Andrew Marsden-Smedley
Andrew Marsden-Smedley (1926-2010) was the early Chairman of the Severn Valley Railway Company (the Guarantee Company).
He was a Director of Carpet Trades Ltd., later Gilt Edge carpets, one of Kidderminster's carpet companies.[1][2] Gilt Edge used an exhibition train, from which coaches 7511 and LMSLondon Midland & Scottish Railway Third Open 9355 (since converted to Buffet Car 149) were donated to the SVRSevern Valley Railway. He was a member of the Carpet Industry Training Board.[3] He also became President of John Smedley, a long-established British knitwear company.[4]
The Guarantee Company was incorporated in 1967 but became the main organisation of the Railway in December 1969 when the Severn Valley Railway Society was merged into it. Andrew Marsden-Smedley was Guarantee Company Chairman at that time.[5]
At the Guarantee Company AGM on 1 May 1971 Sir Gerald Nabarro was elected to the Board of Directors, and the plans were announced to form the Public Company. The meeting was then adjourned until later in the year. Before the AGM resumed on 6 August 1971, Mr Marsden-Smedley wrote to the Members as Chairman, recommending that they support a resolution to alter the structure of the Railway Company to enable money to be raised by the issue of shares to enable the southern section of the line from Alveley Sidings to Foley Park to be purchased, and also to provide finance for the provision of the Bridgnorth Bypass Bridge, should it be needed. The letter also noted that Mr Marsden-Smedley would be resigning as Company Chairman due to business commitments. The meeting approved the restructuring proposal, with Sir Gerald Nabarro being appointed Chairman at the next Directors' meeting.[6]
He died 13 January 2010, aged 83.[7]
See also
References
- ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 54
- ↑ Carpet Trades, Grace's Guide to British Industrial History (Retrieved 2 May 2019)
- ↑ Hansard, 3 September 1966 (Retrieved 2 May 2019)
- ↑ The Observer, 27 August 2000 (Retrieved 2 May 2019)
- ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 16
- ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 20
- ↑ Andrew Bethell Marsden-Smedley, the peerage.com (Retrieved 2 May 2019)
Links
- http://www.thepeerage.com/p49545.htm#i495450 Andrew Bethell Marsden-Smedley on the peerage.com]
- Images of the Gilt Edge Carpets train at Kidderminster station in 1965, 'Nostalgia: How the train helped to sell Kidderminster carpet', Kidderminster Shuttle, 19 September 2021
- Carpet Trades, Grace's Guide to British Industrial History
- John Smedley webpage
- Andrew Marsden-Smedley interviewed in 'The Kidderminster Story', ATV, 1963 via The Media Archive for Central England (MACE)