Sir Topham Hatt

* **Died**: 23 August 1956
* **Spouse**: Jane Brown
* **Married**: June 1910

"*There are, of course, other regions and other railways, but no one has ever seen anything like ours.*"
— Sir Topham Hatt

**Sir Topham Hatt I**, 1st Baronet, GBE, JP, FIMechE, nicknamed "**the Fat Controller**" and originally "**the Fat Director**", was an English-born Sudrian railway engineer and executive. He is remembered as the "founding father" of the North Western Railway, serving as both its Chief Mechanical Engineer and Controller, and as the progenitor of the Hatt family on the Island of Sodor.

## Biography

### Early life

After he finished school in May 1894, his father arranged for him to start an apprenticeship at the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works - due to it being, in his opinion, 'the greatest engineering facility in the world', despite it being a significant distant from home. At Swindon, he lodged with the family of another apprentice, William Stanier; the two would swiftly become life long friends. He started in the carriage and wagon workshop, before moving to the fitting and machine shops, spending 20 months in each. He then spent eight months in the erecting shops, followed by six months each in the millwright's shop and then the pattern shop. This completed his five year apprenticeship, with Hatt receiving a very good assessment. Throughout his apprenticeship, he spent much of his spare time taking classes at the Mechanics Institute with Stanier.

For the first six months after his apprenticeship, he remained in the pattern shop as a fully-fledged pattern maker, before moving to the drawing office in November 1899 as a draughtsman, remaining there for the rest of his time at Swindon. It was sometime in 1900, that he helped Stanier out of a potentially career destroying situation, when the young engineer accidentally tipped coffee over the drawings for a new locomotive design. Topham helped Stanier redraw the design and

### Final years

With the end of the war came the election of the Labour government of Clement Atlee, and the nationalisation of the railways. Topham was opposed to nationalisation, but accepted it as an inevitability, and once again fought to ensure that the NWR retained its identity. He greatly supported the proposals to create autonomous regions based upon the old railways, and was disappointed when they were rolled back. He was, however, able to successfully argue for the NWR to be a separate region, rather than being folded into the neighbouring London Midland Region.

When nationalisation came into force on 1 January 1948, he became the first Chief Regional Officer of the North Western Region, and was also awarded a Baronetcy in the New Year's Honours List for services to transport. Almost immediately, he began to test the limited autonomy available to him; notably the Region continued to be branded as the North Western *Railway* and no attempts were made to comform to standard BR livery. He also leaked information to the press revealing the dissatisfaction of himself and the other CROs at the new management; the ensuring press scrutiny resulted in the Railway Executive granting the CROs a more active role in its deliberations.

In early 1951, he came down with an illness and was forced to take a break from work. His doctor, given his advanced age and obesity, reccomended that he reduce his workload and take a holiday. While Sir Topham was incensed at the former idea, at the urging of his wife, he agreed to take a holiday to East Anglia. During that year's Easter holidays, he and Lady Hatt took their grandchildren, Stephen and Bridget, to Ipswich, Suffolk, and the day after they arrived, they came across an old tramway and its single engine, Toby. The line intrigued the Hatt family, and they spent much of their holiday travelling up and down it.

Following his return to work in April, Topham became interested in acquiring Toby for use on the Ffarquhar Branch Line, however the Railway Executive denied his request to transfer the engine. The matter sat on the backburner until August, when Thomas was fined for breaking tramway regulations and the railway threatened with prosecution if they did not acquire a complying engine to run the Quarry Tramroad. With the added legal necessity of acquiring a tram engine, Sir Topham approached the Railway Executive once again, who immediately approved a transfer, not wanting to get into a legal battle. With the arrival of Toby, the last of Topham's "coffee pots", Glynn, was withdrawn and was presumed scrapped; though in actuality had been hidden away by Topham to ensure his safety.

Shortly afterwards, Charles Hatt returned to Sodor following his secondment abroad. Considerable pressure was placed on Sir Topham to step down in his son's favour, however Topham resisted, stating he still had plans for the railway that needed to be implemented before his retirement; privately, he also doubted whether he could convince the Railway Executive to approve Charles as his successor. Instead he appointed Charles as Chief Mechanical & Electrical Engineer at Crovan's Gate Works, effective 1 January 1952, and as his general assistant. The father\son team worked well together, and began planning for the railway's future; notably they planned major improvements to Knapford Harbour and the Ffarquhar Branch Line - the deficiencies of the line having been brought to Sir Topham's attention during the recent legal trouble. Congestion problems at Tidmouth also made a relief harbour a necessity.

As 1951 came to a close, the Conservatives under Winston Churchill had returned to power, with a promise of reforming British Railways and giving greater powers to the regions, a proposal Sir Topham supported full heartedly. While the Railway Executive had made progress in granting the CROs more power - and given Sodor's relative obscurity, had granted Sir Topham a mostly free hand to run the Region as he saw fit - Sir Topham believed true regional management was key to securing the future of the NWR. The Government's White Paper of May 1952 pleased Sir Topham, and he enthusiastically supported the creation of regional Area Boards to replace the centralized Railway Executive and the elevation of the CROs to Regional Managers.

In September 1952, his son-in-law, Viscount Harwick, now serving as Governor of Sodor, presented him to HM The Queen, who informed him that she'd be visiting Sodor one year hence. He was appointed to the Sodor Coronation Committee, and spent much of 1953 meticulously planning for the Royal Visit, the first since 1935. Accidents involving Gordon and Thomas threatened to disrupt the visit, but everything ultimately went smoothly and Her Majesty praised the preparations. Sir Topham was awarded the Coronation Medal for his role in planning the visit.

When the Transport Act passed in 1953, pressure was once again placed on Topham to retire in favour of Charles, however he again resisted; the act only brought in a transitional management structure, with the full restructuring not taking effect until 1 January 1955. As such, he resolved to stay on until that date, to ensure that his son would inherit a strong and autonomous railway. To ensure that, he made a successful effort to ensure that the Area Board was filled with former NWR directors who believed in the railway retaining its independence; his biggest success was to have his son-in-law appointed as Chairman of the Board.

On 1 October 1953, he was appointed Chief Regional Manager, and formally announced that he would be retiring upon the completion of British Railways restructuring, a little over a year later. He spent much of that time making the final preparations for the Knapford Harbour Improvement Scheme; for most of the year it was Charles who handled the day to day affairs of the railway. He made inquiries to the Western Region about acquiring one of their ubiquitous Pannier Tanks to be the new station pilot at Tidmouth, with Percy to be transferred over to the Ffarquhar branch to assist with the Harbour Scheme. The engine, Duck, arrived early the following year, and was painted in GWR livery in tribute to Sir Topham's service at Swindon.

On 19 November 1954, the Area Board unanimously approved Charles Hatt as Sir Topham's successor, and he stepped down on 31 December, with his son's appointment to the post of Regional General Manager taking effect the next day. He left behind a profitable railway, with a strong sense of identity and a reliable fleet, and his plans for the future served the railway well into the 1960s. On the day of his retirement, he and Charles announced the launch of the KHIC, and Sir Topham would officially open the new Knapford Junction in 1956, though would not live to see the scheme's completion the following year.

Sir Topham spent much of retirement spending time with his wife and grandchildren. While he was still an indomitable figure, many noticed that he no longer had the same life and energy he'd had while running the NWR. He rapidly became rather frail and even lost weight. This did not stop him going on adventures with his grandchildren, and in July 1956 they found an old castle and an old mine, formerly of the Mid Sodor Railway. He committed to restoring the latter as a heritage line, though he died before work could start. It wouldn't be until the 1970s that his son saw the project through.

Sir Topham died in his sleep at Hatt Hall, during the night of 23 August 1956. He'd spent his last day with Edward on his branch line. A memorial service was held for him at St Luoc's Cathedral on 30 August, which was attended by many railwaymen and prominent people on Sodor, before his funeral at St Tibba's Church, Wellsworth, the following day, which was only for family and close friends, which included Sir William Stanier. Charles inherited his Baronetcy, while Jane, now the Dowager Hatt, would outlive her husband by exactly 30 years, dying on 23 August 1986. She was buried alongside him.

## Attire

After being promoted to General Manager in 1923, Sir Topham Hatt's regular daytime attire was morning dress - black morning coat, grey striped dress trousers, white dress shirt, dove grey single-breasted waistcoat and blue tie, with black top hat and Oxford shoes with white spats.