HAROLD OWEN OWEN: CHAIN STORE HEIR
Cowbridge u3a History Group welcomed back member Gavin Davies in July 2022, after a lengthy absence as he recovered from a broken arm. Gavin’s talk was on Harold Owen Owen, the eldest child of Owen Owen, the proprietor of the eponymous department store, later a well-known chain.
Harold’s father was born in 1847 near Machynlleth, the son of a tenant farmer. He was apprenticed at his uncle’s linen drapery business in Bath, before, in 1868, moving to Liverpool to set up his own drapery enterprise.
During the 1880s, Owen Owen began investing in other concerns, including the North American railways. Following his marriage in 1891, Owen moved to London while continuing to supervise his Liverpool store, which, by the early twentieth century, was to become one of the largest of its kind in northern England.
Owen Owen purchased Plas Mariandir in Penmaenmawr in 1896 and the nearby Tan-y-Foel estate in 1902.
Harold was born in 1895 and spent idyllic family holidays in North Wales, before going to Harrow, where he was considered a bright pupil. During his school days, Harold was an active member of the Officers’ Training Corps.
Harold’s father died in 1910, when his eldest son and heir was still a minor; 21 was the age of majority at the time.
Pre-WWI, Harold voluntarily joined the local Territorial Force battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. After the commencement of hostilities in 1914, his unit underwent further training before deployment to Gallipoli in 1915. During the campaign there, notable for its heat and flies, Harold, also suffering from the dysentery that was rife among the troops, was wounded in the arm and evacuated back to England.
After recuperating, Harold was posted to Mesopotamia. Letters sent home indicated that there was little in the way of action and the main concerns were very poor rations and unsuitable drinking water. By February 1917, Harold had been promoted to captain, but his health was deteriorating. He was diagnosed with beri beri, now know to be caused by a deficiency of vitamin B1.
Harold was withdrawn to India, where he spent a lengthy period recovering. He took no further active rôle in the war.
Harold was made a director of the Owen Owen business empire and devoted his energies to his new duties. In January 1921, instead of returning to London after conducting business, he stayed on overnight in Wales to ensure a contract was signed. This was to prove fatal.
On 26 January, Harold boarded an east-bound express from Aberystwyth to London.
Shortly before midday, on a single track section of line, the express was due to cross a west-bound stopping train at Abermule Station. Misunderstandings between railway staff and slack working practices catastrophically over-rode the operation of the Electric Train Tablet system, which ensured safe use of the single track.
The stopping train departed from Abermule carrying the wrong tablet for the section it was entering and collided with the express coming the other way. The horrific head-on crash killed 17 people and seriously injured 13. Among the dead were Captain Harold Owen and the driver and fireman of the stopping train.
Because of a catalogue of avoidable human errors, Harold, not yet 26, had survived the Great War to die in what is still the worst single line rail disaster the UK has ever known.
Steve Monaghan