Churchward was born at Rowes Farm, Stoke Gabriel, Devon, where his ancestors (the senior line residing at Hill House; his paternal grandfather, Matthew, was the younger son of the head of the family) had been squires since 1457.

[1] He was educated at the King Edward VI Grammar School, contained within the Mansion House on Fore Street, Totnes, Devon.

His father's cousin, Frederick Churchward, head of the family, arranged private tuition at Hill House during the school holidays.

Arguably, from the early 1900s to the 1920s the Great Western's 2-cylinder and 4-cylinder 4-6-0 designs were substantially superior to any class of locomotive of the other British railway companies.

Although speed was a key competitive driver across the whole GWR route, the South Devon Banks rewarded sure-footed locomotive designs with good adhesion.

This resulted in his use of a Belpaire-style rectangular firebox, which due to its greater surface area for evaporation was less prone to foaming and carry over of water to the cylinders.

Churchward then dispensed with the need for a large dome to collect steam, using instead top-feed of water supply from injectors, which together with top-fitted clack boxes hidden within a brass "bonnet" minimised boiler stress.

[8][9] Churchward experimented with compounding, a principle development for marine engines which was widely adopted in European locomotive design.

[8][9] Churchward's resulting locomotive designs excluded trailing wheels, which maximised adhesion on the South Devon Banks.

He was an early adopter in UK locomotive design of superheating, made efficient through the GWR's exclusive use of the high calorific-value steam coal from the South Wales Coalfield.

In 1901, whilst still assistant to Dean, the GWR board approved Churchward's plan to build a series of two cylinder 4-6-0 locomotives.

98 was out-shopped in March 1903, to a similar design but with a taper boiler, re-designed valve gear layout and cylinders, and a shorter wheelbase.

Built as a 4-6-0, in October 1904 it was converted to a 4-4-2 to enable better comparison with the performance of the French de Glehn compound; it was reconverted to 4-6-0 in July 1907.

Similar to the Paris-Orleans Railway's 3001 class and built by Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques,[19] the first locomotive no.102 La France was delivered in 1903, with Nos.

They were then each placed into service to evaluate performance, and then following engine crew feedback were modified to test other aspects of Churchward's design experimentation and philosophy.

[23] In operational practice, compounding did not provide any significant improvement in either performance or economy compared to No 171 Albion, Churchward's prototype 4-6-0, which was converted to a 4-4-2 specifically for direct comparison with them.

Churchward had recognized this limitation by the introduction of his GWR 4700 Class 2-8-0 design with 5 ft 8 in (1.727 m) driving wheels in 1919, intended for express goods trains.

Based on a limited number of standard parts—including boilers, cylinders, wheels and valve gear—he planned a range of locomotives for duties such as express passenger, mixed traffic, heavy freight and suburban trains, with both tender and tank versions.

The locomotives proved to be very successful, handling the heaviest long-distance express trains, reaching top speeds of 90 mph (145 km/h), and they established the design principles for GWR 4-cylinder classes over the next twenty-five years.

No clear GWR commercial reason existed for the design, so it is concluded by many as a further Churchward experiment, considered to explore what came beyond the Star Class when train loads increased beyond their capability.

Despite later experimental developments, in service the performance of The Great Bear proved to be disappointing, and not a significant improvement on existing classes.

[31] The excellent performance of the Star Class and advent of the First World War brought a stop to further experimentation without significant improvement.

Major classes built by the LMS and even British Railways 50 years later are clearly developments of Churchward's basic designs.

[citation needed] Although Churchward had retired in 1922, he continued to live in a GWR-owned house near to the line at Swindon, and he retained his interest in the company's affairs.

[38][8] On 19 December 1933, now with poor eyesight and hard of hearing, he was inspecting a defectively-bedded sleeper on the down through line, when he was struck and killed by a Paddington to Fishguard express, pulled by No.