This T Smith was one of three boarders living with the Burgess family at 23 Farley Road. His occupation was recorded as a smith. This isn’t a perfect fit, but it seems likely – and we haven’t been able to find another T Smith on the 1901 Census who was born in Petersfield around 1879.
Thomas on the railway
Thomas reappears in the documentary record with more certainly after 1901. He joined the London & South Western Railway (LSWR) on 27 May 1905 at Eastleigh. According to his railway employment record he was living in Petersfield at the time, so it’s not clear why he started so far from home. Possibly there were no vacancies closer at hand.
Thomas was five feet nine inches tall, and provided three testimonials to secure his job as a transfer porter. When appointed he received 17 shillings per week (equivalent to about £120 in 2026). By mid-1907 his wage had increased to 19 shillings per week. In April 1910 he was appointed a ‘3rd shunter relief’; the ‘relief’ element meant that he would cover shifts for absent colleagues. This was a step into a new role. In May, his wage increased to 20 shillings per week; and only four weeks later he was in post as ‘3rd shunter’ – effectively taking the role on a more permanent basis.
However, something happened at this point. Thomas requested a change – whether of role or location – or both – is unclear. His employment record simply notes that he was transferred to Petersfield as a goods porter at his own request. This came with a lower wage – 18 shillings per week (worth around £125 in 2026). This shows that railway workers could exercise agency over their career path – albeit the Company didn’t have to agree.
Why did Thomas request the move? Did he want to be closer to home, and so took whatever role was available? Or was the type of work the motivating factor – did he want to step away from shunting, a very dangerous activity? Possibly this wasn’t the issue, as he would still have been around moving wagons whilst working as a goods porter. Sadly, this is the kind of thing the documentary record doesn’t reveal.
Thomas’s accident
On 13 February 1913, Thomas was involved in an accident. His shift was 11 and a half hours long; five hours in, at 11am, he was unloading wagons in the goods shed. To get a wagon into the right position he needed to move three others around six yards further on the line. As the line was sloping in the right direction, Thomas and a colleague, warehouseman H Summers, started the wagons moving, using gravity to do the rest.
Thomas walked between the final of the three wagons they were moving and the outside wall of the shed. This was so he had access to the wagon brake-lever, to apply the brakes at the right moment. Unfortunately he chose the wrong moment to apply the brakes, when it was near the exit of the shed. He was caught and injured between the wagon and the wall of the shed doorway. Seven of Thomas’s ribs were fractured. The official state investigation into the incident, undertaken by the Railway Inspectorate, concluded that Smith ‘was well acquainted with the place, and the accident can only be attributed to a want of care on his part.’
This was a fairly typical conclusion for railway staff accidents at this time. It was relatively easy to see behaviour as a root cause of incidents. Today an investigation would take into account a range of factors which it’s unclear whether or not they were considered in the past. This might include aspects like the system of work, the pressure the staff were under to get the job done, the level of training, whether mitigations were in place to remove or reduce the risk of an incident.
Thomas’s railway career after his accident
The accident didn’t put Thomas off railway work. By 1913 his wage had increased to £1.1.0 per week. He became a yard porter in June 1914, and then there’s a long gap in his employment record. In 1914 we know that Thomas joined the National Union of Railwaymen’s Petersfield branch.
In January 1920 Thomas’s LSWR staff record shows he became a ‘caller off, goods.’ This was someone who would load and unload wagons, but also call out the details of wagons from the labels each one carried. For this he was paid £3 per week (around £150 in 2026). His wages increased during the year, but from April 1921 his wages started to decrease. This would have been a result of the end of the ‘war bonus’, something paid to increase wages during and immediately after the First World War to counter high inflation. By July 1923 Thomas was down to a post-war low of £2.9.0 per week.
In October 1923 Thomas became a goods guard, paid £2.10.0 per week. In January 1925 this was increased to £2.11.0, but in July the same year reduced back to £2.10.0. Was this a punishment of some sort? If it was, it can’t have been too severe an issue, as in October 1925 his wage was increased to £2.15.0. In many cases, employment records for the LSWR stop before 1923, possibly because this was the point at which the Company was amalgamated into the newly-created Southern Railway.
Thomas’s record carries only one further entry. All of the career changes in his record were added in manuscript – bar the note used on Thomas’ file and no doubt many others, enough to warrant a purpose-made stamp. It read: ‘Participant in General Strike 1926.’ The Strike caused a great deal of ill-will between staff and management, including how some companies were vindicative against striking staff when they returned to work. Unfortunately we can’t see any more from Thomas’s staff record.
Thomas’s family life
At some point between 1911 and 1921 Thomas married Elizabeth Thorpe. They had a son, Edwin Samuel, born in early 1921 in Petersfield. On the 1921 Census they were living at 6 Bannerman Road in Petersfield. As is often the case, finding out much more about the family is tricky. On the 1939 Register Thomas remained employed as a guard, and he and Elizabeth were living at 19 Tilmore Road in Petersfield. Edwin would have been 18 at this point, and seems to have moved out. Beyond this nothing else is known for certain of the Smith family after 1939.
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.