A dog that hitched rides on the railway network but always spent the night back at Lewes station
A fox terrier and beagle cross named Jack was born in Lewes Station in March 1878 to station
master Mr Moore. He went missing as a 4 month old pup but was discovered at Eastbourne a
fortnight later where he’d made himself at home. Brought back to Lewes he was soon away again
on a train to Brighton. Making the most of the London Brighton & South Coast railway line,
without a ticket, generally sitting by the train driver or guard looking out of the window. Moving
between Horsham, Brighton and Eastbourne for example, he always seemed to be back at Lewes
Station for bedtime. Sightings included him getting out at Henfield to be given a biscuit at a public
house, then onto a later train to West Grinstead for the afternoon before returning to Brighton for the
last train to Lewes. As he grew older, and more confident, he travelled further afield, disappearing
for up to a month at a time. On one or two occasions he made it as far as Glasgow! and a diary was
kept by the guards and other railway workers of his whereabouts.
He became so well-known the railway company presented him with a collar inscribed with ‘Jack,
London, B and S. Coast Railway Company’, one of three collars he received. In 1880 he was
found in Polegate with an injured leg which was subsequently amputated. But so famous was he
that in 1883 three-legged Jack was presented to the Prince and Princess of Wales in Eastbourne by
Lady Brassey, the wife of the railway magnate. Jack died at the home of his master Mr Moore in
November 1890. He was nearly 13.
SOURCES INCLUDE:
North Devon Journal 23 Feb 1882
Kevin Gordon https://sussexhistory.net/2019/11/26/railway-jack/
