We take the people who work on the railways very much for granted. Sometimes, we get jolted out of our complacency, as with Samir Zitouni, who shielded passengers with his own body during the Huntingdon stabbing attack and was left hospitalised and fighting for his life.
Now, a little while back, I got off the train at Wymondham, once an important railway junction, though no more – the ambitious plans for a new station for the Mid-Norfolk heritage railway near the main line station have come to nothing.
Wymondham (you pronounce this one "Windum", by the way, unlike the one near Bonkers Hall in Leicestershire) is a town with a history. Back in the 16th century, a brave and principled local landowner named Robert Kett led an ultimately doomed uprising early in the reign of Edward VI. He was hanged in chains at Norwich Castle (some reports say that he took three days to die), and was forgotten as a failure for many years, but his story has been rescued from obscurity and now Wymondham takes pride in him.
When you arrive at Wymondham station, an illustrated sign, bearing drawings of the Market Cross and of Wymondham Abbey, welcomes you to what is rightly described as a fine historic town.
There is a poignant dedication on the station sign: "Dedicated to a loyal railwayman, who died in the cause of duty – Walter James Stolworthy, of Wymondham (1927-1988)". Having lived hereabouts for 15 years, I knew nothing of Walter Stolworthy, of his loyalty, or of his devotion to duty. What had become of him? Had he, like "Sam" Zitouni, sought to protect others? Internet searches yielded no information.
I found the answer in the pages of the Eastern Daily Press for 14 October 1988. It turned out to be distressingly banal. He had been working with colleagues on the track near a level crossing at nearby Attleborough. And he had been fatally struck by a Sprinter train, one of the diesel multiple-units introduced a few years previously.
It's a reminder that although railways are a very safe form of transport – it used to be said that the safest place in the world was the inside of a British railway train – danger is not far away, particularly with the relatively quiet diesel and electric trains. And indeed, the day after Walter Stolworthy was killed, an elderly couple were seriously injured when a train hit their car on an unmanned crossing near Oulton Broad, and one of them died the following month.
In fact, railway workers have faced danger for many years. The National Railway Museum accompanies a display of safety posters and literature with the sobering statistic that in 1900 alone over 16,000 railway workers were injured or killed, and by 1913, that figure was over 30,000. Much has been done to protect railway workers from danger, but that danger will never be eliminated, as the unfortunate Walter Stolworthy found to his cost.
Walter was married and had three grown up daughters. And there were two death notices for him in the Eastern Daily Press. One mourned him as "loving father and grandfather, tragically taken from us, doing the job he loved." The other simply remembered him as a good friend.
He died doing a job he loved, he was loved and missed by his family and his friends. That deserves a memorial. And he deserves to be more than just a forgotten name.
Neil Hickman is a retired county court judge, amateur historian and independent parish councillor. He is the author of Despotism Renewed? Lord Hewart Unburied.
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