Memorium
This is the page to remember former colleauges who are no longer with us.
Pictures are being added as and when available
Name/age Date of passing Last work role/location if known Comments Picture Colin Taylor 29th July 2025 Chris Wells Early June 2025
Doncaster In the early eighties at Worksop S&T, and then in the early nineties at Doncaster Area Tech Support. Eddie Taylor May 2025
Aged 64
Derby Telecoms / cable jointer Wayne Richardson 20th April 2025
Aged 58
Cross Rail Tom McLuckie March 2025
Retired
Network rail Supply chain Barbara Shellis 26th Nov 2024 Barbara worked for Telecoms in the West Midlands and one of her jobs was in Thales Fault Control located Quayside Tower. Welton "Ben" Benjamin 10th Sept 2024
Retired at 67
Dave Peterson Sept 2024
WR/Amey/Network Rail Grant McDougall 30th Aug 2024
Aged 51
Eastern region Telecoms staff past and present Mitchell Farquhar 11th May 2024 Ken Fowler 3rd April 2024 Ken Fowler formerly of the Telecoms Works department located at Stanier House, Quayside Tower and latterly at Saltley Depot Nick Brook Feb 2024 George Ashley 11th Dec 2023 Roy Pemberton 2nd Sept 2023 Manchester Mike Watkins 10th Sept 2023 Birmingham Birmingham and on the International Train Radio and GSM-R Kevin Schofield July 2023
Aged 72
Newport Area Signal Engineer at Sheffield in the early 1980s and also spent some time on Anglia before becoming DS&TE at Newport. Paul Speed 29th June 2023
Aged 65
Radio Engineer Retired July 2020 Stan Wildig 9th May 2023
Retired
Aged 81
He had worked in telecoms design at Crewe and Birmingham and was always available to share his great knowledge with a smile and good humour, and he was affectionately known to many in the industry as the ‘telecomic’.
Brian Maltby 23rd Aug 2022
Early 90's
Mainly in the York area Telecomms dept. will remember him as the Supervisor and a FISTO in K2
Tommy Gore 11th April
2022John Wyatt 21st Mar 2022 Southern S&T and then Fieldforce John was killed in a bicycle accident on the 21st March 2022
Pete Russell 12th Dec 2021
Aged 91
Ian Corker December 2021 Paul William Raymond (Billy) 30th Nov 2021 Retford? Howard Kenyon 21st Nov 2021 Exeter Paul Mobbs 23rd Oct 2021 Retired Paul Mobbs passed away in the early hours of Saturday 23rd October due to cancer. Eddie Frodsham 3rd Sept 2021 Eddie passed away on 3rd Sept in the care home that he had been in for the last 3 years Brian Hassall 1st Sept 2021 Reading Telecom Projects Engineer Mike Benford 19th Aug 2021
Aged 75
Reading CDC Tony Ball Aug 2021
Aged 94
Mercury House
CreweTechnician maintaining the Strad System (Teleprinter Switching System) Ken Moran 7th Jun 2021 Preston Preston S & T Norman Gregory April 2021
Retired
BRHQ Data Team Transmission engineer on the LM Region at Carlow Street before moving to BRHQ to join the data team. Lived in Bedford Dave Cook 2nd April 2021 Pete Pignali Dec 2020
Retired
Steve Harmison 13/14th Dec 2020 John Bedford 24th Nov 2020
Retired
CDC Marylebone Victor Penketh 15th Nov 2020 Legend in his own right. Railwayman, musician singer, driving instructor and author. Jeff Hackett
14th June 2020
Retired
Aged 80
Manchester Thales Jeff retired back in the spring of 2005 while we were still at Thales having completed 50 x years’ service as a S/Tech, Cable Jointer, starting with BR at Bolton depot. Most of his career was then spent with the Telecoms Works Engineer team at Manchester (Cow Pen then Ardwick). Jeff then spent the last 10 x years of his service with my Cables Team based in Manchester / North West area when we reported into Adrian Moss, Jane Church and then Malcolm Wilkinson.
​Sad to announce but the much loved Jeff Hackett passed away 14th June 2020. Aged 80 he suffered a heart attack. He will be cremated and his wish is for his ashes to be scattered on the railway.Chris White
12th May 2020
Retired
Aged 78
BRT HQ Link to write up coming soon Peter Maddocks 13th Feb 2020 Bryan Groves
May 2019 Bryan was ATM at Brighton, then Croydon fault control and finally I believe that he was Assistant Territory Operations Manager for the South
Link to write up coming soon
John Broadbent 10th May 2019 Eastern Region Telecomms HQ at York. BR John started his long railway service as an apprentice in York S&T Workshop. He moved into Work Study and then transferred to the Eastern Region Telecomms HQ at York Keith Mann 31st Mar 2019 Bristol Jim Bolton 21st Mar 2019 Formally of York depot and York S&T Training School Alf Marshall 25th Jan 2019 Ex Project Engineer from the York Telecomms. Office Windsor Richards 29th Dec 2018
Retired
S&T (BR, BRT, RACAL, THALES)
Cable Jointer
South Wales.Merv Prowse 3-9th Dec 2018 Crewe & Derby Instructor at Crewe and Derby Technician at Shrewsbury, Stafford, Warrington; instructor at Crewe and Derby Dave Birchall Early Nov 2018
Retired
Manchester Dave Birchall retired in June 2017. Dave completed over 40 x years continuous service as a Cable Jointer in the Manchester area. Dave was originally with the BR Telecoms Works (TWE) team based at the Cow Pen, later at Ardwick depot in Manchester. Then transferring to Mtce around 1995 where he worked with my team when I was Cable Team Leader Manchester for over 10 x years through privatisation, working with Jeff Hackett over most of those years. Dave came back in house with us in 2009 and continued to work in the Manchester area with Steve Robinson’s team until he retired. Arthur Turkington
20th Oct 2018
Retired
Aged 76
London Midland Region
Personnel and Human Resources at HQArthur will be known to so many on the London Midland Region as the face of Personnel and Human Resources at Headquarters.
He was involved in the administration of so many re-organisations. He was a most amiable character and because of the nature of his role he knew "us" better than we knew him. He was an ever present at the Fellowship until ill health prevented his attendance.Dave Glover 11th Oct 2018 Thales Radio Section Nigel Webb 17th Sep 2018 Thales Nigel was on the Western Region as an S&T Trainee and then ended up in Telecoms (Reading Project Office I think). He then left BR and joined BT returning to Racal (Thames Trains Contract) and then working in the SQE Team in Thales. Robin Nunney 16/17th Sep 2018 Robin was formerly Head of Tech Support (Telecoms) for the Birmingham area. Robin had worked the majority of his career on the West Coast Main Line. Bill Knowles 29th Aug 2018 Euston Long serving Supervisor
at Euston TelecommsStan Fletcher 3rd June 2018
Retired
Aged 87
Liverpool, Crewe, Manchester Liverpool, Crewe, Manchester and cameos across many parts of LMR Retired 1995
Senior Technician Stan’s early Rail career was as a Fireman on local steam services out of Liverpool Central.
In the early 60’s he joined the S&T and progressed from Lineman to Senior Technician. He completed 49 yrs service.Nigel Holroyd 11th Mar 2018
Retired
Doncaster Nigel was the radio engineer in BR days at Doncaster in the 90’s Dave Lewis 30th Jan 2018
Retired
Aged 77
Many comments will be added to the letters page coming soon Mike (Bilco) Bayliss 6th Jan 2018
Retired
Aged 84
York/Darlington York, Global Crossing Darlington Wes Dodds <11th Jan 2018
Retired
Aged 97
York Malcolm Austin 7th Dec 2017 Gloucester Was Telecomms supervisor at Worcester and Gloucester tech and TMA Gordon W Smith 27th Nov 2017
Retired
Aged 74
Worked at
Doncaster and Retford TelecommsAdrian Askam 20/21st Nov 2017 Doncaster Dennis Lister 27th Sept 2017
Retired
Aged 79
Scunthorpe Scunthorpe Retired TO Gilbert Fox 9th Sept 2017
Retired
Aged 91
York? Retired TO in York Exchange in the 70's and early 80's. Before that he was lineman in York Signalbox. Colin Andrews 1st Aug 2017
Retired
Aged 74
York D401 Colin worked in York Exchange
in the 70’s & 80’s
and then moved to
D401 Hudson HouseDave Murtagh 13th May 2017 Reading Cable section Frank Green 7th May 2017
Retired
Aged 83
Bristol Bristol TMA
See letters page for details coming soonJenny Maissey
8th Mar 2017
Retired
50 Liverpool St Health & Safety audits within Anglia Region Pete Maissey 17th Feb 2017 Anglia East Anglia & Eastern region private contractor but one of the family
Working on many projects from the 80'sSteve Ridgeon 22nd Jan 2017
Retired
York Fred Kerr 28th Dec 2016 Crewe Brian Matthews 19th Nov 2016 Derby Telecomm Installer at Derby and worked with myself Brian Roberts and George Fisher in the East Midlands Norman Henderson 14th Oct 2016
Retired
Aged 71
York Railtrack 1999 Caroline Nelson 5th Oct 2017 Ipswich David (Dave) John Maidman 5th Sept 2016
Aged 54
Ashford MCI Worldcom Peter Sutton 5th Sept 2016 Keith Annakin 19th Aug 2016
Retired
Aged 72
Terence (Tom) Leslie O'Malley
[Winlaton]16th June 2016
Retired
Aged 69
Pat Verdult 16th Mar 2016 Wimbeldon Schemes Engineer Pat worked as a Technical Officer at Waterloo Tele Exchange for many years , then promoted to Maintainance Supervisor, finally retiring as Schemes Engineer at Wimbledon. Steve Lester 13th Feb 2016 Preston Preston Telecoms Mike Kilbride Late Jan 2016 William (Bill) Hall 29th Dec 2015
Retired
Aged 85
Doncaster After being in Signalling at Leeds bill move into telecoms at Doncaster, firstly on the technical side and then the offices via a supervisors post. Les Heard <12th Oct 2015 Southern and beyond,
(especially to those of you involved in Level Crossing Orders.)Derek Pollard 23rd Sept 2015 Steve Haigh 19th Sep 2015
Aged 58
Arthur Smithson 4th Jun 2015
Retired
Ipswich S&T(painter) Ipswich Joanne Tweedhope ??
Formerly Joanne Wilde1st May 2015 Died of Cancer. She worked for Don Glenn for a number years. She got married to a guy who worked for S&T. Surname I think was Tweedhope?
Joanne worked in a number of jobs for BRT, Racal, Global Crossing etc. She did a lot of Auditing of ISO 9000 on behalf of BRT, Racal and Global Crossing.
Worked for Railtrack (and then Network Rail) Records Centre in Hudson House, York.When the records moved out to Heworth Moor (I believe?) Jo followed them. She worked with Railway records in terms of the civil and P-way sideGeorge Hoggar May 2015
Aged 80
Retired
Ipswich Ken Bainbridge
Nick name Go Go23rd April 2015
Aged 71
Retired
Liverpool Liverpool Stores auditing and admin / Thales Started as BR telegraph delivery boy, through admin to signalling and eventually telecoms. Responsible for helping to bring telecom stores up to latest standards. Terry Amoroso 2015 Roger Woodham 1st Dec 2014
Aged 64+
Retired
Reading Reading Project Offices Lived in Reading Brian Tellwright 23 Nov 2014 Chester Randolph Flatts 30/10/2014
Aged 61
Kings Cross David Wheeler 22/10/2014
Aged 73
Retired
Passed away after a long illness.
Funeral service 14th Nov 2014
St Annes Church, Eastworth Road, Chertsey, followed by cremation
24.10.1940 - 22.10.2014Gerry Chinn 21st October
2014Cardiff Jerry Malcolm 11/10/2014 Glasgow Network Rail Estimator Mike Goldsworthy 27/08/2014
Aged 67Global Crossing 1947 - 2014
York Project Office
and latterly with Global CrossingDarrel Wainwright 25/08/2014 Operations Director at Magdalene Ian Findlay 08/04/2014 John Cargill 13/01/2014 Croydon Retired Telecomms Support in Croydon Member of the retired Southern S&T social group.
John worked in Wimbledon and, before he retired, worked in Croydon Exchange as Radio Maintenance Engineer.
02/01/2014 Southern Region/TerritoryRetired Derek Lawler 2014 Bernard McCabe
August 2013 MD Passcomm Hellermann Electric, AC Egerton or more recently at the company he founded – Passcomm http://www.passcomm.co.uk/bernard-mccabe-c139.html James Macaleenan 16th June
2013
Aged 59Network Rail Telecoms Mtce in Scotland Telecoms Maint NR
Scotland With almost 40 Yrs service from BR through Thales and back to NRAlan Eggby 8th May
2013Waterloo / Ashford Telecoms SR Cable Supervisor Retired Ron Freeman
2nd April
2013Liverpool Street Maintenance Supervisor 80’s & 90’s Retired Ron retired from BR on 21st March 1993 along with Pete Russell & Pete Pinagli Peter Saunders w/e 23rd March
2013Milton Keynes area (Thales) Dave Petrie 2013 Retired Derek Lee 08/11/2012 Doncaster Known as Tom or Tommy Bobby O'Neill 08/05/2012 London
Cable Jointer (Retired)
Pete Cousins 23/04/2012
Aged 77
Peterborough ex-Peterborough and March telecoms Pete Bartlett 2011 Greg Johnston End of April 2011 Friars Bridge Control He moved from the post of installer in Birmingham to Telecoms Control in Euston PSB before moving to Friar’s Bridge Control. Arthur Edwards 20/04/2011 Crewe Arthur retired in 1989 after 50 years’ service at Crewe Rodger Mitchell 03/04/2012 LNW Based in and around West Coast South & although he was not part of the West Midlands S&T – he was involved over the years with work on the
A S & T E, Inter City West Coast, GTRM, Carillion & Network Rail LNW.Ted Redman 22/01/2011 Chesterfield ??? Andy Howard 14/12/2010
Aged 43
Doncaster Terry Pembroke 16/07/2010
Peter Donoghue Sept 2010 Derby Telecoms Area Engineer Dave Petrie (Vulcan Dave) 16/06/2010 CDC Blandford House Mr NTN Dave will be known to many of you all either from the former Southern Region, CDC Blandford House, of latterly as Mr NTN (National Teleprinter Network) if you had any dealings with NTN Dave was your man as he managed it from its conception until it was turned off a few years ago. Dave will always be remembered as the photographer at any of the re unions especially Peterborough and the CDC get together’s so if you have had your photo taken then it most probably would be by Dave.He was also very active in the Vulcan to the sky project since retirement.A gentleman, friend and work colleague will be sadly missed. Alan Glover 19/04/2010
Aged 81
York Many people will remember Alan from the ‘African Village’ in York and the exploits after he had been to the Bar Hotel in an afternoon when in York. He will always be remembered for the false teeth that were glued together after being spat out of the open window in his bedroom at the Mount Pleasant hotel in London after a session in the pub and the many years he worked in Anglia. Eddy Salter 07/04/2010 Alan Hepworth 20/02/2010 Manchester
Cable Jointer
Ray Exley 10/02/2010 York D401 Drawing Office Ray left British Rail due to ill health when he was diagnosed with MS in his early 40’s and lived by himself at Clifton.
He originated from March in East Anglia and transferred to York telephone exchange in the late 70’s finally finishing in the D401 drawing office at York.Norman Richardson 02/01/2009
Aged 81
Newcastle ATE Paul Rumley 2002ish Manchester Colin Andrews Keith Annakin John Cargill
