Tiger's Tale, Shillingstone & the 'S & D'.

According to railway locomotive driver Andrew Thomas (above) there was a major accident near miss on the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (‘S & D’) that could have changed the course of European history. It occurred at Wellow station, some six miles south of Bath, and involved the future twice French Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau. It is believed this incident occurred in 1884 when the Frenchman is known to have visited England.

Clemenceau is generally regarded as the statesman who prevented the collapse of the French military forces towards the end of World War I. Such was his tenacity, that he gained the nicknames ‘Le Tigre’ (Tiger) and ‘Le Pere la Victoire’ (Father of Victory).

The French politician was a guest of Lord Wolverton who had been the Liberal MP for Shaftesbury before succeeding his father in the House of Lords. Wolverton lived at Iwerne Minster and had already entertained Prime Minister William Gladstone on his estate.

Lord Wolverton decided to take the Frenchman to Bath Races and hired a special train from the ‘S & D’ to make the return journey from Shillingstone to Bath Green Park station. According to engine driver, Andrew Thomas, the journey into Somerset would not prove to be uneventful. Thomas was later to be the first Labour Party representative to sit on the Bath City Bench of Magistrates.

According to Andrew Thomas, when passing through Wellow Station at express speed, the engine tilted over on its off wheels so far that the engine’s footstep cut a deep score into the brickwork of the platform. When they had arrived at Bath safely, a footman was sent with a message to the driver and a handsome tip thanking him for a splendid run. Many years later, Andrew remarked to a Bath Chronicle & Herald journalist:

‘Little did Lordy and his merry party know how nearly they went to Kingdom Come instead of Bath Races.’

Had the future Prime Minister of France lost his life on the ‘S & D’ that day both the outcome of World War I and the consequential map of Europe could have been quite different!

(Illustration 1: Somerset & Dorset Railway engine driver & later elected as a Bath Alderman - Andrew W Thomas JP}

(Source: Bath Chronicle & Herald Saturday 30^th November 1929.)

(Illustration 2:Georges Clemenceau - twice Prime Minister of France from 1906-1909 & 1917-1920.)

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