Distant cousins met for the first time on Butterley station platform on May 12 when the Midland Railway – Butterley held a special ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Sapper Alfred Amos on the Western Front.
Descended from two of Alfred’s brothers, 15 members of the Amos family had travelled from Devon, Somerset, Buckinghamshire and Nottinghamshire to attend the commemoration.
In a short ceremony Maureen and Simon, representing the two branches of the family, unveiled a small memorial to Sapper Amos in the Butterley station booking hall.
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The family was then joined on the station platform by other visitors, staff and volunteers from the railway for a two-minute silence marked by locomotive whistles. The locomotive carried a wreath of poppies throughout the day.
The significance for the Midland Railway–Butterley is that Alfred Amos was a Midland Railway employee based at Butterley station before he joined the 109th Railway Company, Royal Engineers. Of the 2833 Midland Railway Company men to give their lives in the conflict, Alfred was the only one from Butterley.
Event organiser Anne Deeth said: “Our trains continue to run on the tracks that Alfred Amos once worked on and so it is fitting that our commemoration of the First World War should focus on him. In honouring him we recognise the enormous sacrifice made by so many.”
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