The Southern Railway had a flair for publicity, and naming ceremonies were organised for 17 of the locomotives. Some of these ceremonies took place after the nationalisation of the railways, but the Southern Region of British Railways retained much the same management as its predecessor.
There was a double ceremony at Waterloo station in London on 11 September 1947 when Lord Dowding performed for ‘his’ locomotive, as well as for Winston Churchill, which, in 1965, would haul the wartime premier’s funeral train.
Others to unveil the plates on locomotives named after themselves were Sir Keith Park, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Archibald Sinclair and Sir Frederick Pile.
Sir Archie’s moment came at Waterloo in February 1948. In another double ceremony, the former Secretary of State for Air performed the honours on Biggin Hill, as well as the locomotive named in his honour. In 1952, having lost his seat in Parliament and failed in an attempt to be re-elected, he was created the first Viscount Thurso. The locomotive remains Sir Archibald Sinclair to this day.
We now regard Sir Keith Park as one of the Few, although that was not the case when the locomotives were coming into service. Other pilots who had flown in the Battle to officiate at naming ceremonies included, on 19 September 1947 at Brighton, Group Captain Douglas Bader (CO of No 242 Squadron in 1940). He named Fighter Pilot.
At Brighton in September 1948, 601 Squadron received its name from Group Captain the Hon Max Aitken, son of Lord Beaverbrook. Aitken had been a pre-war member of the squadron and had been its CO at the beginning of the Battle of Britain. In 1964 he succeeded to his father’s peerage and baronetcy but used the Peerage Act, which had gained Royal Assent only the previous year, to disclaim the peerage. He was Sir Max Aitken Bt for the rest of his life.
One woman performed a locomotive naming ceremony in this series. At Dover in June 1948, Air Commandant Felicity Hanbury named Hawkinge. She was Director of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and would become the first director of the revived Women’s Royal Air Force in 1949. Nine years earlier she had commanded the WAAF contingent at Biggin Hill.
It is now well over half a century since railway enthusiasts might expect to see and hear one of Oliver Bulleid’s ‘Pacific’ locomotives in normal revenue earning service, slipping spectacularly (partly through oil leaking on to the track) as it started its journey or pulled away from a stop. However, Battle of Britain locomotives (and the similar West Country class and larger Merchant Navy class) can still be found in action on main line specials and at preserved railways around the country.
Geoff Simpson FRHistS
