Holman or ‘Holly’ was the son of Pre-Raphaelite artist and art critic Frederick G. Stephens and his artist
wife Rebecca née Dalton. His father gave Holman a working model railway as a gift. Apprenticed into the
Metropolitan Railway at 13 he became an assistant railway engineer, and was developing an interest in the
military. By the age of 15 he was 6’2” (188cm).
In 1890, aged just 22, his first railway build was the Cranbrook & Paddock Wood Railway followed by the
Camber to Rye. He was made an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1894.
The Light Railway Act 1896, offering reduced construction and safety standards in exchange for slower
speeds, was intended to give rural communities not served by the main Companies an opportunity for
railway services, however limited. The take-up was disappointing but Holman bucked the trend and became
expert in building them. After a 4 month build in 1897 he opened The Hundred of Manhood & Selsey
Tramways Company Ltd line. Seven-and-a-half miles of track and 11 stops between Chichester and the
coastal peninsula of Selsey.
Selsey’s annual passenger numbers peaked at 105,169 in 1916, but by the 1930s passengers were switching
to the more reliable bus service and the one-train-a-day tramway closed in 1934.
Holman is associated with 18 railway lines including the Rother Valley (later the Kent & East Sussex) in
1900; the Festiniog & Welsh Highland Railways; the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead, and a number of
industrial railways serving freight or lead and ironstone mines.
His army career included him recruiting 600 men to serve in the Royal Engineers in the Boer War (1899
1902), and reaching the rank of Major. In the First World War he had some responsibility for searchlights.
Living such a peripatetic life, spending time way from home in the forces and visiting his railways, may
have contributed to him remaining a bachelor. When he died in 1931 his estate worth about £1.4m in today’s
money was divided between four colleagues at Tonbridge: William H. Austen, Alfred and George Willard
and James Iggulden Esqs.
NOTES/LINKS
Colonel Stephens Society https://colonelstephenssociety.co.uk
Kent & East Sussex Railway https://kesr.org.uk/museum/holman-fred-stephens
Manhood Wildlife and Heritage Group https://www.mwhg.org.uk/tramway
The Novium Museum https://www.thenovium.org.uk/article/38856/Selsey-Tramway

https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/J.Arthur_Iggulden