Thomas Brassey

 

Catsfield, Sussex

There is perhaps hardly a developed country in the world which does not owe something of its progress to Thomas Brassey. The energy, character, and probity of six centuries of yeoman ancestry burst into flower in his career. He was born at Buerton, Cheshire, into a world which travelled by coach and wagon; before he died he had seamed half the world with railways.

He began by constructing the Grand Junction railway, and at a bound had three thousand men under him on the four-million pounds undertaking that brought the line to London. Extending his operations north, south, east and west, he crossed the Channel, to give France her railway between Paris and Rouen, and soon had five other railways proceeding there simultaneously.

From the outset he set a high standard in material and workmanship, employed the best men, and paid high wages. In France, however, in spite of his passionate protests, inferior methods and material for the great Barentin viaduct of 27 arches led to a collapse of the structure. The highest legal opinion in France was unanimous that he was exempt from liability, but Brassey, proud, sensitive, and conscientious, shouldered the responsibility at a cost of £37,000 to his own pocket.

All Europe clamoured for Thomas Brassey, and he responded with railways in France, Italy, Holland, Prussia, Spain, and Austria. Speaking no tongue but English, he found foreign intercourse no impediment. He was a superb diplomatist, equally at ease and trusted by the heads of States as by the armies of workmen who worshipped him. So great was the confidence reposed in him that he was permitted to complete his railway in Austria while war with that country was in progress.

Still his capacity and generous ambition were inexhausted. He extended his operations to India, Australia, and Canada, where (greatest of all his works) he built the Grand Trunk Railway. At home he was responsible for great feeders for his enterprises abroad, docks, mines, ironworks, all busy and important, and in themselves sufficient to tax the resources of an ordinary man, but with him subsidiary to the building of his railways for the outer world.

His motto was punctuality, with efficient workmanship and good durable material. Immense profits accrued from enterprises so vast and various, but he continued a modest man, unspoiled by prosperity. He had 75,000 men at a time under his control, men of all nationalities, and he handled them with such solicitous fairness and goodwill that they served him with fervour and loyalty.

We must count him a very great Englishman.

 

 

 

 

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