Wilbert Awdry

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Wilbert Vere Awdry, OBE (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997), an English Anglican cleric, railway enthusiast, and children's author.

Thomas the Tank Engine, the central figure in his Railway Series, was better known as Reverend W. Awdry.

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Life and career

Wilbert Awdry was born in Ampfield, Hampshire, on June 15, 1911. Vere Awdry (1854–1928), the Anglican vicar of Ampfield who was 56 years old at the time of his birth, was his father, and his mother, Lucy Awdry (1884–1965), was a hunter who was from Ampfield (née Bury). Wilbert was derived from William and Herbert, the names of his father's two brothers. George, his younger brother, was born on August 10th and died on October 27 in 1994. All three of Awdry's older half-siblings from his father's first two marriages died young, with the youngest being killed in World War I. As a child at Ampfield, he saw his father build a handmade 40 yard 2.5 inch gauge railway. In 1917, the family moved to Box, Wiltshire, moving within Box in 1919 and 1920, the third house being labelled "Journey's End" (renamed from "Lorne Villa"), which remained the family's home until 1928.

Only 200 yards (180 meters) from the western end of Box Tunnel, where the Great Western Railway main line rises at a gradient of 1 in 100 for two miles. A banking engine was kept on hand to assist freight trains up the hill. These trains often operated at night, and the young Awdry could hear them from his bed, as well as the narcotics of the locomotive exhausts as they crept their way up the slope. "I had no doubt in my mind that steam engines had definite personalities," Awdry explained. I could imagine them snorting up the grade, but no imagination was needed to hear in the puffings and pantings of the two engines the conversation was having with one another." Edward assisting Gordon's train up the hill was inspired by Wilbert's tale, which was told his son Christopher some 25 years ago and that appeared in the first of the Railway Series books.

Awdry was educated at Marlborough House School, Hawkhurst, Kent (1919–1924), Dauntsey's School, West Lavington, Wiltshire (1924–1929), St Peter's Hall, Oxford (BA, 1932), and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, where he obtained his degree in theology in 1933. He taught at St George's School, Jerusalem, from 1933 to 1936. He was initiated to the Church of England diaconate in 1936 and then the priesthood. He married Margaret Emily Wale (1912 – 1989), who died on March 21, 1989. He died in 1940 at St Nicholas Church, Kings Norton, Birmingham, Birmingham, where he lived until 1946. He later moved to Cambridgeshire, where he served as rector of Elsworth (1946-1950), then vicar of Emneth, Norfolk (1953–1965). In 1965, he retired from full-time ministry and moved to Stroud, Gloucestershire.

The characters that would make Awdry famous and the first stories starring him were invented in 1943 to amuse his son Christopher during a bout of measles. Christopher made Edward, as well as some wagons and coaches, out of a wooden broomstick and scraps of wood after Awdry's book The Three Railway Engines. Christopher also wanted a Gordon-esque model, but Awdry's wartime shortage of parts restricted Awdry to only making a tiny 0-6-0 tank engine. "The real name was Thomas – Thomas the Tank Engine," Awdry said. Thomas was requesting stories about Thomas, and the book Thomas the Tank Engine, which was released in 1946, was a sequel.

The Three Railway Engines was published in 1945, but The Railway Series had 26 books by the time Awdry stopped writing in 1972. Christopher Added to the collection later.

The 0-6-0T engine No.1800 was built by Hudswell Clarke in 1947, and it spent its working life at the British Sugar Corporation, Peterborough factory, selling sugar wagons before it was eventually replaced by a Diesel engine. The engine was purchased by Peterborough Railway Society in 1973, and the 'Thomas' engine is the star of the Nene Valley Railway.

Awdry served as a guard on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales in 1952, and the railway is now in its second year of preservation. Awdry was inspired by the railway to develop the Skarloey Railway, which is based on the Talyllyn, with some of his adventures weaved into the tales.

Awdry's enthusiasm for railways did not wane at his books. He was involved in railway preservation and created model railways and exhibited railways around the country. In his loft, which was based on Barrow-in-Furness, he developed a robust model railway network at Emneth. Emneth was also close to three Wisbech railway stations. Emneth was on the EAR line from Magdalen Road Station (now known as Watlington) to Wisbech East, Emneth station is now a private residence. The Wisbech Tramway tram engines, coaches, and rolling stock of GER Wisbech and Upwell Tramway were similar to Toby the Tram Engine and Henrietta and the Ely to King's Lynn mainline, with Wisbech East railway station on Victoria Road. On Harecroft Road, the M&GN Peterborough to Sutton Bridge by Wisbech North railway station. On the River Nene - M&GN Harbour West branch and the GER Harbour East branch, there were also harbour lines. He was a passenger on Alan Pegler's 1968 non-stop Flying Scot King's Cross to Edinburgh flight.

Awdry wrote other books besides those of The Railway Series, both fiction and non-fiction. Belinda the Beetle was about a red car (but only in the illustrations to the paperback editions).

For the second time since 1988, the second Ffarquhar model railway layout was seen to the public for the first time, and was featured on an ITN News news item. In 1990, Thomas' 40th anniversary of life on TV-am was again on TV-am for his 40th anniversary. Awdry fought off many fronts, including health issues, depression, and the death of his wife, brother, and close friend Teddy Boston. He was interviewed by Nicholas Jones for the Bookmark film "The Thomas the Tank Engine Man" on February 25, 1995, and it was reprised on April 15, 1997, five years after his death.

In 1996, Awdry received an OBE, but by that time, his health had deteriorated and he was unable to travel to London, so he was unable to travel to London. He died peacefully in his sleep in Stroud, Gloucestershire, on March 21, 1997, at the age of 85. The ashes of George Crematorium are laid to rest.

In 1995, Brian Sibley wrote The Thomas the Tank Engine Man, a memoir that was published in 1995.

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