Notable Personalities

George Bruce Howden.

George Howden joined the GNRI as Chief Engineer on July 1^st 1929 following an earlier career with a Scottish Railway. He quickly gained a well-earned reputation as result of his management of the rebuilding of the Boyne Viaduct without interruption to a single train.

Howden was instrumental in ensuring the building of the GNR Gardner buses by the company went ahead despite misgivings from some members of the Board most notably from Sir Lingard Goulding.

He was appointed General Manager of the company in January 1939 a position he held until the formation of the Great Northern Railway Board in 1953 when he was appointed the Senior Board Member representing Northern Ireland. Mr.John F.McCormick succeeded him as General Manager. A measure of the esteem in which the wider Transport cognoscenti in Ireland held George Howden can be judged by the fact that in 1950 he also served as General manager of Coras Iompair Eireann while hold the same post in the GNR.

He became Chairman of the Ulster Transport Authority, finally retiring in 1963 to his home at Craigavad County Down. He passed away in January 1966 in his seventy-fifth year. 

Richard Walsingham Meredith.

Dick Meredith was appointed as GNRI Works Manager on January 1^st 1926 following an earlier career with the Great Southern & Western Railway at Inchicore Works, Dublin under the famous railway engineer R.E.L.Maunsell.

Meredith was a keen proponent of diesel engines and was the GNR official most clearly identified with the development of railcars and railbuses in the late 1920's and early 1930's. His enthusiasm for all things diesel did not endear him to contemporary railway fans. Indeed his contribution to the GNR has largely been ignored in publications dealing with the development of the company.

The GNR buses produced at Dundalk were principally the creation of Dick Meredith and of course he jointly patented with George Howden the steel/pneumatic railbus tyre used on early GNRI railbuses.

He was a quiet thoughtful man of great intellect who enjoyed travelling and fishing in the River Dee near Dundalk. He was appointed Chief Mechanical Engineer of the GNR in the early 1950's. Retirement came in 1957 when aged 65 and the break with all transport matters was absolute. He passed away at home in Dublin in December 1971.

Robert William Pelissier.

Bobby Pelissier was born in Drogheda of Huguenot extraction in 1907 the son of a local Pharmacist and educated at Drogheda Grammar School before being apprenticed to the GNR. Upon completion of his apprenticeship he worked in Dundalk prior to the establishment of the Road Motor Services in 1929. When the new department was set up Bobby was appointed to the position of Road Motor Technical Assistant. His specific function was to liase between Dundalk Works and the garages also rendering technical support providing engineering solutions, which were, encountered "in-service". Bobby was a significant contributor to Dick Meredith's programme to search for a standard diesel engine. His talents were later used in the testing and evaluation of the GNR Gardner buses prior to entry into service and from Dublin Garage in an in-service role. He continued to be a kingpin in the GNR's bus engineering establishment right up to the demise of the GNRB in 1958. In the final months of the Board he was asked to supervise the integration of the GNR into CIE. He continued his career working for CIE at Broadstone until his retirement in 1972.

His contribution and interest in Transport matters did not end there. He was an active member of the Transport Museum Society of Ireland being one of the pioneers who helped establish a National Transport Collection. Tragically he was taken from us on October 5^th 1983 after a fall from the roof of his bungalow at Bryanstown, Drogheda and subsequently died in hospital. As one Senior Bus Eireann Manager said recently "we shall never see the like of him again". 

This historic photograph marks the delivery of the first GNR Gardner bus (200) to Dublin Garage for evaluation purposes on 20^th June 1937. The "canny" GNR (I) railway engineers are from left to right J.Johnson (Foreman Railcar Shop), R.W.Pelissier (Road Motor Assistant), J.H.Owens (Road Motor Assistant), R.W.Meredith (Works Manager), P.McGuinness (Foreman Engine Shops), J.Webster (Foreman Road Motor Shop), P.Byrne (Foreman Bus Body Shop). This photograph was kindly donated by Johnny Owens Daughter Monica Lindsay.

Johnny Henry Owens.

Johnny Owens was born in Falkirk in 1909 and received his engineering training at Glasgow University. Following his early career in Scotland he was recruited by George Howden to assist with the production of the GNR Gardner buses in Dundalk. He commenced working there on January 13^th 1936 and was responsible for ensuring that all the necessary materials required to build the buses was in place. Following the interruption of the GNR Gardner programme in 1941 because of the shortage of materials during the wartime emergency Johnny was reassigned. He became the Clerk of Works managing the building of the GNR's new Dublin Garage at Abercorn Road, which was completed in October 1941. This facility was used by the GNR up to its amalgamation with CIE when it was closed as a bus garage. It is still in existence and held within the property portfolio of CIE. Johnny Owens continued working in the Civil Engineers Department until he was transferred by CIE to the Mechanical Engineers Department at Inchicore Works. In 1965 he retired as a result of ill health and passed away three years later.

Joseph Mackle.

Joe Mackle was the first GNR Road Motor Superintendent and was responsible for the early development of bus services. He conducted the negotiations with the many independents prior to buying them out. He was a shrewd and cunning negotiator, commercially sensitive and always able to exploit a situation to his advantage. Before joining the GNR he has been the Chief Engineer of another famous Bus Company HMS Catherwood. It was Mackle who handled the Catherwood negotiations with Londonderry Corporation, which resulted in all the Maiden City's bus services being handed over. Joe Mackle left the GNR in 1933 after four years to become the Rolling Stock Engineer with the Belfast Corporation an organisation he was to lead as its General Manager before his retirement in 1963.

Albert Switzer.

Chief Inspector Albert Switzer in his GNRI Uniform photographed in Drogheda in 1935.

Albert Switzer was born in Milltown near Belfast on January 30th 1898. He served in the colours during the Great War. In October 1916 he was awarded the Military Medal. After wartime service he worked for the Imperial Bus Service in Belfast where he gained a reputation for efficiency and effectiveness. He joined the GNR at Dundalk on the 13^th May 1929 as the Chief Inspector Road Motor Services in effect the most senior supervisor in the company. He was Joe Mackle's "eyes and ears at the sharp end" the arbiter of the excellent standards achieved by the Road Motor Services. He was twice sent to Northern Ireland in September 1929 and again in December 1930 to ensure the Belfast Omnibus Company was kept in check. At the time the B.O.C. were severely denting the GNR's railway revenues. Albert also kept an intensive watch on other road competition whether legal or more often than not illegal. In the late 1940's Albert assumed an additional role that of liaison between the garages and Head Office in Dublin, additionally he was to play a central role in network design and service planning matters. This work took on a new significance in the 1950's, as many secondary railway lines were closed services now being provided by GNR buses. Albert Switzer faithfully saw out his service with the GNR before finally retiring as an employee of CIE in August 1959. Albert returned to his native Belfast where he worked as an Inspector with the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Albert Switzer passed away in May 1977 and is buried at Roselawn Cemetery near Belfast.