Wilbert Awdry was born at Ampfield vicarage near Romsey, Hampshire, on 15 June 1911. His father was Vere Awdry (1854–1928), the Anglican vicar of Ampfield, and his mother was Lucy Awdry (née Bury; 1884–1965). Vere was the son of judge Sir John Wither Awdry and brother of bishop William Awdry. Wilbert was derived from William and Herbert, names of his father's two brothers. His younger brother, George, was born on 10 August 1916 and died on 27 October 1994.[1][2] All three of Awdry's older half-siblings from his father's first two marriages died young, the youngest being killed in World War I. At Ampfield as a toddler he saw his father construct a handmade 40-yard (37 m), 2.5-inch-gauge (64 mm) model railway.[3] In 1917, the family moved to Box, in Wiltshire, moving again within Box in 1919 and in 1920, the third house being "Journey's End" (renamed from "Lorne Villa"), which remained the family home until August 1928.[4][5]
"Journey's End" was only 200 yards (180 m) from the western end of Box Tunnel, where the Great Western Railway main line climbs at a gradient of 1 in 100 for 2 miles (3.2 km).[6] A banking engine was kept there to assist freight trains up the hill.[6] These trains usually ran at night, and the young Awdry could hear them from his bed, listening to the coded whistle signals between the train engine and the banker as well as the sharp bark from the locomotive exhausts as they fought their way up the incline.[6] Awdry said, "There was no doubt in my mind that steam engines all had definite personalities. I would hear them snorting up the grade and little imagination was needed to hear in the puffings and pantings of the two engines the conversation they were having with one another."[7] Here was the inspiration for the story of Edward helping Gordon's train up the hill, a story that Wilbert first told his son Christopher some 25 years later, and which appeared in the first of the Railway Series books.[6]
The characters that would make Awdry known and the first stories featuring them were invented in 1942 to amuse his son Christopher during a bout of measles. After Awdry wrote The Three Railway Engines, he built Christopher a model of Edward, and some wagons and coaches, out of a wooden broomstick and scraps of wood.[10] Christopher also wanted a model of Gordon; however the wartime shortage of materials limited Awdry to making a little 0-6-0tank engine. Awdry said, "The natural name was Thomas – Thomas the Tank Engine."[10] Then Christopher requested stories about Thomas and these duly followed and were published in the book Thomas the Tank Engine, published in 1946.
The first book, The Three Railway Engines, was published in 1945 by Edmund Ward in Leicester. Awdry wrote 26 books in The Railway Series, the last in 1972. Christopher subsequently added further books to the series.
In 1947, 0-6-0T engine No. 1800 was built by Hudswell Clarke; it spent its working life at the British Sugar factory in Peterborough, pushing wagons of sugar beet until it was finally replaced by a diesel engine. Peterborough Railway Society purchased the engine in 1973, and this little blue 'Thomas' engine is the star of the Nene Valley Railway.[11]
In 1952, Awdry volunteered as a guard on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales, then in its second year of preservation.[12] The railway inspired Awdry to create the Skarloey Railway, based on the Talyllyn, with some of his exploits being written into the stories.[13]
Awdry wrote other books besides those of The Railway Series, both fiction and non-fiction. The story Belinda the Beetle was about a red car (it became a Volkswagen Beetle only in the illustrations to the paperback editions).
In 1988, his second Ffarquhar model railway layout was shown to the public for the final time and was featured on an ITN News news item. He was again featured on TV-am for Thomas's 40th anniversary in 1990. During all this, Awdry faced many battles – health problems, depression, and the deaths of his wife, brother, and close friend Teddy Boston. Five years later, he was interviewed by Nicholas Jones for the Bookmark film The Thomas the Tank Engine Man, which first aired on 25 February 1995 and repeated again on 15 April 1997 shortly after his death.
Awdry was appointed an OBE in the 1996 New Year's Honours List, but by that time his health had deteriorated and he was unable to travel to London. He died peacefully in his sleep in Stroud, Gloucestershire, on 21 March 1997, at the age of 85.[15] His ashes are interred at Gloucester Crematorium.
In 2003, a stained glass window commissioned by the Awdry family was unveiled at St Edmund's church, Emneth, Norfolk.[16]
In 2011, a blue plaque was unveiled by his daughter Veronica Chambers at The Old Vicarage, Emneth where he lived between 1953 and 1965. In 2012 a blue plaque was unveiled at "Lorne House", Box, where he lived between 1920 and 1928 when its name was "Journey's End".[17]
In 2015, a CGI representation of Awdry made a cameo appearance in the Thomas & Friends feature-length special Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure. The character, referred to by his Railway Series alias, 'The Thin Clergyman', made several further appearances including in The Great Race (2016).
A pedestrian rail crossing bridge has been dedicated to Awdry in 2017 in the small Hampshire town of Chandlers Ford, which is very close (and has the closest railway line and station) to his birthplace of Ampfield.
In 2021, to mark the 75th anniversary of Thomas the Tank Engine, a blue plaque was unveiled at the old Rectory of Holy Trinity Church in Elsworth, Cambridgeshire. Cambridge Past, Present & Future put up the plaque to mark the books he wrote there, which his family was present at. His daughter, Veronica Chambers, said she was "delighted and moved".[19]
Dear Christopher,
Here is your friend Thomas, the Tank Engine.
He wanted to come out of his station-yard and see the world.
These stories tell you how he did it.
I hope you will like them because you helped me to make them.
Your Loving Daddy
Subsequent books featured a similar letter from the author, addressed to the readers of the book as "Dear Friends", which introduced the background to the stories within the book.
This text also appears at the beginning of Thomas and Friends episodes from 2004 to 2012. The letter appears with a storybook showing Thomas on the front cover with "Thomas the Tank Engine" at the top and "By the Rev. W. Awdry" at the bottom. The letter is read in voice-over by British actor Nigel Plaskitt.
^Belinda Copson, "Awdry, Wilbert Vere (1911–1997)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, Jan 2007 accessed 17 Aug 2010
^"The £7,000 toy train parson". Weekly Dispatch (London). 29 June 1958. p. 8.
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