Bill Hampson (left) and Bernie Holland

On Monday 21st July I went to one of my local stations on the WCML, South Kenton Station, to take some photographs. On arrival at the station around 13:00 hrs I noticed a lone figure with a camera and a bag at the end of the platform. As I approached him he greeted me with a smile and it didn’t take us too long to get talking about the railways. One thing I noticed immediately was that he had a ‘Geordie’ accent and, intrigued by this, I decided to introduce myself and perhaps find out who he was.

I was somewhat surprised to discover that this gentleman was a certain Bill Hampson and that he also was a member of RCTS in Newcastle Upon Tyne, affectionately known as ‘The Bishop’. Needless to say, we both spent the better part of three hours on the platform there, talking about railways and more besides and the 21st July happened to be Bill’s 75th Birthday.

I was still wondering what on earth would have brought this gentleman all the way down from Newcastle and Bill explained that he was going to Belgium the next day to meet up with some old friends he knew during the war and they were going to visit some memorial sites.

It was such a pleasure spending those three hours with Bill and the fact that you can bump into a complete stranger who lives hundreds of miles away and forge a wonderful friendship is another very happy experience for me which just goes to prove what a unique and valuable organisation we have in the Railway Correspondence and Travel Society.

Fortunately there was another railway photographer on the platform and, even though I didn’t know him, I asked him if he would be so kind as to take a picture of Bill and myself, using my camera.

Bernie Holland
Watford Branch Chairman

21/07/08