Lt.-Col. Sir Cecil Walter Paget, 2nd Baronet (19 October 1874 – 9 December 1936),''Who was who'', 1941. was an English locomotive engineer and railway administrator. He was general superintendent of

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...

from 1907 until the First World War. Though his railway career was brief, he was influential in his methods of centralised traffic control at Midland Railway, which soon became the industry standard.

Early life and education

Paget was born in

Sutton Bonington Sutton Bonington () is a village and civil parish lying along the valley of the River Soar in the Borough of Rushcliffe, south-west Nottinghamshire, England. The University of Nottingham has the Sutton Bonington Campus, a site just to the nor ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

, the third child and second son of Sir Ernest Paget and Sophia Holden. His father was chairman of the

(MR) 1890–1911 and created a baronet in 1897 by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

. He was educated at Harrow and

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

. In 1900, his elder brother, George, was killed during the

Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic an ...

Career

Paget then joined the MR as an engineering pupil of S. W. Johnson, the company's Locomotive Superintendent. Paget rose quickly to become Works Manager at the main

Derby Works The Derby Works comprised a number of British manufacturing facilities designing and building locomotives and rolling stock in Derby, England. The first of these was a group of three maintenance sheds opened around 1840 behind Derby railway sta ...

from 1904, under Johnson's successor R. M. Deeley. He was also Deeley's deputy. April 1907 saw Paget appointed general superintendent of the MR by the new general manager Guy Granet. The role, which would now be called

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

, was expanded from that of the previous 'superintendent of the line' and put him in charge of the daily running of the locomotive department, which was formerly a responsibility of his erstwhile boss, Deeley. The appointment was also open to charges of nepotism against his father. This inevitably led to some friction.

Paget locomotive

Interest in possible developments of the classic steam locomotive led Paget to design and build a 2-6-2 steam locomotive with many novel features (8 single-acting cylinders, rotary valves, etc.) at Derby. He financed this from his own pocket, and work began in 1906 while he was Works Manager. When Paget ran out of money for his experimental locomotive, it was completed by the MR at an additional cost of £1,500, but, without the close supervision of Paget, and probably because of the animosity of Deeley, there was inadequate testing and a lack of remedial work on the design. Work stopped in 1909 and the remains of the locomotive were scrapped in about 1918.

Traffic management

Paget's radical ideas were more successful in the sphere of traffic management and his introduction of train reporting, centralised traffic control and locomotive numbering by power type quickly reduced costs incurred by delays to trains.

Locomotive policy

A point of agreement with Deeley was the need for larger locomotives to haul heavier trains, but this policy failed to get past the company's board because of the capital expenditure required (particularly on replacing weak under-bridges).

Military service

Paget served in France with the

Railway Operating Division The Railway Operating Division (ROD) was a division of the Royal Engineers formed in 1915 to operate railways in the many theatres of the First World War. It was largely composed of railway employees and operated both standard gauge and narrow ...

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, commanding operations in France and Belgium and rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

. His military awards were the DSO in 1916, the CMG in 1918 and he was

Mentioned in Despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

. The French awarded him Officier de la Légion d'honneur and the Belgians their Officier de l'Ordre de la Couronne.

Personal life

In 1906, Paget married Lady Alexandra Godolphin Osborne, fourth daughter of the 9th Duke of Leeds, at St. Andrew's Church, Wells Street, Westminster. They resided at Alvaston Fields in

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

while they restored Kings Newton Hall, the 17th-century family hall that had been damaged in a fire in 1859. The restoration was completed in 1910. In 1925, Lady Alexandra sued for divorce, which he did not contest. She testified that their marriage was an unhappy one, and that when he was on leave in England in 1917, he informed her that he had a mistress, a situation he expected her to accept "in a generous spirit". After the war, Paget didn't return to railway work and became increasingly hostile to his wife. Paget repeatedly told her that she had no right to live at Kings Newton Hall and that she was only a visitor, and he was "perpetually boasting of his infidelity". He left his wife and Kings Newton Hall at the end of 1923, when his father died, and he inherited the baronetcy and his father's estates worth more than £155,000 (). When Lady Alexandra sent him a letter requesting a formal separation, Sir Cecil replied that it was better to get divorced, and wrote, "If you want evidence against me, you can inquire of the manager of the Sackville Hotel, Bexhill-on-Sea." A witness testified that Sir Cecil and a woman who claimed to be Lady Paget had spent the night together at the Sackville Hotel in the summer of 1924. The divorce petition was granted. In 1927, Sir Cecil, 51, married the 34-year-old Florence Caroline, daughter of carpenter James Butt of Hackney, in a registrar's office in London. The wedding was described as "secret" and members of his family were unaware of the ceremony. He had no children by either wife. He died suddenly in 1936 at Kings Newton Hall, aged 62. He was survived by his second wife, but without an heir, the baronetcy became extinct. He was buried in the family plot at Marlepit Hill cemetery, Sutton Bonington. He left an estate of £207,935 (). His widow remained at Kings Newton until her death in 1979, when it was sold to the Ottewell family.

Footnotes

References

* Barnes, E. G. (1969), ''The Midland main line, 1875–1922'', London: George Allen and Unwin, * Beswic, Roger (2003) 'The gentry: the Paget family
''Remembering Sutton Bonington''
accessed 2009-08-16 * Derbyshire UK (2008)

''Derbyshire UK'' accessed 2009-08-16 * Mills, Bob (2000), 'The Paget locomotive' in ''BackTrack'', vol. 14, no. 1 (January), pp. 21–23 * Steam Index (2007)

''Steam Index: locomotive history'', accessed 2009-08-16 * 'Paget, Cecil', in ''Who was who, 1929–1940'', London: Adam and Charles Black, 1941 {{DEFAULTSORT:Paget, Cecil 1874 births 1936 deaths Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge English railway mechanical engineers Locomotive builders and designers Midland Railway people British Army personnel of World War I People from Sutton Bonington Royal Engineers officers People educated at Harrow School 401 Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Officers of the Legion of Honour Officers of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) British chief operating officers People from King's Newton Burials in Nottinghamshire Military personnel from Nottinghamshire