Richard William Bailey, 1885-1957

Abstract

Richard William Bailey was born at Romford, Essex, on 6 January 1885. His father, James William Bailey, was an official of the Great Eastern Railway; his mother was of farming stock. He was the second child, and oldest son, in a family of seven, of whom two died in infancy. There is no record of any of his kinsfolk being concerned with scientific or engineering work. About the beginning of the century R. W. Bailey commenced an apprenticeship at the Great Eastern Railway Company’s Locomotive Works, Stratford. While there he gained both a Whitworth Exhibition and a Whitworth Scholarship—in each case the first to be awarded to an apprentice from the Stratford Works. These awards were supplemented by a ‘Director’s Scholarship’ from his Company; it is clear that even as an apprentice he was highly regarded. The scholarships enabled him to spend two winter sessions at East London Technical College, now Queen Mary College. In the final year of his apprenticeship with the Great Eastern Railway (about 1906) the directors and officials of the Railway were considering improved means of coping with the heavy suburban traffic into Liverpool Street Station. One school of thought favoured electrification. The Chief Mechanical Engineer of the railway reacted to this by designing the ‘Decapod’, a steam locomotive with five coupled axles intended to give high acceleration in suburban service. As one of the few technically trained engineers on the railway staff, young R. W. Bailey was brought into contact both with the electrification proposals and with the ‘Decapod’ design.