"Army Form W3742 Forward Journey
HM Forces Overseas (In Uniform)
Combined Leave and Railway Ticket
Available for an authorised Journey on the Railways in Great Britain and
Ireland ( including the Underground Railways) and on the steamers running to and
from the ports.
G26198 From France to Yeadon Station
Third Class for One Person Only
(Insert Destination Station. Any alteration will render the ticket useless,
unless signed by a Railway Transport Officer)
Leave granted from 11.7.18 to 25.7.18
Through tickets in cases where the journey is not continuous do not include
the cost of transfer between Railway Termini in towns or between Railway
Stations and Steamboats.
This ticket is issued subject to the regulations of the respective
Companies over whose lines it is available and to the conditions stated in their
Time Tables.
It must be shown and given up when required."
The
destination is Yeadon Station, this is intriguing, did Yeadon Station cater for
passengers during the War?
From Martin Bairstow:
" I very much doubt
that this soldier would have been able to get a train to Yeadon.
It must be
the work of some army clerk who didn`t know that it had no passenger service.
The ticket would have been ok to Guiseley.
Yeadon
had a conventional station but a passenger service was never introduced. There
were very occasional excursions.
A
number of branch lines lost their passenger service "temporarily" during the
First World War.
Batley
to Birstall and Holmfield to Halifax St Pauls both closed to passengers on the
last day of 1916 but remained open for goods until 1962 and 1960
respectively.
It
is possible to speculate that, had Yeadon gained a passenger service in the
1890s, it would have fallen in frequency after the electric tramway opened in
1909 and would have closed "temporarily" but permanently during the First World
War.
But
since it didn`t have a service to start with, it was spared any wartime cut
back. They were certainly not introducing new services at that time." |