John Goy (1856-1935)

THE RAILWAYMAN WHO TRAVELLED 
MORE THAN A MILLION MILES

One of the best-known railwaymen in Bourne in past times was Mr John Goy who travelled more than a million miles during the course of his career as a railway guard. 

He had little education and left school early but he earned the respect of the community both for his work with the railway and his lifelong devotion to the Methodist Church. 

John Goy was born at Goulceby, near Horncastle, in 1856, and went to school for only two years, starting work on a farm to eke out the family income at the early age of seven. In later years, he was fond of recalling that the only things he ever learned to do in life was to smoke and to crack nuts. The coming of the railways offered better pay and employment conditions and in 1884, at the age of 28, he left the land and became a platelayer at Ludborough, near Louth, and subsequently worked as a porter and then a horse shunter at Firsby, near Wainfleet. Finally, he became guard at Bourne in 1891and until his retirement in 1925, he was a familiar figure on the Bourne to Essendine branch line. For almost 41 years therefore he worked on the railway and 34 of them were spent at Bourne.

Mr Goy was proud of the distinction at being the first guard on the train which ran on the loop line to the east coast from the Midlands, thus missing Spalding station, more commonly known as Cuckoo Junction.

When he first came to Bourne, the Saxby line was still in the course of construction. On his retirement it was computed that he had travelled 1,077,544 miles in the course of
his duties as a guard, involving no less than 124,619 journeys.

Mr Goy lived for a time at the Red Hall, the house that is reputed to have been a meeting place for the famous gunpowder plot conspirators, a theory since dismissed as folklore. At that time, the hall was part of the railway station, the front room being used as the booking office and waiting room while the rest of the premises had been converted into apartments for use by the stationmaster and selected railway workers.

His most active work when off duty was for the Methodist Church in Bourne where, for nearly half a century, he filled every office open to the layman with the exception of that of Circuit Steward. For 55 years he was a church steward and a member of the choir. He was the first chairman of the Bourne and district branch of the National Deposit Friendly Society founded at Bourne in the late 19th century. He was also a keen ambulance worker and held several medals that had been won in connection with examinations organised by the Red Cross Society and the St John's Ambulance Brigade while during the Great War of 1914-18, he served as a volunteer night duty man at the Bourne Military Hospital in the Vestry Hall where 900 wounded servicemen came to convalesce from the battlefields in France and Belgium.

My Goy retired from the railway in 1925 and went to live with his wife at Cawthorpe where he enjoyed good health until 1933 when he underwent a serious eye operation but in spite of his advanced years, he came through well and regained some of his lost optical power. He remained a familiar figure in Bourne where he had many friends and when health permitted, he regularly attended church at either Bourne or Dyke.

He and his wife celebrated their golden wedding in May 1934 but the following year, his health began to fail and a month after visiting his brother at Scredington, near Sleaford, with his wife, he died on Sunday 23rd August 1935, leaving a widow and two sons, Messrs H and W Goy of Bourne. 

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