Which rather unlikely job was briefly held by Branwell Bronte?

Patrick Branwell Bronte, always known as Branwell, (1817-1848) was the only boy in the famous literary family. The 1840s saw a vast and rapid extension of the railways, and by now they had reached Yorkshire. Between 1841 and 1842 he was employed as a clerk, initially at Sowerby Bridge Railway Station, and then at Luddenfoot.

Unfortunately, this did not end well. He was dismissed due to a financial deficit occurring on his watch. It now seems likely that he was not the actual thief, but a porter took the chance to steal the money when he had absented himself to indulge in one of his favourite vices: drinking to excess. As another sorry part of the saga, he also persuaded his sisters to buy railway shares which more or less totally lost their value.

Opinions will always vary on Branwell. He undoubtedly saw himself as a great genius, and not just in literature, but as an artist. Unfortunately, though the famous portrait he did of his sisters (probably later painting himself out) is moving and the only image of them together, it rather seems to belie his estimation of his talents.

Though tuberculosis that affected the whole family certainly laid its hand on him, too, his death was hastened by his addictions to alcohol and laudanum. According to the family friend and biographer of Charlotte, Elizabeth Gaskell, in a weird echo of Queen Elizabeth, he died standing up!

"Rebecca" author Daphne du Maurier wrote a biographical study of Branwell.