I recently gave a lecture to GLIAS about British Engineers in Europe. Many well known names such as Sir John Rennie and Thomas Telford undertook substantial works abroad when it was difficult enough travelling at home! However I concentrated on lesser known engineers, although their work certainly wasn't lesser.
One of my favourite engineers who spent his whole career abroad was William Lindley, 1808 - 1900. He had spent some of his early years in Germany. Later once qualified he was sent to work on an early German railway line, the Hamburg-Bergedorfer Eisenbahn which began his association with the Hamburg area. Somewhat luckily he was in the area when a disasterous fire demolished most of the city in 1842 and he was charged with some of the rebuilding, in particular the new water and sewage system.
The former Bergedorf Station of 1838
He was so highly regarded that today his statue stands close by one of the entrances to the sewers close to the river in Hamburg. His other memorial is the water works at Rothenburgsort where a small museum explains the development of the water system. www.hamburgwasser.de/wasserforum
Lindley statue
An early photograph of the Rothenburgsort Water Works with a distinctive chimney/stand pipe
Despite his long career in Germany. Lindley died in Blackheath in South London. However his fame in his adopted city ensures that there are still books and exhibitions about him.
