T is for Tindall Bowman of Rillington North Yorkshire

Our members are participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge for 2018 with the theme People of My Place. Today's entry is from Pam Smith.

Tindall Bowman was born in Ganton, Yorkshire in 1850, the son of Francis Bowman and Mary Tindall. He married Mary Wilkinson from Lastingham at Scarborough St.Mary on Christmas Day in 1874. Although they didn’t have any children of their own, they brought up their niece, Gertrude Elizabeth Wilkinson, from at least the age of 14.

Mr Bowman worked for the North Eastern Railway (NER) for all of his life at Scarborough, Fylingdales and Staveley before he became the Station Master at Rillington where he served for 18 years. He retired in 1920 before the merger of the London and North Eastern Railways into the LNER. Doesn’t he look smart in his NER Livery?

The station stands one mile NW of the village of Rillington at the junction of the York to Scarborough line with the branch line to Whitby across the North York Moors. The line was opened in 1845 and closed to passengers in 1930. In the day Mr Bowman would have been at the hub of the comings and goings of daily passenger and trade traffic coming in and out of Rillington.

The map shows the close proximity of his birthplace, Ganton, plus the location of the NER.

Mr Bowman experienced great personal sorrow. His wife Mary and niece Gertrude were out cycling on a summer evening in June 1923 and incurred severe injuries when a car collided into them on Scampston Bridge on the Malton to Scarborough road which is now the A64. The car somersaulted and landed on top of a hedge. Mrs Bowman suffered a compound fracture of the right thigh and a smashed wrist and Miss Wilkinson received a fracture of the right arm and right thigh. They were both treated at the Malton Cottage hospital where one of the occupants of the car died. Unfortunately, Mrs Bowman also died and was buried on 12 May 1924. The inquest was carried out in the schoolroom at Rillington.

A person is more than just his occupation and oral history recalls that the Bowman family had musical talents with niece Gertrude having a piano in her tiny cottage on Westgate, Rillington. Mr and Mrs Bowman were among a small band of organisers who formed the Rillington Musical Society in approximately 1912 which provided a programme of music, games and dance. In testament to the Bowmans during their adversity, the Society made a collection of £16 in recognition of Mrs Bowman’s “devoted and benevolent work” as a member and a parishioner. Mr. Bowman thanked them from the bottom of his heart and the host of friends who had come to their aid in the past months saying that evidence of their kindness was “almost beyond expression”. He also took a great interest in the Wesley Guild so Mr Bowman was clearly a well-known and highly thought of member of the village.

Mr Bowman died at home on Railway Street on 29 Jan 1936 aged 85. He left £208.8s in his will to his niece Gertrude.