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!
Henry Wildsmith is an example of how the railways changed society. He was born in 1845 in Warwickshire, as part of a boating family. He was one of at least 10 children.
At some point between 1861 and 1871 Henry left the canals and joined the railways. In 1871 Henry was employed as a porter in Stoke-on-Trent. On the 1881, 1891 and 1901 census, he was shown as a goods guard.
Yet by 1911, aged 66, he was a ‘pointsman’ – someone who would set the tracks for goods wagons to go down. Had his age meant a change of role was necessary? Or had he had an accident which meant he could no longer be so active as he had been?
With his wife Annie, they had at least 12 children. He lived to be 74, and worked on the railways until his death from a health complaint in 1919. This was a relatively old age to be doing manual labour. Before extensive social security provision was made, it was necessary to work for as long as possible.