Railway Guard Killed On Duty
John, one of possibly six children to Mary née Hall and William Budd, a Southern Electric railway motorman. The family lived
on Kings Farm Avenue beside North Sheen station. John’s two brothers were engine cleaners, and both qualified as drivers, and
John was a dry cleaner’s errand boy before taking to the railways himself from the age of 16. As a married man he was living on
Feltham High Street.
On Friday 30 January 1976, while on duty checking tickets on the platform at Norbiton station, an argument and scuffle broke out
with a 20 year old passenger without a ticket. John was injured and sadly suffered a coronary thrombosis as a result and died. He
was 52. A Southern Region spokesman said “He was a very conscientious employee, and had proved himself a loyal servant of
the industry.’ While his funeral took place at Hanworth Crematorium some train services in the area were poignantly halted for 15
minutes as a mark of respect.
