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Zachariah Hubbert seems to have taken a well-trod path: from agricultural labourer to industrial work. Born in 1845 in rural Lincolnshire, by 1871 he was living in London and employed as a fireman by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR). He was a member of the New Cross branch of the ASRS.
Reflecting how railway work often ran through families, at least four of Zachariah’s sons also worked on the railways. Unfortunately for Zachariah, his work led to his death.
On the evening of 15 June 1901, Zachariah was at London Victoria station. By this time he was an engine driver. He went under the engine to oil moving parts, when coaches were pushed up against the locomotive. The nudge caused the motion to crush Zachariah, and he was ‘strangled by his own engine’ according to a press report of the time.
The ASRS attempted to secure compensation for Zachariah’s death, but it’s unclear if it succeeded.
This account is one of over 20 life stories featured in the Railway Work, Life & Death project’s ‘Lives on the Line: Railway Workers, Accidents & Union Action’ exhibition at project partner the Modern Records Centre, from October 2026 until mid-January 2027. It was researched and put together by Julia Winterson, current University of Portsmouth PhD student, looking at the lives & accidents of later 19th- and early 20th-century British footplate crews.