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

© STEAM Museum of the GWR

Australian Navy on locomotive No.6021 King Richard II, 1945

A group of visitors from the Australian Navy pose for this photograph on top of locomotive No.6021 King Richard II. The officers and sailors from H.M.A.S Australia were on a visit to Swindon Works on July 13th 1945 whilst their ship was docked at Plymouth awaiting repairs. Their ship was heavily involved in the war effort throughout South East Asia until she was forced to withdraw for repairs in early 1945. She arrived at Plymouth on July 2nd 1945 for a major refit and remained there until December of that year. In this formal photograph the locomotive is decorated with both the British and Australian flags and standing in the centre of the group in the trilby hat is the GWR Chief Mechanical Engineer F. W. Hawksworth

© STEAM Museum of the GWR

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

© STEAM Museum of the GWR