Catalogue description Southern Railway photographic collection of Colonel Sir Eric Gore-Browne

The Gore-Browne collection consists of albums of photographs in which Sir Eric features prominently. The subjects mainly cover official functions, including naming ceremonies of locomotives such as the 'West Country' class in 1946; maiden voyages of ships including the 'Queen Elizabeth'; the Centenary celebrations of Southampton Docks; visits by prominent dignitaries such as Field Marshal Montgomery's visit to the T S S 'Falaise' in 1947 and inspection tours of Southern lines undertaken by Sir Eric in 1944 and 1945. Wartime images are also represented in the collection: the Home Guard on parade, bomb damage, D-Day preparations at Southampton Docks and troops preparing for embarkation. Sir Eric often included accompanying ephemera with the photographs such as programmes, invitations, transcriptions of speeches and newspaper cuttings, all of which help to create a more detailed picture of the events he recorded.

There is a one-page summary of albums. Many prints are captioned, but not listed. With the exception of a few images that may appear in the Clapham Collection there are no original negatives.

Gore-Browne, Sir, Eric, d 1965, Colonel

Browne, Sir, Eric, Gore-, d 1965, Colonel

Colonel Sir Eric Gore-Browne's formal connection with the Southern Railway began when he joined Glyn Mills (now part of the Royal Bank of Scotland) as Secretary to the Chairman, and eventually succeeded to that position. In 1931 Sir Eric was appointed a Director of the Southern Railway. He was elected Deputy Chairman in 1935 and it was at this time that he began to maintain records of Southern activities by creating albums and keeping press cuttings. In 1944 he became Chairman of the Southern Railway and received a knighthood in 1948. In 1957 he was appointed High Sheriff of his home county, Rutland.