The Rev. Wilbert Vere Awdry
Wilbert Vere Awdry is the creator and author of Thomas the Tank Engine whose ‘highest aspiration is to be "a really useful engine."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Railwayin 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 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
(Published 30th Sep 2013)
