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Several times over the years I have seen pictures of British Rail staff wearing maroon uniforms. I also remember seeing these hats (or similar) for sale at Collectors Corner. Which grade wore this uniform.
Below is a still from a 1969 BTF film showing such a uniform. I have also seen an image of a sleeper steward wearing the same. Any Ideas?
Which BTF film, please?
I can't find any mention in Brian Haresnape's book "British Rail 1948-78 A Journey by Design" (Ian Allan, 1979), but items on uniform changes are few and far between.
Just a vague suggestion. If he was escorting a party group, perhaps it was a (possibly short-lived) uniform for those who did such work so that they could be easily spotted by the passengers: “Just follow the man in red.” (Rather than one of the many in black.)
It’s available on the BFI Life on the Line DVD. It also has a very good film from the 60s about Paddington relaying/resignalling called Multiple Aspects.
I have found a newspaper report of "an inquiries inspector, in the maroon coloured uniform that marks the Passengers' Friends of the London Midland Railway" who retired in 1958 after 20 years service at St. Pancras.
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This is from December 1932 - apparently the starting date (but no mention of the colour).
PASSENGERS FRIEND. NEW OFFICIALS AT RAILWAY STATIONS. Two new officials—the first of their kind on a British railway—whose sole duty will be to look after the welfare of travellers, will begin work on Monday for the L.M.S. Railway at Euston and St. Pancras and at important provincial stations. One is the "railway commissionaire" who, wearing striking uniform, will stand at station entrances to assist travellers in every way possible. is a permanent institution. The other is the passenger's friend," who will patrol the stations at holiday periods.
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And here is a bit more on the same lines, from Friday 16th December 1932:
"PASSENGERS' FRIEND.” L.M.S. Official to Help the Holidaymakers.
The Leeds (Wellington) station of the the L.M.S. Railway is among principal provincial stations which, together with the London termini, are to have a “passengers’ friend,” an official who will be a human bureau of railway information for travellers.
The Company have decided to make two new grades of officials - "passengers' friends” and “railway commissionaries"— to look after the welfare of the travelling public.
The “railway commissionaires” will be on duty at station entrances, and will be given maroon and plum coloured uniforms. Leeds is not to have a “railway commissionaire," but the “passengers’ friend” appointed tor Wellington Station is to start work on Monday. He will not have a uniform, but will wear a badge with the word “Inquiries" on it.
The new appointment is not a whole-time one in Leeds. The man will only become a "passengers’ friend" at holiday times. Next week, for instance, he will work {rom Mon:day to Saturday during the rush period of the Christmas holiday traffic. Between spells of being "passengers’ friend” he will return to his usual work on the railway staff. The men are being chosen from the station staffs at which they usually work.
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Later on the friends got the plum-coloured uniform, and in 1960 women were introduced in the role. At some stage they seem to have become more a full-time role, and presumably the commissaires were stopped. However, I did find an Inquiry Inspector in 1977 at Birmingham New Street, and he had a plum-coloured uniform. It does seem that newspaper coverage of this had got less frequent, though.
@stuving Thanks for this, a lot of what is written makes sense together with you’re own recollection.
Thinking about this the Welcome Hosts that were introduced by InterCity in the late 1980s wore dark red uniforms and performed pretty much the same function.
I concur, to the left is approximately where the Gents toilets are located nowadays.
Presumably the party were heading for Skipton.
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I can't find the film online, but I've read up on it and the party were from Skipton Girl's School and were travelling from Skipton to Interlaken.
At a guess the picture shows them boarding the Leeds to London train.
It’s available on the BFI Life on the Line DVD. It also has a very good film from the 60s about Paddington relaying/resignalling called Multiple Aspects.
It's a good film and the DVD as a whole is very good. IMHO all of the BFI British Transport Films DVDs and their film selections are good. I've got the set.
Just checked the booklet that comes with the DVD but it doesn't shed any light on this job role and uniform.
At first I just thought your screen grab was of a standard dark coloured / black uniform that had changed under the film lights or colour degradation of the original film - film date is 1969 - but looking again and now don't think that because others in the image are shown wearing dark clothing too and the colour is distinctly different.
Noting that reference I found to an "inquiry inspector" with such a jacket (I doubt anything more was that colour) in 1977, that of course is within the memory of a lot of us here. So I have been trying to remember if I ever saw someone with such a jacket - most likely sitting at an inquiry desk. My conclusion is a distinct maybe, but probably not (but that says more about my memory than anything else).
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