Rev. W. Awdry: the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine

An Anglican minister, the Rev. W. Awdry, as he’s commonly known, was also a best-selling author, active for more than a quarter of a century, and rail enthusiast. Along the way, he’d create one of the most beloved children’s characters of all, becoming known as the Puff Puff Parson

Born at Ampfield vicarage on June 15, 1911, Wilbert Vere Awdry had a thrice-married father, Vere Awdry (1854-1928), Ampfield’s Anglican vicar, and a mother, Winchester-born Lucy née Bury (1884-1965), who was three decades younger than her husband, a circumstance leaving the youngster fatherless whilst a teen and his mother in straightened circumstances. There were some notable Awdrys, including Wilbert’s paternal grandfather, the judge Sir John Wither Awdry (1795-1878), and his uncle William Awdry (1842-1910), who was the first Bishop of Southampton. The slightly archaic ‘Wilbert’ was derived from two uncles, William (above) and Herbert. He’d have a younger brother, George (1916-94), plus three half-siblings from his father’s previous marriages who all died relatively young, the youngest losing his life in WW1.

Apparently, when but a toddler, Wilbert witnessed his father build a narrow-gauge railway line in Ampfield’s vicarage garden, the nipper becoming ‘Superintendent of the Line’, whilst walks around the parish with his father saw him chattering to local railwaymen; the genesis was possibly here.

The Ampfield idyll ended in 1917, however, when the family moved to Box (Wilts) where there was another railway connection, the famous Box Railway Tunnel designed by Portsmouth-born Isambard Kingdom Brunel which burrows through Box Hill and at over 1¾ miles in length was the longest rail tunnel in the world when completed in 1841. The third house the family occupied in Box, ‘Journey’s End’ (1920-28), was just 200 yards from the western portal of the tunnel on the GWR’s Paddington-Bristol main line. With a two-mile gradient of 1-in-100 here, the young Awdry could lie in bed listening to the huffing and puffing as engines laboured the incline.

Rev. W. Awdry pictured alongside one of his creations, Peter Sam, who in real life is No. 4 Edward Thomas on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales. (Image: Voice of Clam)

If it wasn’t the Ampfield model railway that got him thinking about train stories, then it must have been this episode which could easily have come from the pages of Edith Nesbit’s The Railway Children. Wilbert listened intently and imagined locos with personalities: ‘Little imagination was needed to hear, in the puffings and pantings, the conversation they were having with one another’.

Awdry was a student of St Peter’s Hall, Oxford, from where he obtained his B.A. in 1932, and then Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, which bestowed a Diploma in Theology upon him (1933) before he headed off to teach in Jerusalem for three years (1933-36). He was ordained a deacon by the Church of England, also in 1936 at Winchester, subsequently becoming a priest, taking up his first curacy at Odiham (1936-38).

Awdry was married in 1938 to Margaret Wale (1912-89), who’d been teaching in the English School in Haifa. The three resulting children included Christopher Awdry, born in 1940, who’d continue his father’s authoring. Awdry Snr. meanwhile lived out his life as curate, rector, rural dean and vicar at various places around the country, none of which were in his home county. One of them he’d been asked to leave because of the pacifist stance he’d adopted during WW2, an entirely understandable position given he’d lost a half-brother in the last war. It showed another side of his character though, a calm courage to stand his ground.

The first book in Awdry’s The Railway Series was published in May 1945, the first of 26 such books that he would author, the last coming out in October 1972 (the series was then continued by Christopher between 1983-2011, with the series finally achieving 42 titles).

Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher Awdry, National Railway Museum, York in 1980. (Image: Virgil Lucky)

The first stories were concocted in 1942 when Awdry dabbled at storytelling to amuse two-year-old Christopher, who’d suffered a bout of measles. He needed an engine to complement the stories, built a little tank engine (as you do) and thought up the alliteratively pleasing Thomas the Tank Engine. The island of Sodor, where the stories were set, had its religious origin, for Awdry observed the Isle of Man being listed as part of the ‘Diocese of Sodor and Man’, yet there was no corresponding island of Sodor, so he invented one for Thomas and his friends.

Thomas, incidentally, didn’t appear in the first book as it took a few before everything fell into place with the ‘Fat Director’ becoming the ‘Fat Controller’ we know today. A chunk of the credit goes to Awdry’s wife who encouraged him to publish what would otherwise have remained cute family stories. Awdry clearly couldn’t get enough of railways as he’d also volunteer as a guard on the preserved Talyllyn Railway in Wales in 1952. Like his father, Awdry built his own model railways, which he exhibited, and also joined the rail preservation movement. He also wrote other stories, fiction and non-fiction, beside his Thomas books.

An early attempt to adapt Thomas for TV was an abject failure in 1953 when a model engine derailed following a points failure, a human hand appearing to plonk said engine back on the track, and all during a live show. Henry was the culprit (the engine, not the human hand). It took a long time for anyone to be brave enough to try again, but the 1980s series, narrated by Ringo Starr, was a massive success. There’s been feature films too, for example, Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000), whilst the books have sold some 50 million copies worldwide, and then there’s also the merchandise that goes with them. His children’s prose, ‘tightly structured and economically written’, has been compared favourably with another doyen of the juvenile market, Beatrix Potter. Given his religious background the stories unsurprisingly had a moral aspect.

Wilbert Awdry retired from ministering in 1965 meanwhile, setting up home in Rodborough (Gloucestershire). He’d face many challenges in later life, including the death of his wife (1989) and serious ill-health. He was interviewed more than once on television as the fascination with his stories and their author surged. He’d be made an OBE in the 1996 New Year’s Honours but had little time left. The Rev. W. Awdry died on March 21 1997, in Rodborough, aged 85. A biography of his life, The Thomas the Tank Engine Man, was published in 1995.

A pedestrian railway bridge was dedicated to Awdry at Chandler’s Ford in 2017, this being the closest rail line and station to the author’s birthplace in Ampfield.

Scene from 'Thomas and the Magic Railroad' the 2000 children's fantasy adventure film based on Rev. W. Awdry's railway stories. (Image: Movie Stills Database)