Frederick Slessor

Frederick George Slessor
Born	1831 Sidmouth, Devon, England
Died	15 October 1905 Somerset, England
Occupation	Engineer
Known for	Designing and building railways

Frederick George Slessor (1831 - 1905) was a British railway engineer who worked in England, India, South Africa, and continental Europe.

Early life

Slessor was born in 1831 in Sidmouth, Devon, England to Major General John Henry Slessor. He attended the Sherborne School^[1] and later trained as civil engineer as a pupil of M. W. Peniston M. Inst. C.E..

Career

Slessor was responsible for sewerage works at Haileybury, Mortlake, Richmond, Barnes, and other places in the Thames valley; a large road bridge at Addison Gardens, Kensington; the renewal of the Cliff Bridge at Scarborough; and, in conjunction with Professor Aitchison, the enlargement of the Rotherhithe repairing dock. Abroad, he conducted an important railway trial at Riga and designed the drainage of that city; in Oporto he designed and built the Crystal Palace exhibition building; he reported on sulphur springs in Iceland and on a government harbour at Heligoland, and carried out various works in other countries.^[2]

He also worked in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.^[3] Alicedale, a village in the Albany district, was named after his wife Alice Slessor.^{[4][lower-alpha 1]} His wife died in Queenstown, Eastern Cape, in September 1882.^[7]

Slessor died 15 October 1905 in Somerset, England^[2]

Publications

• Reports by Mr. Slessor, Chief Resident Engineer and Mr. Tilney, Locomotive Superintendent of the East London and Queens's Town Railway, of Trials of Coal from the Indwe and Molteno Mines. South Africa: Cape of Good Hope. 1880. with J D Tilney
• Report of His Recent Examination of the Country to be Traversed by a Junction Line Between the Midland and Eastern Railways. Cape of Good Hope (South Africa): Richards. 1886.

See also

Notes and references

1. A number of sources including Raper assert that Alice Slessor's maiden name was Dale. This is incorrect, the record of their marriage at St John's Church in the Parish of Paddington, on 10 September 1867^[5] clearly indicates that Alice's name was Malton and that she was a spinster at the time of her marriage.^[6]

1. Sherborne Register 1842, p. 41.
2. ICE 1907.
3. Cultural & Historical interest
4. Raper 1989, p. 56.
5. Marriage Registers 1867.
6. "Marriages". Exeter and Plymouth Gazette. 20 September 1867. p. 5 col F. Retrieved 2014-09-27 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
7. Queenstown Free Press 21 September 1882.

• "OBITUARY. FREDERICK GEORGE SLESSOR, 1831-1905.". Minutes of the Proceedings. 168 (1907): 354–355. 1907. doi:10.1680/imotp.1907.17311. ISSN 1753-7843.
• Civil Engineer Records, 1820-1930 [database on-line], London: Institution of Civil Engineers, 2013 – via Ancestry.com
• "We regret to hear of the death of Mrs SLESSOR". Queenstown Free Press. 21 September 1882.
• Raper, P. E. (1989). Dictionary of Southern African Place Names. Jonathan Ball Publishers. ISBN 978-0-947464-04-2.
• "Brief Biographies of Mechanical Engineers". steamindex.com. Retrieved 2014-09-26.
• "Sherborne School Register". 1842. p. 41. Retrieved 2014-09-26 – via Findmypast. (subscription required (help)).
• "England & Wales marriages 1837-2008". England & Wales marriages 1837-2008 Transcription. 1867. Retrieved 2014-09-26 – via Findmypast. (subscription required (help)).

External links

• Drawings for the construction of Weymouth pier
• Frederick George Slessor on ancestry.com (subscription required)