Boundary view
No sign of signal coming down on Siggy
Tanya Aldred
You know you’re getting on a bit when your friend chides you to stop putting off going to Cornwall for a holiday as “we don’t know how many summers we’ve got left”.
But some people seem immune to the aches and fissures of age – among them Siggy Cragwell, cricketer, railway man and proud owner of a British Empire Medal.
Cragwell popped up on Mark Ratcliffe’s BBC Radio 2 folk show in July, as part of the 21st Century Folk feature, which in 2025 celebrates 200 years of train travel in the UK. He is one of five people involved with the railways to have inspired a new song.
Cragwell is one of the Windrush generation, arriving in England from Barbados in 1962. He started work at Marylebone station the next day and, 63 years on, still puts in a shift for Thameslink at Elstree & Borehamwood. At 85, he is their oldest employee, working in customer service from 6-11am, five mornings a week. He did dip his toe in the river of retirement, but returned, bored, four weeks later.