Resting place Tweedmouth Cemetery Nationality British | Occupation Poet, Railway worker | |
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Born September 16, 1863
Norham, Northumberland, UK ( 1863-09-16 ) Died August 14, 1928(1928-08-14) (aged 64)
Northumberland, UK Subjects World War One, Scottish Borders, Rail transport Notable works Musings on the Footplate
Poems on the Great War | ||
Thomas Grey (1863-1928) was an English poet who wrote about his local area of the Scottish Borders, the First World War and rail transport.
Contents
Life and railway work
Thomas Grey was born on 16 September 1863 at Shoreswood, Norham, in Northumberland. He worked on trains for much of his life for the North Eastern Railway. On 3 July 1887 he married Esther Glenwright at South Shields and they resided in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Grey died on 14 August 1928 and is buried in Tweedmouth Cemetery.
Poetry
Grey was variously known as the Border Poet, Engine Driver Poet and Footplate Poet. Much of his output appeared in the local press and was never independently published during his lifetime. He was one of the best known writers of Border Poetry, and for some years he was the writer of Tweedmouth Topics in a Border Newspaper, relinquishing this post due to illness in the last 20 years of his life. He also wrote in “The Wheatsheaf” (the Co-operative Movement’s Official Magazine).
In 1916 his work was made a Fellow of the International Institute of British Poetry. In November 1916, at the request of the Royal Normal College in London (now known as The Royal National College for the Blind), Grey sent them 200 copies of his “effusions” which were then printed in Braille type.
Publications
Achievements
Grey was the instigator of the erection of the Tweedmouth War Memorial (on which 111 men are commemorated) and founder member of promoting a fund for the remaining money needed for the erection of the Memorial in July 1921.