George Jackson Churchward

George Jackson Churchward (1857 to 1933) was chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1902 to 1922 and one of the most influential locomotive designers in Britain. Born at Stoke Gabriel in south Devon, he was a pupil on the South Devon Railway and completed his training at Swindon, rising to carriage works manager in 1885 and locomotive works manager in 1895. As locomotive superintendent from 1902 he built a large new workshop at Swindon and, from 1903 to 1911, introduced a series of nine standard locomotive types of which over 1,100 were built by 1921. Grace's Guide records that the City class engine City of Truro became the first engine in the world to haul a train at 100 miles per hour, in 1904, and that he also produced the County and Star classes and developed the four cylinder locomotive. His designs influenced later railways, including the LMS and British Railways. He was killed by an express train near Swindon on 19 December 1933.