Chapter X
This would be a fitting period, seeing that we have just seen Mr. Henry Parfitt installed as Chairman of the Executive, to draw upon the recollections of that experienced member. When Mr. Parfitt knew that I was engaged for this task he readily gave me an interview, and that interview lasted a week, and it covered forty years of activity. Until he retired in December of 1919. Mr. Parfitt was our senior organiser, and in 1880 he joined the Neath branch on its opening night. He was founder of the Society in London, and was for several years Secretary of the Paddington branch. He was Chairman of Plymouth branch, and five years Secretary of Aberdare branch. He was Vice-President of Leeds Conference in 1886, President of the Conference in 1892, Chairman of the Executive 1893 to 1896, and has been in continuously close contact with the activities of the Society. Parfitt was born on November 15th, 1852, and took up railway service in 1873, and completed thirty years service as cleaner, fireman, and driver for the G.W.R. in 1903, when he was elected organiser, and continued in that capacity for seventeen years.
Such a long and varied experience made Mr. Parfitt a fountain of knowledge and bright incident, and my task was one of severe reduction from a hundred pages of shorthand notes. There was no railway
103
