SENIOR GUARD ON RAILWAYS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27407, 21 July 1954, Page 6

SENIOR GUARD ON RAILWAYS

RETIREMENT OF MR T. H. A HARRISON New Zealand’s senior railway guard retired from the service at the end of last week. He is 64-year-old Mr T. H. A. Harrison, of Christchurch. Mr Harrison, who has been with the New Zealand Railways for almost exactly 40 years, brought his last train into the Christchurch railway station “right on the dot” on Saturday evening. It was No. 174 —north bound express due in Christchurch at 7.26 p.m. In the whole of his 40 years on the railways Mr Harrison has been travelling on trains. He has no idea of the total distance he has travelled, but he agreed that it might well run into millions of miles. No train on which he has travelled has been involved in a serious accident, and he is pleased to recall that no passenger in his charge has lost his or her life.

Mr Harrison began guard duties in 1929 and since 1938 he has been on express trains. Born at Belfield near Temuka, he was educated at the Temuka District High School. He was a tinsmith before he joined the Railways in July 1914. At first he was a porter at Lyttelton earning 9s a day. During World War I he served overseas with the 3rd Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade and was invalided home in 1918 after being wounded at Passchendaele. After the war he returned to the Railways at Lyttelton. From 1922 to 1929 he was in Christchurch on shunting duty. “They were the hardest but also my most enjoyable years,” he said reflectively. In 1929 he went to Dunedin and about five years later he moved to Outram where he remained about 10 years before returning to Christchurch. Now he is looking forward to tending his garden and taking an interest in sport, in particular rowing and Rugby football, and his lodge.