Ron Garraway
| Ron Garraway | |
|---|---|
 R H R (Ron) Garraway at his desk in Cambridge, 1936 | |
| Born | 1894 |
| Died | 1972 |
| Official positions held: | |
| FR Soc. Director | 1954 - 1968 |
| FR Soc. Post | Finance Sec. 1954 - 1967 |
| FR Trust | 1956 - ? |
| FR People | WHR People | |
Ron H. R. Garraway, Allan's father, was born in 1894 at Carshalton, Surrey and had a distinguished career in the motive power department of the Great Eastern Railway and its successors from 1911 to 1954. He started as a premium apprentice at Stratford in 1911. He volunteered and served in the army from January 1918 to 1920 mainly in Egypt as a Foreman Fitter in the running shed as Quartermaster Sergeant in Kantara. After demobilisation in March 1920 he supervised locomotive repairs at Woolwich Arsenal for a while. He returned to main line railways as District Mechanical Inspector at Peterborough. He was from 1921 Assistant District Loco Superintendent at Cambridge and then from 1941 District Loco Superintendent at Lincoln until his retirement on 1st January 1955. He became a director of the then Festiniog Railway Society in the year of his retirement from British Railways, taking on the duties of the Society's Membership and Financial Secretary, a task which he did not fully relinquish until 1967.[1]
For a few years he was group engineer for a body organising apprentice training among small firms in the Croydon area, a subject very dear to him, as was staff welfare generally throughout his career. He was never happier though, than on his regular visits to the Festiniog Railway, applying his lifetime's experience to the FR's locomotives or, as often as not, working with his wife Connie and sister Ruth in the buffet cars, a new-found activity in a very full life.
According to Festipedia he was a member of the Festiniog Railway Trust from 1956. The date his membership ended is not recorded. He was appointed FRS Vice-President in 1967 and attended board meetings to within a month of his death. His presence and words of wisdom were much appreciated at board meetings. Ron died on 9th August 1972.[2]
Much of his life is recorded in his son's "Garraway, Father and Son" published by Middleton Press in 1985.[3]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Personal Portrait", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 003, page(s): 002
- ^ "Obituary", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 058, page(s): 003
- ^ Garraway, Allan (1985). Garraway, Father and Son. Midhurst, West Sussex, England: Middleton Press. ISBN 0906520207. OCLC 17508087.