This page is one of a series introducing railway staff who worked in and around Stoke-on-Trent before 1939. They’ve been researched as part of the ‘Tracks through Time’ initiative – which you can read more about here.
The workers featured were largely selected from staff who appear in the Railway Work, Life & Death project database of accidents to pre-1939 British and Irish railway workers.
Arthur Dean was born in 1897, in Stoke-on-Trent, to Thomas and Edith Dean. Arthur was the eldest of their three children. In 1911 the family was living at 111 Victoria Street in Basford (between Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme).
As we see in many of the other life stories of Stoke and Staffordshire railway staff, there were connections to the pottery industry. Arthur’s father, Thomas, was a potter’s presser, and Arthur’s younger brother, Frederick, also went into the industry. Arthur’s younger sister, Ethel, became a clerk for the Co-operative Society.
Arthur’s railway service
Not much is known about Arthur – including about his railway career. For some railway companies extensive staff records survive, detailing working lives. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case for Arthur.
Speculatively, given his age, it’s possible Arthur joined the railway before the First World War. If so, it’s likely, given the area, that he would have been employed by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR). We can’t find evidence of military service in the First World War, so it might have been the case that he was in a reserved occupation. Reserved occupations were those that were deemed so important that men couldn’t be spared to fight – including some railway roles. If that were the case for Arthur, he therefore wouldn’t have fought in the war.
On the 1921 Census Arthur was living at home with the rest of his family – at 29 Ashford Street, in Shelton. By this point he was definitely employed by the NSR, as a signalman. He joined the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) in 1927, as a signal lampman (in the signalling grades), via the Union’s Stoke No. 1 branch. By this time the NSR had been absorbed into a new company, the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).
Arthur’s role – as a lampman – meant he would have been responsible for checking and refilling signal lamps, and lighting and dousing lamps at the relevant times. Signal lamps were oil burning, used to illuminate signals at night and show train crews whether the signals were set at ‘danger’ or ‘proceed.’ This meant Arthur would have had to walk to and from the signals on his patch, along and across railway lines, including in low or poor light. There was, therefore, some risk involved in his work.
Arthur’s accident
Whilst we don’t know much about Arthur’s life and work, we do know a little about his accident. It was one of those investigated by the state accident investigators, the Railway Inspectorate, and led to a report which detailed the incident.
On 24 August 1931 Arthur was injured at Cliffe Vale sidings, to the north-west of Stoke station. According to the report, at around 3.15pm, Arthur was cleaning the windows of the signal box. To do so, the only way to get to the windows was by ladder. Arthur propped the feet of the ladder against the outer rail of the line nearest the signal box. As he was up the ladder, a passing steam engine hit the ladder. It broke, and Arthur fell to the ground. He bruised his back and shoulder as a result.
The investigation, by Inspector William Worthy Cooke, found Arthur to be responsible for the incident. It suggested he should have arranged for a lookout to keep watch for approaching trains. Interestingly, Cooke also recommended that fenced staging should be installed on the east and north sides of the signal box, from which the windows could be cleaned.
Beyond that, nothing else definite is known of Arthur’s railway work or personal life. This frequently happens. Sometimes it’s the result of a common name (John Smith, anyone?), so it’s impossible to say for sure if we’ve found the right person. Sometimes it’s simply a case that an individual hasn’t left much of a trace in the documentary record. As with all of the people we’ve looked into, if anyone knows more, we’d love to hear from them!