Francis Dunnell

Dunnell was born on 26 July 1868 at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, the third son of Robert Dunnell and Harriet (née Smith). He was educated at the Rossall School. In December 1890, Dunnell was admitted, with honours, to the roll of solicitors of the Supreme Court. In 1891, he joined the staff of the solicitor's department of the North Eastern Railway Company (NER). He was appointed a justice of the peace of York. Dunnell was appointed assistant solicitor to the North Eastern Railway in 1900. In 1905, he was appointed solicitor to the NER and in the following year also took on the role of company secretary. Dunnell and Ruby Garrett were married in 1897. The couple had no children. Ruby died in 1901 after only four years of marriage. ==World War I==

After the outbreak of World War I, the government taking wartime control of the railway system, and in 1917 Dunnell's services were lent to the government. He was appointed as an additional assistant secretary to the Admiralty. He served as secretary to the British Naval Mission led by Sir Eric Geddes, who had been Dunnell's colleague at the North Eastern Railway, that travelled to the United States in October 1918. The purpose of the mission was to consult with the US government regarding measures to be adopted to counter the heavy losses of Allied shipping by German submarines. At the end of the war, Dunnell was appointed secretary of the demobilisation section of the War Cabinet, again working under Geddes. After the establishment of the Ministry of Transport in September 1919, the directors of the North Eastern Railway consented to Dunnell's temporary transfer to the ministry for two years during "the period of control". He was appointed first secretary and solicitor to the newly-formed ministry, under Geddes as the first Minister of Transport. In December 1921, it was announced that he would be created a baronet for his services to the Ministry of Transport during the period of post-war work, to take effect from 11 January 1922. ==Post-war==

Dunnell resigned from the Ministry of Transport in September 1921 and returned to York to resume his position as secretary and solicitor to the North Eastern Railway Company. In late June 1928, Dunnell led the legal team representing the London and North Eastern Railway Company at the commencement of the coronial inquest into the Darlington train collision. The accident occurred on the night of 27 June 1928 at Darlington railway station in County Durham, when a parcel train collided head-on with an excursion train on the same track, causing the deaths of 25 people and the serious injury of over 50 more. Dunnell retired from LNER in late 1928. In April 1930, he was appointed a Railway and Canal Commissioner. In 1947, Dunnell went to live in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The baronetcy became extinct upon his death. ==Footnotes==