prominently in the next phase of his life, that of a campaigner. He invited Aickman and his wife Ray to join them on Cressy and Aickman later described that trip as "the best time I have ever spent on the waterways". It was on this voyage they decided to form an organisation that a few weeks later, in May 1946, at Robert's London flat, was named the Inland Waterways Association, with Aickman as chairman, Hadfield as vice-chairman and Rolt as secretary. This was a critical period for the waterways, which were nationalised in 1947 and faced an uncertain future. The traditional life which Rolt had so movingly described was faced with extinction. He pioneered direct action on the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal which stopped British Waterways from closing it, organised a hugely successful Inland Waterways Exhibition, which started in London but toured the country, and proposed the first boat rally at Market Harborough. Aickman, who had a private income, was working full-time on the campaign, whilst Rolt, who had only his writing to support him, and was still living aboard Cressy, struggled to meet all his commitments. Eventually he fell out with Aickman over the latter's insistence that every mile of canal should be saved, and in early 1951 Rolt was expelled from the organisation he had inspired. By this time also he had decided to bring his life on Cressy to an end and return to his family home in Stanley Pontlarge. Angela departed to continue the mobile life, joining Billy Smart's Circus. Talyllyn Railway A letter Rolt had sent to the Birmingham Post in 1950 resulted in the formation of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society, and he now threw himself into that, becoming chairman of the company which operated the railway as a tourist attraction. "By the time the fateful letter terminating his IWA membership arrived, he was already busy issuing and stamping passengers' tickets from the little station in Towyn". His time at Talyllyn gave rise to the 1953 book Railway Adventure, which was the basis of the popular Ealing comedy film The Titfield Thunderbolt. Rolt married again, to Sonia Smith (née South), a former actress. During the war she had become one of the amateur boat-women who worked the canals and had married a boatman. She had been on the council of the IWA. They had two sons, Tim and Dick, and continued to live in Stanley Pontlarge