For more than twenty years George Bayliss lived in a house on Rodbourne Road. From his front room window, he could see the Great Western Railway Works. All around him was the smell and the noises of the railway factory, the sound of the hooter punctuating his day.
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published with thanks to David Lewis, Rodbourne Community History Group
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the site of George Bayliss' unmarked grave
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Section D where George Bayliss is buried
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189 Rodbourne Road
George Bayliss was born in Newark, Nottinghamshire, another railway hub, in 1856. His father John was a boiler maker, his mother was Hannah.
By 1881 George had moved to Swindon where he lodged at 17 Harding Street with the family of Samuel Shallcroft, an iron moulder in the Works. George was 25 years old and working as an engine fitter. He married Henrietta Kirby, possibly in 1882, and by 1891 they were living in Rodbourne at 14 Charles Street, a road demolished a century later. In 1901 they were living at 189 Rodbourne Road.
In 1924 King George V and Queen Mary made a visit to Swindon, during which they were conducted on a tour of the Works. Presented to the King and Queen that day were railway men who had served the Great Western Railway Company for more than fifty years. In the various newspaper accounts George is the only man mentioned by name.
Outside the locomotive works were drawn up eighty men, each having completed over fifty years’ service for the company, and with one of these, George Bayliss, a wrinkled veteran, clad in spotless white ducks, for the special occasion, his Majesty shook hands, and at the same time, inquired his age and service. “I am 69, your Majesty,” replied the aged worker, “and I have had fifty-eight years’ service.” The King laughingly informed Bayliss that he was ten years older than himself, and expressed the hope that the old man would take care of himself.
The Wiltshire Times Saturday May 3, 1924.
George is a distinctive figure in his white overalls, seated centre stage in the commemorative photograph.
George died two years after the royal visit and was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery in plot D760. His grave is a privately purchased one, but sadly there is no headstone.
published with thanks to David Lewis, Rodbourne Community History Group
the site of George Bayliss' unmarked grave
Section D where George Bayliss is buried
