Wilbert Vere Awdry
Born	15 June 1911 Romsey, Hampshire, England
Died	21 March 1997 (1997-03-22) (aged 85) Rodborough, Stroud, England

Wilbert Vere Awdry, OBE (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997), was an English clergyman, railway enthusiast and children's author, better known as the Reverend W. Awdry and creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, who starred in Awdry's acclaimed Railway Series.

Life[link]

Awdry was born at Ampfield vicarage near Romsey, Hampshire in 1911. Awdry's father was the Rev Vere Awdry, the vicar of Ampfield, and his mother was Lucy Awdry, née Bury. His younger brother, George, was born in 1916.^[1][2] All three of Awdry's older half-siblings from his father's first marriage died young. In 1917 the family moved to Box, in Wiltshire,^[3] moving again in 1919, and 1920, still in Box, the third house being Journey's End (renamed from Lorne Villa),^[4] which remained the family home until August 1928.^[5]

Journey's End was only 200 yards (180 m) from the western end of Box Tunnel. There the Great Western Railway main line climbs at a gradient of 1 in 100 for two miles, and a banking engine was kept there to assist freight trains up the hill. These trains usually ran at night and the young Wilbert could hear them from his bed, listening to the coded whistle signals between the train engine and the banker, and the sharp bark from the locomotive exhausts as they fought their way up the incline. Awdry related: "There was no doubt in my mind that steam engines all had definite personalities. I would hear them snorting up the grade and little imagination was needed to hear in the puffings and pantings of the two engines the conversation they were having with one another: 'I can't do it! I can't do it! I can't do it!' 'Yes, you can! Yes, you can! Yes, you can!'" Here was the inspiration for the story of Edward helping Gordon's train up the hill, a story that Wilbert first told his son Christopher some 25 years later, and which appeared in the first of the Railway Series books.^[4]

Awdry was educated at Marlborough House School, Sussex (1919–24), Dauntseys School, West Lavington, Wiltshire (1924–9); St Peter's Hall, Oxford (BA, 1932), and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, where he gained his diploma in theology in 1933. He taught for three years from 1933 to 1936 at St. George's School, Jerusalem. He was ordained into the Anglican priesthood in 1936. In 1938 he married Margaret Wale. Remembering the death of his brother in the First World War, Awdry adopted a pacifist ideology when the Second World War started. His bishop told him to find another parish.^[6] In 1940 he took a curacy in St. Nicholas' Church, Kings Norton, Birmingham where he lived until 1946. He subsequently moved to Cambridgeshire, serving as Rector of Elsworth with Knapwell, 1946–53, and Vicar of Emneth, 1953–65. He retired from full-time ministry in 1965, and moved to Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Wilbert Awdry in 1988, with one of his creations, "Peter Sam" (in real life Edward Thomas) on the Talyllyn Railway, Wales

The characters that would make Awdry famous, and the first stories featuring them, were invented in 1943 to amuse his son Christopher during a bout of measles. After Awdry wrote The Three Railway Engines, he built Christopher a model of Edward, and some wagons and coaches, out of a broomstick and scraps of wood.^[7] Christopher also wanted a model of Gordon; however, as that was too difficult Awdry made a model of a little 0-6-0 tank engine. Awdry said: "The natural name was Thomas – Thomas the Tank Engine".^[7] Then Christopher requested stories about Thomas and these duly followed and were published in the famous book Thomas the Tank Engine, released in 1946.

The first book (The Three Railway Engines) was published in 1945, and by the time Awdry stopped writing in 1972, The Railway Series numbered 26 books. Christopher subsequently added further books to the series.

In 1952, Awdry volunteered as a guard on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales, then in its second year of preservation.^[8] The railway inspired Awdry to create the Skarloey Railway, based on the Talyllyn, with some of his exploits being written into the stories.^[9]

Awdry's enthusiasm for railways did not stop at his publications. He was involved in railway preservation, and built model railways, which he took to exhibitions around the country.

Awdry wrote other books besides those of The Railway Series, both fiction and non-fiction. The story Belinda the Beetle was about a red car (it became a Volkswagen Beetle only in the illustrations to the paperback editions).

Wilbert Awdry was awarded an OBE in the 1996 New Year’s Honours List, but by that time his health had deteriorated and he was unable to travel to London. He died peacefully in Stroud, Gloucestershire, on 21 March 1997, at the age of 85. His ashes are interred at Gloucester Crematorium.

A biography entitled The Thomas the Tank Engine Man was written by Brian Sibley and published in 1995.

Memorials[link]

A Class 91 locomotive, 91 124 bears the name The Rev W Awdry. A Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST (saddle tank) engine on the Dean Forest Railway is named Wilbert after him; and was used as the title character in Christopher Awdry's Railway Series book Wilbert the Forest Engine.

'Letter' to Christopher[link]

In the second book in the series, Thomas the Tank Engine, Awdry wrote this 'letter' to Christopher:^[10]:

Dear Christopher,

Here is your friend Thomas, the Tank Engine.

He wanted to come out of his station-yard and see the world.

These stories tell you how he did it.

I hope you will like them because you helped me to make them.

Your Loving Daddy

Subsequent books featured a similar letter from the author, addressed to the readers of the book as "Dear Friends", which introduced the background to the stories within the book.

This text also appears at the beginning of Thomas and Friends episodes from 2003-today. The "letter" appears with a story book showing Thomas on the front cover with "THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE" at the top and BY THE REV. W. AWDRY at the bottom. The book then opens up and we see the letter, after the letter is finished a "steam" transition appears and it transitions to the Thomas & Friends theme song. A flash version of this letter can be seen on the Thomas & Friends website as "Author's Message", which inaccurately states that Awdry wrote the letter in The Three Railway Engines (the only Railway Series volume not to begin with a Foreword).

Publications[link]

Fiction

• List of The Railway Series books
• Belinda the Beetle (1958) illustrated by Ionicus
• Belinda Beats the Band (1961) illustrated by John T. Kenney
• W V Awdry & G E V Awdry, The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways, Kaye and Ward, 1986.

Non-fiction

• Our Child Begins to Pray (Edmund Ward, 1951)
• P J Long & W V Awdry, The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, Alan Sutton Publishing, 1987.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Wilbert Vere Awdry from Dictionary of Literary Biography by M. Margaret Dahlberg, University of North Dakota. ©2005–2006 Thomson Gale

External links[link]

	United Kingdom portal
	Books portal
	Trains portal
	Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wilbert Awdry

• Awdry Family Website
• Internet Archive: 'Original' Awdry Family Website – contains some information not available on the later site
• Internet Archive: Sodor Enterprises (publishing company) – Formerly www.sodor.co.uk (Dead link discovered April 2010)
• Wilbert Awdry at Find a Grave
• Rev. W. V. Awdry – Biography at the Official Awdry Family Website
• The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum, Tywyn, Gwynedd, Wales – Home of the Rev. W. V. Awdry's study
• "Obituary: The Rev W. Awdry", from The Independent, written by Brian Sibley
• "Priests and Prelates: The Daily Telegraph Clerical Obituaries" (Entry for Rev. W Awdry), by Trevor Beeson – Warning: contains some factual errors.
• Daily Telegraph Obituary – on which "Priests and Prelates" is based; also contains errors
• Obituary – at the "Derby Dead Pool"
• What draws clerics to railways? David Self, Church Times, 1st February 2008

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James "The Rev" Sullivan
James "The Rev" Sullivan in 2007
Background information
Birth name	James Owen Sullivan
Also known as	The Rev, Rat Head,The Reverend Tholomew Plague
Born	(1981-02-09)February 9, 1981 Huntington Beach, California, United States
Died	December 28, 2009(2009-12-28) (aged 28) Huntington Beach, California, United States
Genres	Hard rock, heavy metal, progressive metal, metalcore, avant-garde metal
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Drums, guitar, bass, piano, vocals
Years active	1999-2009
Labels	Warner Bros., Good Life, Hopeless,Bucktan
Associated acts	Avenged Sevenfold, Pinkly Smooth, Suburban Legends

James Owen Sullivan (February 9, 1981 – December 28, 2009),^[1] more commonly known by his stage name The Reverend Tholomew Plague, generally shortened to The Rev, was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. He was also the lead vocalist/pianist in Pinkly Smooth, a side project where he was known by the name Rat Head, with fellow Avenged Sevenfold member, guitarist Synyster Gates, and the drummer for Suburban Legends from 1998 to 1999.

Career[link]

Sullivan grew up and lived in Huntington Beach California.^[2] He got his first pair of drum sticks at the age of four and received his own drum set at the age of ten.^[3] In high school, he started playing in bands. Before leaving to join Avenged Sevenfold as one of the band's founding members, Sullivan was the drummer for the third wave ska band Suburban Legends. At the age of eighteen he recorded his first album with Avenged Sevenfold titled Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. His early influences included Frank Zappa and King Crimson. The Rev said in a Modern Drummer Magazine interview that "I was raised on that stuff as much as rock and metal."^[3]

Later in life he was influenced by drummers Vinnie Paul, Mike Portnoy, Dave Lombardo, Lars Ulrich, and Terry Bozzio.^[4] He even had a "visual influence", Tommy Lee, on which he commented that "I never thought I'd have one of those."^[3] Sullivan's signature ability which he called " double-ride , just for lack of a better definition, because no one does it,"^[5]is a technique that can be heard on tracks such as "Almost Easy", "Critical Acclaim", and "Crossroads" in which Sullivan doubles up at a fast tempo between the double bass and ride cymbals.

Sullivan spoke to DRUM! Magazine about recording "Crossroads": “The second fill that goes into the verse, and the fill that goes into the chorus, just happened in the studio. We knew there’s a break right before the first verse starts and the guitar’s doing an open chord, so there obviously needed to be a fill there to keep the energy there, and I just came up with a little tom-over-double-bass fill. That was just spur of the moment. And right before the solo, there’s another fill that’s kind of similar to the intro fill, and that was written out. But everything else is pretty much spontaneous"

The Rev was also a vocalist, songwriter, and pianist for Avenged Sevenfold. His piano-playing can be heard on the tracks "Seize the Day", "Fiction" and "Save Me". His vocals are featured in Avenged Sevenfold's "A Little Piece of Heaven", "Brompton Cocktail", "Critical Acclaim", "Crossroads", "Gunslinger", "Lost", "Scream", "Afterlife", "Save Me", "Eternal Rest", "Flash Of The Blade", "Bat Country", "Almost Easy", and "Fiction". He also wrote the songs "Almost Easy", "A Little Piece of Heaven", "Afterlife", "Brompton Cocktail", "Welcome to the Family, "Save Me", "Demons", "Fiction", and more.

Avenged Sevenfold also announced that they will be releasing a demo version of "Nightmare" including The Rev on an electric drumset and his vocals.

At the second annual Revolver Golden God Awards, The Rev won the award for Best Drummer. His family members and Avenged Sevenfold received the honor on his behalf.^[6]

Death[link]

The Rev was found dead in his home on December 28, 2009. Police ruled out foul play and noted his death appeared to be from natural causes. An autopsy performed on December 30, 2009 was inconclusive, However toxicology results revealed to the public in June revealed he died from acute polydrug intoxication due to the combined effects of Oxycodone ^[1](Percocet), oxymorphone (a metabolite of oxycodone), diazepam (Valium), nordiazepam (a metabolite of diazepam) and alcohol. The coroner noted Cardiomegaly (enlarged heart) as a "significant condition" that may have played a role in Sullivan's death.^[7]

On January 6, 2010, a private funeral was held for Sullivan,^[8] and a day later he was buried in Huntington Beach, California.^[9] Shortly after his death, Good Charlotte dedicated their single, "The River", to him^{[citation needed]}, and Avenged Sevenfold dedicated their song "So Far Away" to him.

Discography[link]

With Suburban Legends[link]

• Origin Edition (1999)

With Pinkly Smooth[link]

• Unfortunate Snort (2001)

With Avenged Sevenfold[link]

• 1999 Demo (1999)
• 2000 Demo (2000)
• Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (2001)
• Warmness on the Soul (2001)
• Waking the Fallen (2003)
• City of Evil (2005)
• All Excess (2007)
• Avenged Sevenfold (2007)
• Live in the LBC & Diamonds in the Rough (2008)
• Nightmare (2010) (Posthumous)
• Welcome to the Family (2010) (Posthumous)

References[link]

External links[link]