Everyone is invited to the unveiling of a memorial plaque at St Johns station on Saturday 19th September at 12 noon, remembering those who died in the St John’s rail crash in 1957.
It remains one of the worst disasters in British railway history, with 90 deaths and many more injured. But until now there has been nothing in St John’s to honour those who were caught up in the crash between two crowded trains on a foggy winter’s evening.
The plaque, which is going to be opened by local MP Vicky Foxcroft, also remembers the efforts of people living in St John’s who helped emergency services with the rescue on 4th December 1957.
A feature of the coverage of the crash at the time was recognising the generosity of the local community who tried to help injured passengers, in what must have been deeply harrowing scenes.
A debate in Parliament the day after the crash heard praise for people in St John’s who “so unselfishly put their houses and their belongings at the disposal of the rescuers”.
The crash was a major national event, prompting a government report into the collision “near St Johns station, Lewisham”, as well as much media coverage.
Investigators found there were about 1,500 people on the electric train and 700 people on the steam train involved in the crash. It took more than a week to carry out the recovery and clear the tracks to re-open the rail lines.
And it’s taken almost seven decades to create a memorial in St John’s.
The maroon-coloured plaque, which is going to be installed on the long brick wall approaching the station entrance, is part of the London Borough of Lewisham’s heritage scheme.
But the council didn’t provide any support for funding – and so much thanks goes to the Railway Heritage Trust, who stepped in with a donation to help manufacture and install the plaque.
The St John’s Society and the St Johns station users group also had help from Southeastern in getting permission to use the railway wall for the plaque.
The plaque raised another question very specific to our area. Should it be St John’s or St Johns? With or without an apostrophe?
If you walk around you can see examples of St John’s with an apostrophe – St John’s Vale and St John’s church, for instance.
But the station is more usually written as St Johns, without an apostrophe. That’s how it’s described in timetables and by the train operator. The official investigation into the crash, published in 1958, described it as St Johns.
For the plaque, we decided that consistency was important. If we had “St John’s Society” and “St Johns Rail Crash” beside each other, then people might think there was a mistake, even if there was an argument for it being accurate. It’s also about the St John’s area as well as St Johns station. So we’ve opted to put an apostrophe in both.
Come along to see the plaque being officially unveiled. It’s our chance to remember previous generations of people living in our streets and to honour their efforts on a terrible night 69 years ago.
Sean Coughlan