Frederick Henry Rich

Col. Frederick Henry Rich (8 March 1824 – 22 August 1904) was a British soldier, who served with the Royal Engineers and was the Chief Inspecting Officer of the Railway Inspectorate between 1885 and 1889.

He investigated many of the major railway accidents in the late 19th century, including those at Staplehurst in 1865, in which the author Charles Dickens was involved, and at Norton Fitzwarren in 1890.

[1] Gentleman Cadet Frederick Henry Rich joined the Corps of Royal Engineers as a second lieutenant on 11 January 1843.

[1] In April 1861, he was seconded to the Board of Trade as an Inspector of Railways, remaining in this post until October 1872, when he spent the last four months before his retirement at the War Office.

[12] In June 1865, Rich investigated an accident at Staplehurst, in which a South Eastern Railway Folkestone to London boat train derailed while crossing a viaduct where a length of track had been removed during engineering works, killing ten passengers and injuring forty.

The experience affected Dickens greatly; he lost his voice for two weeks and afterwards was nervous when travelling by train, using alternative means when available.

[16] At Stairfoot in South Yorkshire on 12 December 1870, a rake of runaway goods wagons collided with a passenger train resulting in 15 deaths and 59 injuries.

[17] In his report into the accident, Rich found that the goods guard at Barnsley was gravely at fault for not ensuring the standing wagons were better secured.