The order of service (which is still on sale at the Imperial War Museum) stated that 186,475 railwaymen of Great Britain and Ireland joined HM’s Forces, and that, of those, 18,957 were killed in action or died of their wounds. On May 14, 1919, barely six months after the Armistice, there was a service at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, to commemorate the contribution of the railways during the war, and particularly in memory of the railwaymen who died in the service of their country.Īllegedly the service was organised at the request of His Majesty, King George V, who was certainly there on the day. The rapidly developed motor vehicles that the armed forces no longer needed were dumped at give-away prices on the open market, unleashing unregulated road competition from which the industry has never fully recovered.Įven more damaging was the cost to the industry in manpower. In four years they went from being robust businesses that stood firmly on their own feet to ones that were near bankrupt, with their assets worn out by over-use for military traffic, and faced with massive new forms of competition.
The Great War cost Britain’s railways dear.
