Photo of a lamp boy at Whaplode Railway Station.
A lamp boy would have been a “starting job” for a young employee, and it would probably have involved “lamping” duties – that is to say cleaning and trimming the oil lamps which were needed to illuminate the semaphore signals. A signal lampman would be an adult employee. Some of these lamp boys progressed to Porter or even Guard at the stations that they worked. Photo undated.
