Sir Sam Fay

Fay, who was born in 1856, came from a farming family in Hampshire, originally of Hugenot origins. At the age of 15, he joined the London & South Western Railway as a junior clerk at Itchen Abbas. In 1881 he was at Kingston on Thames where he founded the South Western Gazette, the profits of which went to the L&SWR Orphanage Fund. In 1892 he was seconded to the Midland and South Western Junction Railway as General Manager, then in 1899 he returned to be L&SWR's Superintendent of the Line, and then in 1902 he became General Manager. Shortly after that he moved to the Great Central Railway in a similar position. In 1911 Haldane had invited him to join the Ports and Transit Executive Committee which brought together the management of the six leading independent railway companies to prepare for war. in 1917 he took over the post of Director of Movements at the War Office, and also took a seat on the Army Council. After the war he returned to the railway industry.

RCC7841 The War Office at War (Fay)