Edward Watkin
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Sir Edward Watkin (26 September 1819 - 13 April 1901) was a Victorian railway chairman and politician.
[edit] Biography
Watkin was born in Salford, Lancashire, the son of a wealthy cotton merchant, Absalom Watkin who was noted for his involvement in the Anti-corn Law League.
After a private education, he returned to work in his father's mill business. In 1845 he founded the Manchester Examiner, by which time he had become a partner in his father's business.
Watkin began to show an interest in railways and at age 26, also in 1845, he took on the secretaryship of the Trent Valley Railway, which was sold the following year to the London & Birmingham and Grand Junction railways (which were about to amalgamate to form the London and North Western Railway (LNWR)), for £438,000. He then became assistant to Captain Mark Huish, General Manager of the LNWR. He visited USA and Canada and published a book about the railways in these countries in 1852. Back in Great Britain he was appointed secretary of the Worcester & Hereford Railway. He then left the LNWR and became the general manager of the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR). He held this position from 1854 to 1862 and was chairman of the company from 1864 to 1894. He was knighted in 1868 and made a baronet in 1880.
Abroad he encouraged the uniting of the Canadian provinces by the building of a railroad. He also helped to build the railway between Athens and Piraeus, advised on the Indian railways and organised the transport of the Belgian Congo.
Watkin also served on other railway companies. In 1866 he became a director on the Great Western Railway and later on the Great Eastern Railway. By 1881 Watkins was director of nine railways and trustee of a tenth. These included the Cheshire Lines, the East London, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire, the Manchester, South Junction & Altrincham, the Metropolitan, the Oldham, Ashton & Guide Bridge, the Sheffield & Midland Joint, the South Eastern, the Wigan Junction and the New York, Lake Eyrie and Western railways.
Watkin is pehaps best known for being responsible for the building of the London Extension during the 1890s, which was the last main line to be constructed into London. He had become convinced that the MS&LR needed to construct its own route into London, and onwards to a Channel Tunnel. It was under his chairmanship of the SER in 1880 that the railway began work on this project although his ambition was never realised.
Watkin also served as a Liberal Member of Parliament for the constituencies of Great Yarmouth (1857-1858) Stockport (1864-1868) and later that of Hythe in Kent (1874-1895).
He was also responsible for the partially completed Watkins' Tower.
[edit] References
- Healy, John M.C. Echoes of the Great Central, Greenwich Editions (1987) ISBN 0-86288-076-9
- Dyckhoff, Nigel. Portrait of the Cheshire Lines Committee, Ian Allan, Shepperton, 1999 ISBN 0-7110-2512-5
