The
Rev Wilbert Vere Awdry |
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Wilbert Vere Awdry
is the creator and author of Thomas the Tank Engine whose
‘highest aspiration is to be "a really useful
engine."
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Rev Awdry was born at Romsey, Hampshire, in
1911. His father was Vicar of Ampfield, and had been interested
in railways all his life, for he had been born in 1854 and
had, as he said, grown up with them. Many of Awdry’s
senior parishioners were railwaymen, and he visited them in
their platelayers’ huts or on the station - sometimes
he would take his young son Wilbert with him. The men were
all aware that their Vicar knew almost as much about railways
as they did, and no-one ever turned ‘Railwayman Parson’
away. |
| The son of a country parson, Awdry spent his
boy-hood listening to railway engines on the old Great Western
Railway Chippenham-to-Bath line, 200 yards from the rectory.
Wilbert used to lie in bed at night, listening to the engines
struggling up the hill to Box tunnel, and imagining that they
were talking to themselves. |
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After a spell of teaching at St.George’s School, Jerusalem,
Wilbert was ordained in 1936 and married Margaret Wale, a
teacher whom he had met in Palestine, in August 1938.
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| In 1943, when Awdry's son Christopher had measles, the parson
made up stories about steam engines for him. "The stories
built up by question and answer. ‘Why is the engine sad,
Daddy?’ ‘Because he's not been out for a long time.’
‘What's his name?’ ‘Edward’ -- because
that was the first name that came into my head," Awdry
said in a 1995 interview with Church Times, a weekly newspaper. |
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Awdry scribbled the stories on
the backs of parish pamphlets so that his son could not catch
him out on details. "When you're telling stories to a
child, you've got to use the same words every time, otherwise
you're called to order," he said.
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| Urging from Margaret prompted Wilbert to do something
about the stories, and in May 1945 the first book, The
Three Railway Engines, was published. Thomas
the Tank Engine followed the next year, and new titles
followed almost every year until 1972. By then there were
26 books in the Railway Series. |
| Awdry continued to publicise Thomas
after his 26th book appeared in 1972. His son Christopher
took up the pen where his father left off and has so far published
another 14 books in the Railway Series. Thomas appeared as
toys, in pop-up books, and on videos and television. |
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| Christopher Awdry’s latest book, ‘New
Little Engine’, was published in 1996. ‘New Little
Engine’, like several other books in the Railway Series,
features the engines of the Skarloey Railway, which is based
on the Talyllyn
Railway in Mid-Wales.
Rev Awdry was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire)
in the New Year’s Honours List of 1996, but by then
his health had deteriorated, and he |
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died peacefully at his home in Stroud,
Gloucestershire on 21st March 1997, aged 85. He was survived
by his son, two daughters and seven grandchildren. Rev Awdry
was very proud that his grandson Richard was following in
his footsteps as a guard on the railway. |
Contributed by Adam Parker
The main source of research for this article was The
Awdry Family Website
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