Notes for: Alfred Vigars
Alfred was born on Christmas Day 1859 at Hill, Lamerton, Devon and when
baptised on 15th January 1860 the address is specified as Trevenn. In 1861 he
is with his parents at Hill, Lamerton and in 1871 resident with them at the
Sportsman's Arms, Heathfield, Nr. Lamerton. (sources: Birth Certificate,
Baptism Register, Census Returns.)
Alfred was apprenticed by his father to a Grocer (or a Stone Mason?). He
disagreed with this and became a Booking Boy/Clerk at Okehampton Station in
Devon. Here he stayed with the "Vigars-Prout" family who had a mineral water
business. (source: daughter Florence Lily aka "Nink") A "Booking Boy" was
lowest rung of the ladder on the Station side of the railways as opposed to
the line (Plate-layers & Gangers) & the footplate (Cleaners, Fireman, Drivers,
Shed-Master). From a "Booking Boy" promotion would be to a Porter & then to
either Signalman or into the Booking Office as a Passenger or Goods Clerk.
Further promotion would be to Station Master or a Regional Clerk's position.
The responsibility & seniority of all these posts would vary depending upon
the size of the station. A "Booking Boy" would be available to run errands
etc.
We have been unable to verify this first appointment as yet & we need to
consult the surviving records of the London & SW Railway in the Public Record
Office at Kew. However, in 1881 a cousin of Alfred's, Mary Jane Richards nee
Vigars (daughter of his father's brother Edmund) was living with her
hairdresser husband Alexander in Fore Street Okehampton. What is more,
Alexander's father was a Railway Porter in Tavistock. Could it be that Alfred
got the job through this connection & then lodged with them?
We have found no "Vigars-Prout" connection with Okehampton, however, in
Kelly's 1897 Directory, there is a Mineral Water Manufacturer: Samuel Pickard
Gunn at Kemplay Road Okehampton. In 1926 he is also Deputy Registrar of
Births, Deaths & Marriages. In 1881 Samuel P Gunn is a 21 year old Railway
Clerk lodging with Mary Ward, Ironmonger, in Fore Street, Okehampton. Also
lodging there is John Warren a 20 year old Railway Porter. Could this be where
Alfred lodged "with a Mineral Water Manufacturer" and the place he showed Nink
on a holiday visit to Okehampton many years later when, indeed, his
contemporary had "gone up in the world"?
From there he moved, up the line on the London & SW Railway, to Andover.
(source: daughter "Nink") In 1881 he is a Railway Porter & a lodger with the
Smart family at Millfield Cottage, Charlton Road, Andover. (source: Census
Return) He met his wife at the station and they married at Andover in 1882.
(source: Nink) His wife went to family in Devizes (her sister Ellen Drew nee
Wiltshire) to have her first child Jessie in 1883, where she was also
baptised, but their second child William Henry was born & baptised in Andover
in 1884. In the 1885 Electoral Register Alfred's address is given as 4
Charlton Road Andover.
They moved to Effingham Junction, on the London to Guildford Suburban Line,
when it opened(?) in 1887. (source: daughter Nink) We have a picture of Alfred
on that station probably soon after it opened. He was a Signalman & Porter at
the station. (1891 Census) According to his grandson, Roy Ernest Vigars, he
went to Effingham Junction in 1884 to help in setting up the line before it
opened the following year.
Here the rest of their children were born 1887-1903. The first child born here
was baptised at Rowde in 1887. They were resident at the Railway Cottages in
1891. (Census Return) Alfred died in 1834 at his railway cottage, now a Car
Park, at Effingham Junction. (source: Ellen Vigars nee Hilton)
Both his son Alfred Ernest Vigars & grandson Roy Ernest Vigars were Train
Drivers on the L&SW Railway which was absorbed into the Southern Railway
before becoming the Southern Region when the Railways were nationalised.