Staff History.
The main repository of the staff records of the LNWR is The National Archives in Kew, West London (with some at Chester Record Office and elsewhere). These have been digitised and are available by subscription on the Ancestry.co.uk website. The LNWRS intends to complement these records rather than duplicate them, but we can also assist members and others who do not have a subscription to Ancestry.
We aim to present the Life, Work and Times of the Staff on the Premier Line. Over time we hope to build up a comprehensive list of staff members with information on their work and placements. We also hope to present useful background information that helps to “flesh out” those people’s lives. There is still a very long way to go before we cover the majority of the LNWR staff. So if you have information, that we could include in the web site please contact the Staff History Officer staffhist@lnwrs.org.uk
Photo U&WRA0021 Lady porters at Vauxhall & Duddeston WW1
The society has produced a Staff History Research Guide which is aimed at anyone wanting to research their family history where they think that a family member was employed by the LNWR or for researching staff employed in particular departments of the Company.
Photo JSY1125 staff at Croxley Green
Its scope covers primarily LNWR records, although mention is made of constituent and joint company records and those of the LMS after 1923, but it excludes census and other non-railway records.
Do please note however that the LNWR employed about 80,000 people at its peak and so over its existence from 1846 to 1923 must have employed several hundred thousand staff altogether. Of these, records of salaried staff are virtually complete from 1870 until 1917. Wages staff in some Divisions of the Traffic Dept are also well covered, but the records for the South Wales, North Eastern and Lancaster & Carlisle Divisions are thought to have been lost. There are no known records for wages staff in the Permanent Way Dept, and few for the Goods Dept or Locomotive Dept.
