Friday, 6 November 2015

York - NER War Memorial


York - NER War Memorial


The North Eastern Railway was formed in 1854 through the merger of four railways, and by 1914 the company's rails stretched from east Yorkshire in the south, north to the Scottish border, and west to the Pennines.

The East Coast mainline, the coalfields on Durham and Northumberland dominated the NER's activities.
North Eastern Railway
The company employed nearly 54,000 people when war broke out in 1914, and during the period of the war it released 18,339 men for military service, 34% of the workforce. The North Eastern Railway Company was the only British railway to form it's own Pals Battalion - 17th (NER) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers.


A memorial to the 2,236 employees of the NER who were killed during the 1914-18 war was built beside the railway's headquarters in York. The memorial was designed by Sir Edward Lutyens, architect for the Cenotaph in London and Thiepval on the Somme. The names of the fallen are contained in a memorial book held at the National Railway Museum York. 

York - NER Headquarters
York - NER War Memorial


York - NER War Memorial

York - NER War Memorial Inscription
IN ABIDING REMEMBRANCE OF THE MEN OF THE NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY WO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY IN THE GREAT WAR
THE COMPANY PLACES THIS MONUMENT
 
An additional memorial was unveiled in 1984 commemorating  551 employees of the London and North Eastern Railway lost in World War Two.