NORMAN TAYLOR FOX

Date and place of birth :  23 October 1888 in Longsight, Lancashire

Date and place of Death :  24 May 1954 in Worsley, Lancashire

Nationality: British

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Biography:  Norman had one brother named Edward Bowker Fox who was born in Lisburn, Ireland in 1893.  Unfortunately Edward died in Dunmurry, Ireland in 1901 aged just 7 years.  So Norman grew up from then as an only child.  The family came back to Lancashire by 1911’

Parents:

Charles Edward Fox and Mary Jane Bowker

who were married in 1886 in Bolton District.

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Parents occupation . Charles worked for a while as a Cotton Linen Dyer but later travelled for Chemical Works.

Schools Universities attended and years of attendance – Not known

Place of residence at Gretna:  Not known

Marital status:

Norman married Evelyn Gasquoine 1918 in Prestwich District, Lancashire

Children: Norman and Evelyn had three children

Edward Gasquoine Fox 1922

Mary Elizabeth Fox 1925

Joan Taylor Gasquoine Fox 1927

Job title at Gretna:  Chemical Engineer  After the war Norman became the Manager of a Chemical Engineering Works near his home in Lancashire.

Travels – Nil known

Awards/recognitions: Nil known

Trivia/any other information

Norman died at his family home in Worsley, Lancashire

https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2021/86/UNCEM_2287306_97f2873b-9ef1-4d81-a2bf-9e25b6ca6d1d.jpeg?v=1617490442

Heaton Cemetery, Bolton, Lancashire

References:

Ancestry

FindMyPast

FreeBMD

FindAGrave

Dornock Farewell Magazine

Further Links, notes and comments.

Norman wrote an article for the Dornock Farewell Magazine:  Page 42

THE 11.20 “ UP EXPRESS.”

ON a dark, unhealthy September night, the “ Up Express ” is standing in lonely

state awaiting her tired and weary passengers. Figures wend their way in the

blackness amongst a hundred pitfalls and death-traps, for in those days the construction

people had a nasty habit of digging holes in “ Mother Earth ” and forgetting to fill

them in again. The platform has been missing for some time, and it is thought that

some Shift Chemist has lifted it for use on the plant. To get into the compartment

is an acrobatic feat, and requires some skill and patience. The compartments are of

two classes, and these are so distinct and separate that a popular paper has taken the

matter up and noised it throughout the length and breadth of the country.

The Chemists recline in luxuriously-upholstered carriages, criticising the latest war

position, whereas all others aboard sit on hard, cold, rigid seats. These latter com-

partments, it is expected, will be sold under the hammer of the Minister of Munitions

for hen-roosts or ice-cream vans, if the Minister can find a speculative party of buyers.

While the compartments are in process of filling, the driver and stoker are doing

their best to induce “ Elgie ” to summon a reasonable steam pressure. The driver

is busy wiping the sweat and the grease-stains from off “ Elgie’s ” wonderful anatomy

while fondly watching the pressure gauge, and the stoker is breaking his neck poking

and tearing the “ innards ” of the burning fiery furnace. In the meantime the guard

paces up and down the length of his beat, adjusting all handles that are out of the

horizontal.

Under the careful massage and skilled attention of driver and stoker. “ Elgie ”

begins to purr and respond like a well-bred fireside cat, and shews signs of a healthy

steam pressure. In fact, the symptoms are so promising that the driver and stoker

beckon the guard to indulge in conversation upon the excellent qualifications of “ Elgie.5”

The guard suddenly remembers he has a watch, and finds he is half an hour late. This

is, however, a mere detail ; and furthermore, one of the three hundred and u uniteen ”

passengers aboard has gone back to the changeroom for her hat-pin, and the guard must

needs wait for his permit to proceed from the Lady Supervisor. This being given,

the guard, who by the way is one of the ” forty years or more ” class with a strong

instinct for politeness, gives the secret sign to the driver—whereupon the driver

pierces the night with a shrill blast from the whistle. Moments and more moments

pass on, but the “ Up Express ” does not move.

This interval between whistle and start is always necessary to overcome the

extensive and rapid fall in Elgie’s ” steam pressure. (The Research Department

afterwards took this question up and succeeded in reducing the time interval by 1.01

seconds and increasing the efficiency of “ Elgie’s ” hot-water system by 0.098 per

cent.) The steam pressure is won back by valiant efforts of driver and stoker, and with

grim, set faces they begin the intricate manipulation of levers and valves. At last the

“ Up Express ” begins to move off. Sparks and flames fly out into the night from

the roaring furnace, speed increases from degree to degree, until telegraph poles verge

into thickly wooded forests, curves become right-angles, and miles inches, to this flying

monster of the night. All goes well with the u Up Express ” while she is eating up

the miles between Dornock and Gretna, until Rigg Power House is reached.

The lineat this point bridges a gully, and this becomes the scene of a terrible smash. The

Staff in the rear coach are awakened from sweetest dreams by violent rockings to and

fro, and feel the journey brought to a rough and untimely end. A walk along the

four-foot-way reveals that the “ Up Express ” has got into a very untidy condition.

The first coach has left the rails, with one end in the bottom of the gully and the other

resting against the bridge, the following two are over on their sides, and the fourth

has jumped the metals. There is much confusion, whilst yells and screams pierce the ear.

The driver blows the engine whistle, the guard flashes his 999 candle-power lamp, girls

crawl out from every corner of the rubbish heap, and the scene as a whole would have

insured good running for a Cinema film.

Four of the Dornock Chemists proceed to give assistance to unravel the tangle.

Carriage doors are burst open, white and trembling damsels are transferred to the

railway banking, hats are carefully dusted and laid side by side on the track; diamond

tiaras, weird and wonderful love novels, and a few stray tails of synthetic hair are

rescued and put aside for distribution or otherwise. In the meantime a number of

cases have fainted, but we bring them back to earth again by raising violent blisters

on the cheeks, and exciting the ear with beautiful silvery voices in far-away tones.

We become heroes—and are told a hundred and one confidences; but we continue to

administer our gentle and fairy-like evolutions with unparalleled success. We retire

to our wooden huts at 3-1S akk. EMMA. N T F