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.
Please note that a fuller life story is under preparation – coming soon!
Railway workers often played – and still play – a part in the life of the places where they lived and worked. North Staffordshire Railway goods guard Edward Briggs was no exception.
He supported the railway orphanage at Derby. He was an active trades unionist, joining the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS; now the RMT) in 1897. He also represented fellow railway workers on the North Staffordshire Trades and Labour Council (what’s now North Staffordshire Trades Union Council).
In 1908 Edward was killed in an accident at Longport (north-west of Stoke), knocked down by a passing train. Colleagues on the Trades and Labour Council called him ‘a rough diamond’. The ASRS helped support Edward’s five children, including his daughter born after his death. The Union also helped secure £248.12.8 compensation for his wife Alice – worth around £34,600 now.