RIP Jonathan ('Jim') Edwards - Somerset & Dorset Historian

[BMacdermott]

RIP Jonathan (‘Jim’) Edwards – Somerset & Dorset Historian

 

Sadly, for the second time in just a few days, I find myself contributing to an obituary.

 

I’m sorry to have to report the untimely passing of my S&D friend, Jonathan Edwards (known to some as ‘Jim’). I have passed my condolences to his widow, Elspeth.

 

I first met Jonathan in the very early 1980s when my interest in the S&D was initially sparked. I joined the Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust; Jonathan was the editor of the Trust’s 16pp A4 bi-monthly magazine, then entitled The Bulletin.

 

At the time, I worked in the printing industry and Jonathan had put out an appeal for some assistance with his editorial role. We soon met and it wasn’t long before my wife was typing the copy and I was preparing what was then known as ‘artwork’ for the magazine – which alleviated many problems for him.

 

We soon settled into an excellent working partnership lasting many years.

 

To get an edition started, my wife and I would leave from our then north London home around 1830, drive around London’s North Circular Road to just past the old Neasden shed area, then dart through the back-doubles across to his Chiswick flat.

 

There, he would greet us with a large cake and copious amounts of coffee and we would work a way through an outline plan for the next edition. After a day or two, once my wife had completed the typing etc, I would have to meet with him to pass the typed text for proof-checking before I went to paste-up stage (no email back then!).

 

We both worked in central London. Depending on circumstances, we would arrange to meet at, say, the westbound platform of the Circle Line at Victoria at 0745. There, we would pass ‘large brown envelopes’ between us with not much more than a “Speak to you later!” – much to the surprise of commuters who always seemed to wonder what we were doing!

 

A day or two later, he would have to walk to a nearby phone box in the evening (his ground floor landlady only permitted ‘dire emergency’ phone calls!) and phone amends to me. This he always did on schedule, no matter rain, snow or sunshine. Not an easy task in the confines of a 1980’s payphone box.

 

At other times, when getting really close to the deadline, we would meet up in… Blackfriars Road Post Office!

 

From time-to-time, we would need to meet up with ex-S&D personnel in the S&D area and spent many happy hours with them extracting stories and comments for The Bulletin.

 

We never missed a publication deadline and we never had a cross word. A tribute to his kindly demeanour.

 

Work matters precluded me carrying on with my paste-up work in the early 1990s and we lost our daily contact, keeping in touch mainly by Christmas cards. However, by around 2010, he had become a Trustee of the Trust and was helping out with Trust publications. We re-kindled our working relationship as we worked through many publications together – now, of course, via email and no ‘brown envelopes’!

 

I have lost count of how many articles Jonathan has written about the S&D. These have been published in ‘society’ magazines as well as more broadly in the ‘big name’ railway magazines. His diligent and painstaking research is to be applauded and S&D history is richer for it.

 

Apart from the magazine – and for many years – he and a number of friends would meet in west London on a Friday evening and drive to the Trust’s ‘old home’ at Washford Station (West Somerset Railway) and spend a whole weekend working on numerous preservation projects.

 

Outside railways – and amongst other ‘jobs’ – he would give tours of Harrow-on-the-Hill where he lived.

 

Sadly, that is where he suddenly collapsed and died at home without warning on Monday 12 December 2022.

 

Brian

 

 

A note from Mike Arlett - S&D Author

 

It was only yesterday that I was reading Jonathan's latest article to appear in The Pines Express. As per all he wrote about the S&D, it had the hallmark of sound research and accuracy.

 

I have just looked up for how long he was the editor of the bi-monthly Bulletin; from Issue No.104 in 1981 through to No.168 in 1992. 

 

Jonathan was very kind when, a few years ago, he photographed some documents for me when he visited the National Archive Office in London and obtained some information for me about the BoT approval for the signal box at Foxcote. 

 

However, I will remember him best for the times we met at the Trust AGMs at Edington Village Hall, and the last of these must have been more than ten years ago.

 

His legacy to all those interested in the S&D are the very many articles he researched and wrote which have appeared in the house magazine (and elsewhere) over several decades.

 

Mike Arlett (via Brian Macdermott)

 

 

[RailWest]

I can do little but echo what has been said already by Brian and Mike.

 

I first met Jonathan probably about the same time as Brian, through my involvement with the S&DRT at that time and my submission of occasional articles to the Bulletin about S&DJR signalling. We met from time to time at AGMs or on visits to Washford and more recently our paths crossed on rare occasions at other railway events. His passing will be a great loss to the S&D community, but at least his work will live on for others to study and enjoy.

 

7-5-5

 

Chris