Former Chairman awarded MBE

We are delighted to learn that Richard Croucher, Vice President and former Chairman of the Great Western Society, has been honoured with the award of Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours 2025 for his contributions to Great Western Railway heritage, leisure, education, and tourism in Oxfordshire.

In response Richard Croucher MBE said 'I feel honoured and humbled to received the MBE which I also regard as an honour for the Great Western Society and its work and what has been achieved at Didcot over the years and everyone who has been part the team'.

Richard Croucher served as Chairman of the Great Western Society from 2001 to 2019, having previously been Deputy Chairman from 1985.

Among Richard's many notable achievements is his successful decade-long negotiation with Network Rail and its predecessors, securing a 50-year lease on the Didcot Railway Centre site, ensuring a permanent home for the collection.

Within the Society, however, Richard is perhaps best known for his exceptional diplomatic and fundraising abilities, driving forward multiple major locomotive restoration and reconstruction projects during his tenure. It is to his credit that more than one of these projects have been described as ‘project impossible’ in the railway press.

In 2000, he spearheaded the successful repatriation of locomotive 4079 ‘Pendennis Castle’ from Australia, securing funding and managing her restoration, culminating in a return to steam in 2022. The locomotive recently starred in Didcot’s Rivals Reunited event alongside ‘Flying Scotsman’

Richard also led efforts to fundraise and restore 6023 ‘King Edward II’, a locomotive scrapped by British Railways in 1962. Despite years of deterioration due to open-air storage and partial dismantling, she was restored to operational condition and first steamed in preservation in 2011, currently being on static display.

Additionally, Richard oversaw a 23-year project to recreate a GWR passenger locomotive class originally built in 1906, using a mix of upcycled and new parts. This resulted in the completion of the new build 'Saint' class locomotive 2999 ‘Lady of Legend’ in 2019.

Another significant project under Richard's guidance was the reconstruction of an original 1904 GWR steam railmotor. This award-winning vehicle, completed in 2011, has gained acclaim operating both on the national rail network and heritage railway lines.

Upon stepping down as Chairman, Richard Croucher was honoured with the Railway Magazine Annual Award for Services to Railway Preservation in 2020.

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