Thomas Grey (poet)


Thomas Grey was an English poet who wrote about his local area of the Scottish Borders, the First World War and rail transport.

Life and railway work

Thomas Grey was born on 16 September 1863 at Shoreswood, Norham, in Northumberland. He worked on trains for much of his life for the North Eastern Railway.
On 3 July 1887 he married Esther Glenwright at South Shields and they resided in Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Grey died on 14 August 1928 and is buried in Tweedmouth Cemetery.

Poetry

Grey was variously known as the Border Poet, Engine Driver Poet and Footplate Poet. Much of his output appeared in the local press and was never independently published during his lifetime.
He was one of the best known writers of Border Poetry, and for some years he was the writer of Tweedmouth Topics in a Border Newspaper, relinquishing this post due to illness in the last 20 years of his life. He also wrote in “The Wheatsheaf”.
In 1916 he was honoured for his work by being made a Fellow of the International Institute of British Poetry. In November 1916, at the request of the Royal Normal College in London, Grey sent them 200 copies of his “effusions” which were then printed in Braille type.

Publications

Musings on the Footplate, 1906, printed by Martins the Printers, Berwick-upon-TweedPoems on the Great War, March 2015, printed by Martins the Printers, Berwick-upon-Tweed

Achievements

Grey was the instigator of the erection of the Tweedmouth War Memorial and founder member of the group promoting a fund for the remaining money needed for the erection of the Memorial in July 1921.