Above is a memo sent to Brighton engine driver Fred Horsman, informing him of his retirement.

 Fred had entered the footplate grades on the 24.06.1889, and through out his railway service he remained a member of the A.S.R.S. & later the N.U.R. 
This was case of many engine man of that the period .

LOCOMOTIVE JOURNAL

JULY 1936

THE GENERAL SECRETARY SAYS FAREWELL

"I have eaten your bread and salt,

I have drank your water and wine,

The deaths ye died, I have watched beside,

And the lives ye lived were mine,

Have told the tale of your lives..."

KIPPLING

DEAR COMRADES OF THE A.S.L.E.&F.

I have now been a member of our great Society for 40 years and 2 months, and am amongst it's oldest members who are still at work, and as the last 27 years of my life have been in the service pf the Union and of yourselves, it appears to me to be fitting in these last few days before my retirement on the 15th July, 1936, that I should say a word of farewell to you and of thanks for your unswerving loyalty and devotion to the Cause for which the A.S.L.E&F. was founded in February 1880.

Very many of the older members, Comrades of my early days, have either gone into retirement, or have taken their last long train, but there are still a large number left who worked with and helped me and our Union in my days as an Organising Secretary, which whilst nominally in the North Midland and North Wales area, frequently extended throughout the country. What splendid fighting days those were. They were also for me days of less personal responsibility and difficulty than has been my lot during the 22 years that I have been your General Secretary, and although the latter have not been unhappy years, they have been strenuous, difficult, and sometimes very trying, but together we have weathered many storms, faced many issues, and come through more or less triumphantly.

Let me now thank you for your sterling courage, idealism and persistent patience as trade unionists all down the years that I have known you, and in addition for your great loyalty and support of my myself. We have passed through some trying times, and, like all other unions, we have found a few misfits and self-seekers, but the heart of the rank and file of our Union has always been stout, strong, and honourable.

My life in your service has been a strenuous one, but it has also been a happy one, because I have been serving men who I can safely claim are amongst the finest trade unionists in the world. It is not only I who say that, for there are others outside our ranks who know your generous financial help to other trade unionists in trouble, both nationally and internationally, who know of the powerful assistance you have given to others in times of strike, and in 1919, when you fought to the last minute to help others within a few months of the time when you had received satisfaction on your own conditions of service.

 These things, my Comrades, are not quickly forgotten by many who have watched you. In fact, I think you tend to forget them more quickly yourselves, and I want , in my last few words to you, to ask you to remember what you have done. How you have made trade union history, and something of the brave and unique things which you have done, and the principles which you have established, often unaided and alone, and occasionally even against opposition, which, blind and unreasoning, sprang up from the directions in which you had the right to feel secure.

Let me remind you, you were the first Union in Britain of a national character to present a National Programme of wages and conditions of service. It was your ideal. you clung to it for years. You preached it in season and out of season, and finally fought for it and won it, and to-day you are the only Union with branches all over the countries which makes up Great Britain which has one national set of conditions of service with no town, country, or district rates. Thus was persistence and patience rewarded.

You raised the banner of the 8 hour day. fought for it during a period of war, and won pledges alone and unaided, which eventually brought that great reform to all railwaymen, and led other industrial workers to battle for and win the same ideal.

You were almost the first Union to present before Wages Board and before war-time Committee on Production, a string of workmen witnesses - drivers, firemen and cleaners. You trusted the intelligence of you own people, and they did not let you down, for under my examination they established the case for British locomotivemen.

You secured, when things looked black indeed, the front end of the electric train for the train for the young footplatemen who had served long apprenticeship to the position of engine driver, and who saw it nearly snatched from their grasp when motive power in some places changed from steam to electricity. That was result of the efforts of virile men in a strong Union, and again alone and unaided you wrung success out of difficult circumstances, for which every junior footplateman owes everlasting thanks to the men of A.S.L.E.&F.

You spent, during the period of my office service with the Union, some £500,000 in battle for yourselves and others, or in the results of others fighting, and of that large amount of money only a fraction over one-fifth of it was spent on yourselves. I refer to 1924, when you fought one of the most gallant fights against great odds which it is possible for me to conceive.

In 1926 you again fought for others, taking your place in the united ranks of angry trade unionism. You entered the fray in the first moment, and came out of it in the last split second. you entered that battle with no money in your fighting fund, but with a debt to past battles, of £58,000, yet you never complained, but took your stand to the end and came out of it with a debt of nearly £230,000, and you never squealed.

That, my friends, is a record of which you may be justly proud, and which you should never forget. That is why I am asking now to remember.

When I leave you in a few days' time you will have recovered your financial losses. You have paid every farthing due from you as a Union, and you have established a fighting fund again, greater than you have had for very many years, and are in a position to protect every locomotivemen of this country from any unjustifiable neglect. 

You have to-day a greater percentage of the men you cater for organised in your Union than ever had before, with a oneness of purpose and understanding, which, while you keep your organisation strong, will ever be your sheet anchor. 

Is it too much for me to ask of our younger members that they should ever remember the sacrifices made by the earlier pioneers of our Union who built and paid and met danger and defeat, giving sacrifice and accepting sorrow, so that your Union could be made strong. so that when the time came that you were prepared to move for your own betterment, you should have a machine working, properly constructed and ready to face industrial storms at great odds. These gallant old members are not entirely forgotten. I know, but it is well that they should be even more often and more generously remembered, for they worked and strove for your uplifting without ever hoping to reap the fruits of their efforts themselves. We may be proud of the fact that many of them did so, but only for a few years, whilst you to-day are gaining the full advantage of their untiring efforts and Sterling courage. you have inherited their mantle, fail ye not at your peril to live up to the high standard which they set for you and to the tradition and prestige which they established for our Union. 

So comrades, a long farewell. iu shall watch you from the shadows of my retirement. I shall joy with you in your triumphs and I shall sympathise with you in your defeats, unless they rise from apathy and indifference, from slothfulness or lack of patience and persistence, and should that ever be I shall curse you, because you will not have lived up to the standard which has been set for you under trials and difficulties with to-day you wot not of.

That you will go from strength to strength and further progress and advancement I am satisfied. and my only one regret will be, that I shall not be with you in your future struggles,

"Deep in the valley lie my strenuous days,

In the vale now wrapped in silver haze,

But I sill may share some pleasant wind that stirs the plain below,

And blows me perfumes that I used to know."

And so my time is up, my act is over, and I must nit linger on the stage beyond my period. Again I thank you for unblemished loyalty, both to myself and to our Union. I thank you for understanding and for help, and I wish you well.

May my memories of you keep ever green. Vale.

JOHN/JACK BROMLEY

A.S.L.E.&F.'S LONGEST SERVING  GENERAL SECRETARY

1914 - 1936

Mr. Galyer who was fifty-one, was well known in Brighton and Moulscombe, not only in his employment as an engine driver on the Southern Railway but also as the employees’ representative of the Sectional Council. He was also Chairman of the Moulscombe Labour Party and contested the Moulscombe Ward in 1934. Mr. Galyer first began his municipal experiences in Coulsdon Surrey, and he came to Brighton in 1928.

The interment was at the Brighton Borough Cemetery, the entrance of which was lined on either side by about 50 railwaymen. The coffin was borne to the grave by two motormen, two engine drivers and two firemen.

In an appreciation, “G.W.T.G.” writes:

"John Mason Galyer was a man of sterling worth and character. As chairman of the local Labour Party at Moulscombe for many years, his sturdy frame and deep sounding voice brought to every meeting he conducted a sense of confidence and responsibility.”

Not only in the political field but also in the industrial field will he be missed. He was an active member of the Brighton branch of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. As one time chairman of the Local Department Committee for Brighton - a committee responsible for adjusting local matters a between employers and employed - his work met with appreciation on both sides. Guided by a practical business instinct he gave assurance of a fair and accurate interpretation of the highest ideals of Trade Unionism and of modern Labour negotiations machinery.

As an advocate in railway discipline case by his services were greatly appreciated by his colleagues, and an unjust decision was fought with mighty force of his personality, pleading extenuating circumstances or giving an interpretation of rules which even his superiors were obliged to acknowledge.

LOSS TO MOVEMENT

His appointment as the locomotiqemen’s representative on the Sectional Council, the highest appointment in railway Trade Union negotiating circles, in the year 1931, and his re-appointment to that position by an overwhelming majority in 1934, were convincing proof of his qualities.

On two occasions he was invited to contest municipal elections at Coulsdon, Surrey, where he resided prior to coming to Brighton in 1928, and at Moulscombe in 1934. His defeat by the narrow margin of third six votes was a keen disappointment to his supporters, who foresaw a brilliant future for him in the realms of municipal administration.

His sudden death must prove a serious loss to the Labour movement, but those who knew can say; 

“We knew a man who gave of his best to the cause in which he profoundly believed and to the people whom he belonged, without fear, and without reward other than the knowledge of duty well done.”

 

AMONG THE MOURNERS

The Chief mourners were Mrs. Galyer (mother), Mrs Galyer (widow), Mr. & Mrs. Ernest Galyer, Mr. & Mrs. Reginald Galyer (sons & daughter-in-laws), Miss Grace Galyer, Miss Nancy Galyer (daughters), Mr. A. Galyer (brother), Mr. Eric Sergeant and Mr. Tom Field.

Among the large representative gathering at the church and cemetery were: Mrs. Bransby Jones, Mrs. Burfield, Mrs Holdaway, Mrs. Turner, Miss Heats and Mrs. Potters (members and representatives of Moulscombe Mothers’ Union), Mrs. O’Brien (Vice Chairman, Women’s Section, Moulscombe Labour Party), Councillor H.J. Robbins (Vice Chairman, 

Moulscombe Labour Party) and Mrs Robbins, Mr. W. Whiting (Hon. Secretary, Moulscombe Labour Party) and Mrs Whiting, Mr. G. Garrett (former Secretary of the Moulscombe Labour Party), Councillor T. Hussey (Secretary Moulscombe Labour Party Executive), Mr. Fletcher (Treasurer Moulscombe Labour Party) and Mrs Fletcher, Mr. Frank Hancock (Lewes Labour Party), Mr. J.V. Sweeney (Organising Secretary of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers Firemen and Cleaners), Mr. W.J. Godfrey (member of the National Executive Council and representing Brighton No.2 Branch Southern Railway), H. Harris (Chairman and representative of Brighton No.1 Branch), Mr. J.S. Downs (representing the Portsmouth Branch), Mr. J.C. Urie (representing the local running department, Southern Railway), Mr. Morris representing passenger guards at Brighton) and Mrs. Morris.

Also present were: Mrs. Bunker, Mr. W. O’Brien, Mrs. Coomber, Mrs Cumming, Mrs. Day, Mr. Endersley, Mrs. Field, Mrs. Heritage, Mr. & Mrs. Imms, Mrs. Kateley, Councillor F. Larkin, Mrs. Langridge, Mrs. C. G. Manton, (representing Councillor C.G. Manton), Mrs. A. Skinner, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Standing, Mrs. Tullett, sen., Mrs. Witney, Mrs. White and Mrs. Wells. Councillor H.F. Parker, J.P., of Portslade, and Mr. J. Tanner (General Secretary Lewes Division Labour Party), were unable to attend.

The funeral arrangements were carried out by the funeral furnishment department of the Brighton Co-operative Society, under the personal supervision of Mr. A. Clarke.

John “Jack” Gayler this started as an examination of the L.B.S.&C.R. records held by the 

National Archives, scanned and made available by Ancestry for any records concerning 

John (Jack) GALYER or GAYLER. It soon became apparent that historically the spelling 

GALYER was prevalent and I have used this through out. It also became apparent when using other record sources that John’s father was also a footplateman. Specifically John’s Baptism record, the 1901 census and his his marriage record all contain references to his father’s occupation on the railway, Railway Fireman and Engine Driver. His father is a bit of a conundrum, being named as Henry Robert Galyer at John’s Baptism, just Robert Galyer at 

John’s marriage, and Robert Henry at his daughter Floence;s wedding in 1920 Some 

confusion exists in the LB&SCR records as well with three entries for new starters in 1877 

and 1879, but apparently only one consistent name after that. The records do not show staff 

leaving service or transferring to other departments, only new entrants and transfers within 

the Locomotive department. 

There is gap in Henry Robert’s L.B. & S.C.R. records after he achieved a pay rate of 7/6 in 

May 1905 until his apparent re-employment as an Engine Preparer in 1920 at around the age 

of 64. Was he on the top rate all that time and didn’t move so didn’t appear in the records? He does not appear in the pages of 18/09/1919 where the pay adjustments for all Locomotive Department staff after the strikes of 1919 (8 hour day etc.) were entered. In the 1911 census he still declared himself as a. Engine Driver. At the marriage of his daughter Lily, still in Epsom he declares as a Railway Engineer and in April 1920 an engine driver at the marriage of his daughter Florence. He does not appear in the pages of 18/09/1919 where the pay adjustments for all Locomotive Department staff after the strikes of 1919 (8 hour day etc.) were entered. See also 

http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/WarMemorialsSurnamesG.html for War 

Memorial details of Fred Mason Galyer, John’s brother who died in the Great War and was 

another who used an alternative name (James). Stoats Nest .

According to http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/c/coulsdon_north/index.shtml, the shed at 

Stoats Nest opened in 1900 and closed in June 1929 after 3rd rail electrification. The station 

was renamed Coulsdon and Smitham Downs in 1911 after an accident had occurred in 1910. 

Entries in the LB&SCR records after this are Coulsdon. Research by Neal Cowdrey.