Felix Pole

Sir Felix John Clewett Pole (1 February 1877 – 15 January 1956) was a British railway manager and industrialist. He was general manager of the Great Western Railway from 1921 to 1929, before becoming executive chairman of Associated Electrical Industries, a post he held until 1945.[1]

Felix Pole c.1912

Born in Little Bedwyn in Wiltshire,[2] Pole joined the Great Western Railway as a telegraph lad at Swindon, aged 14, in 1891.

He was rapidly promoted and in 1904 was working in General Manager James Charles Inglis's department in the headquarters at Paddington station, working on the railway's marketing campaigns. In 1912 he became head of the Staff and Labour Department, rising to Assistant General Manager in 1919 and finally General Manager in 1921.[3] At the invitation of their national governments, he inspected both Sudanese and Egyptian railways in the 1920s and 1930s respectively.

Pole was knighted in 1924[4] and left the Great Western Railway in 1929 to become Executive Chairman of AEI. By 1945 Pole was reported to be completely blind, and was thought too old to lead the company into the post-war electronics boom, and was succeeded by Captain Oliver Lyttelton.

In April 1954 a GWR 4073 Class locomotive, 5056, was renamed Sir Felix Pole in his honour.[5] In March 2015 a change ringing method was named after him; Sir Felix Pole Surprise Major, rung for the first time at Huntsham, Devon[6][7]

Pole died at Reading in 1956 and is buried in Little Bedwyn.

References
  1. Channon, Geoffrey (January 2008) [2004]. "Pole, Sir Felix John Clewett (1877–1956)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35555. Retrieved 19 December 2014. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Stuart Coles (2007). West from Paddington. YPD. p. 53. ISBN 978-1-905633050.
  3. Andrew Roden (2010). "16". Great Western Railway A History. Aurum Press Ltd. ISBN 978-1845135805.
  4. "No. 13996". The London Gazette. 12 February 1924. p. 226.
  5. "Great Western 'Castle' class 5050 - 5099". www.greatwestern.org.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  6. "Ringing World BellBoard". bb.ringingworld.co.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  7. "Sir Felix Pole Surprise Major". Composition Library. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
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