Stephen Nunn tracks down Maldon railway men who went to war

His grandparents lived at Fullbridge and took in washing from the staff at nearby East Station.

Michael got to know some of them and visited them at work. He really hoped that he would eventually join their ranks, but when he left school he ended up at the Home and Colonial, at 42 High Street (now M&S).

Bored and unfulfilled, he plucked up courage, called in at the station and asked if there were any jobs going.

As a result, in 1959, he became a 'lad porter'. The following year he was promoted to engine cleaner and then, at the end of 1961, passed as a fireman.

At last he was on the footplate and life seemed idyllic, but changes were on the horizon.

Steam was slowly giving way to diesel and the old-world charm of the branch line began to fizzle out.

Michael transferred to Stratford, but then, in 1963, he left the railways for good.

After a short time at Sadd’s, he spent the next 36 years with the Post Office, but never forgot his time on the Maldon line.

He still treasures his collection of photos and can point out his colleagues - signalmen Albion Mead and Ambrose Gurton, co-lad porter Dennis Bullard, his hero, engine driver Ernie Mitton, and the gangers - Albert Hopwood, Bill Rumsey and Tabs Monk.

He also has a selection of tickets from those halcyon days, but for me, best of all, was what was inside an old cardboard folder.

“This is something I found on a shelf in the East Station attic store room,” he said. “I don’t suppose it’s salvageable.”

• The reconstructed Great Eastern Railway roll of honour

I took one look at the faded, fragile fragments and realised that it was all that was left of a Great Eastern Railway roll of honour from the 1914-18 war.

After piecing it back together, it became clear that large chunks were missing, but the all important roll was still there – six inked-in names, their regiments, ranks and the jobs that they did on the railway at the point of enlistment.

The first, simply recorded as 'Edwards', had no clear initials, rank or role, but stated served in '3/6th Bttn, Essex Res'.

Despite those omissions it actually turned out to be the easiest to research, for Ronald Edgar Edwards made the ultimate sacrifice and is included on the GER list of casualties as a clerk (from 1909) at Maldon East.

He enlisted at Maldon in February 1916, ended up in the 2nd Essex (as Private 34412) and was killed in action on May 3, 1917, aged 22.

He actually hailed from, and lived in, Braintree.

Ronald has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial in France.

'Moss, CE' was Charles Edward Moss, of Wick Hill, Spital Road.

Born in Woodham Ferrers in 1898, he worked as a porter at Maldon East, before enlisting in May 1916 in the Royal Engineers Railway Operating Division (as WR/262092).

Initially the GER said he “could not be spared”, but he was sent out to France in February 1917.

He survived, was released from service in 1919, returned to the railway as a guard, married Maud (née Burr) in 1922 and died in 1964.

'Freeman, SR' was Stanley Robert Freeman, born in Heybridge in 1898, the son of Robert, a fish hawker, and Emily Freeman.

As a child he lived in Cromwell Lane and then Mill Lane, Heybridge.

• Maldon East Railway Station (by permission Kevin Fuller)

The roll tells us he was sent to the 28th Training Reserve for basic training, probably towards the end of the war.

He married Ruby (neé Clarke) in 1922 and by 1939 the couple were living at 41 Blackwater Terrace and Stanley was still working as a railway clerk. He died in 1971.

Michael Harvey remembered, during his days, Albion Mead.

Sure enough there is an AJ Mead on the roll – a Private in 29th Training, who was then a porter.

Albion James Mead was born in Maldon in 1898, ended up in the Machine Gun Corps, survived, lived at 63 Cross Road with his wife Ethel (née Fulcher) and their family, returned to the railway and worked as a signalman. He retired and died in Norwich in 1998.

'Dawson, AA, Royal Engineers, sapper, acting fireman' was Maldon born (in 1896) Albert Arthur Dawson.

He served in the RE Railway Operating Division (as WR/264369).

He was married to Gladys (née Chisnall) and by 1939 the couple had moved to Harwich, where Albert continued as an LNER fireman. He died in Nottingham in 1978.

The last name, which looks like 'Keller, PG – Training Reserve, Private, Guard”, is, to say the least, frustrating.

For try as I might, I can’t yet positively identify him. But then that is often the way with Great War memorials.

The sheer scale of the overall numbers - those who served and those who died or were wounded is, even to us today, mind-blowing.

What is sure, however, is that had Michael Harvey not had the foresight to keep those scraps of paper, the roll of Maldon’s six railwaymen would have been lost forever.