The St John’s Society are pleased to welcome author Dr Tony Redding to present material and research from his forthcoming book ‘A Study in Tragedy: the human cost of the 1957 St John’s rail disaster. The book book will document the horror of that night and its long term effects on victims and their families.
He will be speaking at The Hopper Room (Upstairs at The Brookmill pub) at 19:00 on Monday 9th June 2025. Tickets are priced at £3 and all proceeds will go to the St John’s Memorial Plaque Fund, an initiative for the installation of a memorial at St John’s, to remember the 90 people who lost their lives and the 183 who were injured on December 4 1957.
In Tony’s own words:
On Wednesday December 4 1957 London and much of the South East was blanketed in a “pea-souper” smog. Driver Trew, at the controls of the Battle of Britain class locomotive “Spitfire”, ploughed into the back of a stationary electric train halted at St John’s station. The results were catastrophic. The impact collapsed the rail flyover, bringing down hundreds of tonnes of steelwork and crushing the wrecked carriages of the Ramsgate express.
Tony’s talk will focus the human consequences. He will also remember his Father, Jack Redding, who was amongst the rescuers that night. Jack was a British Railways welder. He used cutting gear to free the injured and recover bodies in the wreckage under the collapsed bridge.
Please follow this link to the Eventbrite page for more information and tickets, and we really look forward to welcoming you.
