The NW Licensing Authority sets the record straight
Page 47
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
I am most grateful to you for the boost you gave me for my pending book in your article "Wait for it" in Commercial Motor of October 4.1have no doubt that you obtained your information from John Darker, with whom I had quite a talk at an Institute of Transport weekend at Lancaster University. Unfortunately there is a number of inaccuracies which I would like to point out to you.
I certainly did not begin as a solicitor in "British Railways" Legal Department; the railways were not nationalized for a great many years after I started. In fact in August 1923 I was articled at Euston Station in the office of my uncle, H. L. Thornhill, who was the Chief Solicitor of the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company. Up to 1 January 1 that year it had been the London and North Western Railway but on that date under The Railways Act 1921, 123 railway companies were grouped into four; they were the London Midland and Scottish, the London and North Eastern, the Great Western and the Southern. I have always regretted that I missed by eight months being able to call myself a "North Western" man, particularly as my grandfather, E. B. Thornhill, was the chief engineer of that company until his death in 1911.
On passing my final examination in 1928 my uncle posted me to the former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway office at Manchester. This company had, of course, become part of the London Midland Scottish and I was with that company until 1934. From 1931 I started to appear for the railway companies against the bus companies in front of the Traffic Commissioners. In 1934 I was offered an appointment by the London North Eastern Railway Company (at King's Cross Station) as a specialist in road traffic work and remained with that company until 1947, appearing constantly before the Traffic Commissioners and Licensing Authorities in six Traffic Areas.
There was a temporary break in my transport career when I joined the Army in 1939 and was demobilized in 1945. I returned to the London-North Eastern Railway Company but in 1947 I was appointed Divisional Legal Adviser, National Coal Board, North Western Division, and I held that appointment in 1953 when I became Chairman of the Traffic Commissioners and Licensing Authority, South Wales Traffic Area. I moved to the East Midland Traffic Area in 1968 and from there to the North Western Traffic Area in 1965.
I am due to retire on the eve of my 70th birthday, that is to say March 24 next, and I shall then start to write my book, the title of which will be "Journey from Euston" which was suggested to me by my old friend George Dow whom I have no doubt you will know; he was with both the London North Eastern and London Midland Scottish Railway Companies, retired some years ago and has written a number of books on railway histories. You might be interested to know that next year \two more Licensing Authorities will retire under our statutory age limit of seventy; they are General Elrnslie who goes I think in August and J. A. T. Hanlon who retires in December.
C. R. HODGSON North Western Traffic Area Manchester