Following the data of churchman/railway photographer Eric Treacy in the last issue of Transit, I hope readers won't mind if I continue on ecclaisiastical and railway themes.

This year David Hope stepped down as 96th Archbishop of York, and he has even closer ties to Wakefield than Eric Treacy. Born just outside the city, he went to Oxford University and then took over parishes in England and abroad. From 1985 to 1991 he was Bishop of Wakefield and then Bishop of London until 1995 when he became ASrchbishop of York. Although he is now Lord Hope of Thornes, he has returned to be a parish priest at St. Margarent's Church in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. He said in a recent TV interview, "I wanted to finish as I had started, as a priest...it has delivered me from all that tedious bureaucracy and endless meetings I had to attend as a bishop which go round in circles and make very little difference."

DAVID MICHAEL HOPE: 14th April 1940; Thornes, Wakefield; time not known. The date has appeared in various reference books, and the place recently appeared in the Wakefield Express.

Of course, Eric Treacy was only one of several notable railway photographers of the post-war years. Bill Anderson was another one. He was the eldest sone of a senior partner in a papermaking firm and in 1950, while still a pupil at Rugby School, he had his first railway photographs published in Trains Illustrated. After National Service in the RAF he joined the family business and was Chairman at the time of his death from cancer on 23rd September 1989. Most of Bill Anderson's photographs were taken in his native Scotland, but with the gradual decline of steam locomotives he concentrated more on the pictorial background. Later, he turned to overseas steam, visiting many European countries before travelling further afield to India, South America and South Africa.

WILLIAM JOHN VERDEN ANDERSON: 28th March 1932; Edinburgh (55N57, 03W13); 15:05 am GMT. Paul Wright from birth certificate.

 

And finally, we go literally off the rails and onto four wheels. For the last decade or so Michael Schumacher has virtually dominated Formula One Grand Prix racing. However, this year Fernando Alonzo (left) became the first Spaniard to win the World Formula One Championship, and Britain's own Jenson Button is another driver to watch out for over the next few years. The Daily Telegraph Formula One Years by Timothy Collings and Sarah Edgeworthy (Sevenoaks, 2004) gives the following data on the three drivers:

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER: 3rd January 1969; Hurth-Hermulhein, Germany

FERNANDO ALONZO: 29th July 1981; Oviedo, Spain

JENSON BUTTON: 19th January 1980; Frome. Somerset.