A TRADITIONAL act of Remembrance took place at the West Somerset Railway Heritage Trust’s Gauge Museum, at Bishops Lydeard station on Saturday (November 9).

The trust is custodian of possibly the only original roll of honour commemorating the 2,500 Great Western Railway staff who made the ultimate sacrifice during World War One.

The roll of honour is displayed in the Gauge Museum, where the memorial was rededicated last year.

The Rev Martin Parry leads a Remembrance service in the Gauge Museum at Bishops Lydeard station.
The Rev Martin Parry leads a Remembrance service in the Gauge Museum at Bishops Lydeard station. ( )

Saturday’s service was led by the Rev Martin Parry, and three representatives of the Royal Marine’s 40 Commando attended, led by a sergeant who served for nearly 26 years including two tours of duty in Afghanistan.

He was accompanied by two Naval ratings, while representatives of the Royal British Legion’s Dunkirk Memorial House included two widows of veterans.

Other attendees included new MP Rachel Gilmour, parish councillors, and representatives of the local communities along the West Somerset Railway’s heritage line.

The principal cornet player Graham Davies, from Wellington Silver Band, played the Last Post and Reveille.

Pictured at Bishops Lydeard station are (left to right) West Somerset Railway Heritage Trust chairman Mike Thompson, MP Rachel Gilmour, West Somerset Railway Association chairman Geoff Garfield, trust president Chris Austin, and West Somerset Railway general manager Kerry Noble.
Pictured at Bishops Lydeard station are (left to right) West Somerset Railway Heritage Trust chairman Mike Thompson, MP Rachel Gilmour, West Somerset Railway Association chairman Geoff Garfield, trust president Chris Austin, and West Somerset Railway general manager Kerry Noble. ( )

The trust thanked the West Somerset Railway plc for allowing its GWR Manor Class locomotive Odney Manor to be renamed as Norton Manor ‘40 Commando’, complete with a 40 Commando headboard.

The locomotive was in steam outside the museum for the duration of the service.

On Armistice Day, 1922, the then-chairman of the Great Western Railway, Viscount Churchill, unveiled a bronze war memorial on platform one of Paddington Station.

At the same time, the GWR produced lithographed rolls of honour mounted in a wooden frame which were put up at the company’s principal stations.

A poppy wreath laid on the temporarily renamed steam locomotive Norton Manor ‘40 Commando’ on the West Somerset Railway line.
A poppy wreath laid on the temporarily renamed steam locomotive Norton Manor ‘40 Commando’ on the West Somerset Railway line. ( )

Just four of those remain at stations today, at Bristol Temple Meads, Taunton, Exeter St David’s, and Newton Abbot, but they are all replicas.

The one held by the Gauge Museum in Bishops Lydeard is an original.

When the Gauge Museum was refurbished in 2019-20, the plastic frame and perspex previously used to protect the roll were replaced by a wooden frame and glass.

The wooden frame is based on the one at Exeter St David’s with the GWR coat of arms on the top and was made by an apprentice at a joinery in Isle Abbots.