So, Harry Rawson was born and baptised as Harry Stafford. One of his brothers, Arthur, born 1871, has "Lawson" written in at baptism entry, but then erased and "Stafford" written in, so Annette7 and avm228 have definitely got things well on the way to sorting out.
Harry (as Rawson!) joined the Midland Railway just after his 15th birthday, and worked his way up. It is now clear that the middle initial in his employment records was for "Stafford".
He transferred from the Derby station staff to the General Stores the year after joining the M.R. He became Clerk in Charge of the Orders Office in 1906.
In 1911, he was on £250 a year, and employing a servant at his home close to Borrowash station.
In 1923 his salary was high enough (£585) to warrant inclusion in the records for the mergers into the "big four" railway companies.
On 1st November 1926 he was made Carriage & Wagon Stores Controller, on £700 a year.
On 17th August 1927, he took delivery of a brand new Daimler 20/70, with bodywork by Sanderson & Holmes, of London Road, Derby (Telephone 8 Derby!). The chassis cost him £550, and with coachwork I reckon he spent about £1000 - around £48000 in today's money, at ordinary inflation figures. You had to be well off to own a Daimler. The Royal cars were Daimlers. Rolls Royce were just for the nouveau riche!
He did not keep the car long though. At the end of 1929 the car moved, via a dealer in Manchester, to Lancashire. Harry Rawson retired on 31st March 1931, to The Settlement, Ockbrook. He died in 1945, aged 63.
I wonder if Harry knew that quite a bit of his family came from Foleshill - the Daimler works was just down the road at Radford.
Dudley Pearson Bullough, the second owner of my car, made his money from the production of nuts and bolts. The company he was associated with, Bullough Fasteners in Atherton, merged in 1995 with Thomas Smith & Sons to form Smith Bullough, who are still making specialist nuts and bolts. I have yet to find a link with my own Bullough families, from nearby Westhoughton, but I keep trying!
