Page:Fred Arthur McKenzie - British Railways and the War (1917).djvu/15

 The main plans of the war policy of the railways had, of course, to be approved by the Government, and announcements were made in the name of the President of the Board of Trade. But the plan uniformly adopted was for the authorities to tell the Railway Executive Committee what had to be done, and then to leave it to plan the details of how the work should be completed. In other words, the experts were allowed to carry out their own work in their own way, so far as was possible, under war conditions. And they got the thing done. Sir Guy Granet, general manager of the Midland Railway, became Deputy Director-General of Military Railways in the War Office. Mr. Eric C. Geddes, deputy general manager of the North-Eastern Railway, was appointed Deputy Director-General of Munitions Supply; he was knighted in 1916, and made Director-General of Movements and Railways, and Director-General of Communications in France. His history from then is one of the romances of the war. Having done great work on the railways at the front, he moved to the Admiralty, where he shortly became First Civil Lord and a member of the Government. He was succeeded at the War Office by Sir Guy Granet. Sir Sam Fay assumed responsibility in the War Office for the directorate of movements. Mr. Thornton, general manager of the Great Eastern Railway, became Hon. Lieut.-Colonel of the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps, and Deputy Director of Inland Waterways and Docks.