People Gallery

Oddicombe Beach, Devon, 1932

Bathers and divers are making the most of the water in this image of Oddicombe Beach from 1932. A group of ladies are enjoying diving from the platform into the sea. Beach huts can be seen in the background lining the shingles

© STEAM Museum of the GWR

1930s, 1930s Fashion, 1932, Bathers, Beach, Beach Huts, Devon, Divers, Diving, Oddicombe, Publicity, Swimmers, Swimming

George Jackson Churchward (1857 - 1933)

George Jackson Churchward, pictured here in 1918, was the GWR's Chief Mechanical Engineer between 1902 and 1921. He oversaw the Swindon Works modernisation and introduced the 4-6-0 locomotives, the blueprint for some the GWR's most iconic express engines. He died in Swindon in 1933 after being struck by a train as he was crossing the railway tracks between his home and the Works

© STEAM Museum of the GWR

Motor landing craft built by the GWR at Swindon Works, 1942

In August 1941 the GWR began building the first of a large number of motor landing craft in the Carriage and Wagon shops at Swindon. No. 13, Wagon Frame Shop was where this work took place. Motor landing craft were made in readiness for the invasion of Europe. Their primary purpose was to ferry troops from transport ships onto occupied shores. This image of Motor Landing Craft (MLC) No. 153 shows the flat bottom construction that enabled the craft to run up onto a beach, and the lowerable ramp from which the troops could swiftly disembark. These GWR-built landing crafts, and many variations built by other manufacturing companies, were used during the Second World War for amphibious assaults on enemy occupied Europe, starting with the invasion of Sicily in June 1943 through to the D Day invasion of Normandy in June 1944

© STEAM Museum of the GWR