War Workers Gallery

Evacuees waiting outside the departure platform at Paddington in 1939

One of the very first war time roles that the GWR was engaged in was the evacuation of children from cities to the relative safety of the countryside. Even before war was declared, plans were drawn up for evacuation so the GWR and the other major railway companies were prepared and on standby to put these plans into action. On August 31st 1939, the day before Germany invaded Poland, the order to begin the evacuation was given. The very next day the mass movement of children began and continued until September 4th. The GWR was responsible for the majority of the children moved from North and East London and while most of the evacuation trains departed from Ealing Broadway, this image shows groups of children being off-loaded from a double decker bus outside the Departure Platform at Paddington Station during the four days of evacuation in September 1939

Mobile emergency canteen at Paddington Station, during WWII

Paddington station in 1943 and a shot of the mobile emergency canteen, which was used to feed station staff, APR wardens, firemen and other staff who were active during the night when the station canteen was closed. The canteen was usually manned by a driver and a female attendant and was designed as a mobile unit so that it could move from place to place, where it was most needed when air strikes affected station or depot facilities. This mobile trailer canteen was designed in the Road Transport Department Drawing Office at Slough and built at Swindon Works, and was designed with adaptable couplings so that it could be attached to any of the Company's articulated tractors. The canteen was fully equipped with water supply, cooking facilities, tea urn and storage space for emergency stocks of dried food

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US soldiers embarking a ship in a GWR South Wales Dock, 1942

The GWR docks in South Wales became busy points for the arrival and departure of US troops from mid 1942 when the first American ship to arrive at the Company's docks berthed at Swansea on the 18th August of that year. From that date, thousands of American soldiers passing through Western ports became a common sight. This image shows a troop of US soldiers embarking a ship at one of the South Wales docks in 1942, presumably on their way to fight with allied forces in Europe. Unfortunately the exact date the photograph was taken and the dock they are departing from are not known. Not only was the mobilisation of troops from the ports a huge undertaking, so too was the loading and unloading of US tanks, planes, trains and a whole range of other military equipment that the US military brought with them to support the allied war effort

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