Bernard Holden

Bernard Holden MBE (1908–2012) was a twentieth century railway engineer and manager with Southern and British Railways and a founding father of standard gauge railway preservation in the United Kingdom. He was President of the Bluebell Railway in Sussex for over twenty years until his death.
Biography
Holden was born in the LBSCR railway station house at Barcombe in East Sussex on 15 March 1908 on a section of the Bluebell Line that no longer survives. He came from a family steeped in railway service as both his great grandfather, grandfather and father Charles were railway men. His father was the station master at Barcombe. In 1912 his father moved to the busier Steyning Station in West Sussex and Holden attended Steyning Grammar School matriculating in 1925 before following in the family tradition and joining the Southern Railway as a ballast train clerk also studying transport law and signalling.
At the outbreak of the Second World War Holden...