Sir Topham Hatt

Sir Bertram Topham Hatt was the controller of the North Western Railway from 1923-1954.
==Bio==
Topham Hatt apprenticed at the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works at age fourteen and seems to have struck a friendship with W. A. Stanier during his time there. 
He came to Sodor in 1901 and joined A.W. Dry and Company at Tidmouth. On their recommendation, he became engineer on the Tidmouth, Knapford and Elsbridge Light Railway in 1910, the Wellsworth and Suddery Railway in 1912, and the North Western Railway upon its formation in 1914. On the North Western Railway, he rose to be general manager in 1923, managing director in 1936, and upon Nationalisation in 1948, he was created a baronet on his appointment as chairman of the Regional Executive. Prior to his becoming Controller of the North Western Railway, Sir Topham Hatt owned a Sentinel steam lorry named Elizabeth, who notes that he wasn't the best driver.
For A.W. Dry and Company, he built a series of four vertical boiler engines known as Coffee Pots between 1905 and 1908, which were used by the TK&ER. After an Autumn gale in 1908, he directed unemployed miners in cutting a tunnel through the ridge south of Tidmouth. In 1915, for the NWR, he designed the Vicarstown Bridge to cross the Walney Channel. Sometime after this, he was appointed a director of the company.
When the railway was suffering from a locomotive crisis in the early 1920s, he was responsible for acquiring new engines. During this time, he made one of his rare bad bargains when he was tricked into purchasing Henry, who suffered from numerous flaws, instead of the Robinson Atlantic he wanted. He remembered the mistake with sorrow for the rest of his days and was so angry at having been "done" that he would never admit who it was who had swindled him. No-one was better pleased than Topham Hatt when the Killdane accident occurred in 1935. Using his connections with William Stanier, now Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, he was able to have Henry completely rebuilt at Crewe.
In 1953, when Queen Elizabeth II visited Sodor in Coronation year he had the honour of welcoming her to Tidmouth, having been previously presented to Her Majesty by Viscount Harwick, the Governor, who was also his son-in-law.
He retired in 1954 in favour of his son Charles, whom the Board had no hesitation in electing as his successor. It is no exaggeration to say that the present prosperity of the Railway is almost entirely due to his initiative and resource.
He married Jane, sister of Sir Handel Brown I in 1910 and they had two children, a daughter named Barbara Jane (born 1911) who married Henry Regaby in 1938 and later a son named Charles Topham (born 1914).
Sir Topham Hatt I passed away at his house in Wellsworth in 1956 at the age of 76.
Category:Staff
Category:Humans
Category:North Western Railway
Category:Tidmouth, Knapford and Elsbridge Railway
Category:Great Western Railway
Category:Wellsworth and Suddery Railway