Ernest Charles Antoine Presser
Ernest Charles Antoine Presser (1849-1909)
of 4 Salerno, Madrid.
1909 Obituary [1]
ERNEST CHARLES ANTOINE PRESSER was born at Metz on 24th April 1849.
After having gone through a course of engineering he became connected with the firm of M. Eiffel, and had charge from 1872 to 1875 of the erection of bridges, viaducts, etc., on the Lima and La Oroya Railway, which was then the highest railway in the world.
Owing to the deadly nature of the climate, the chief engineer and several of his assistant engineers soon succumbed, and Mr. Presser was left in sole charge to finish this difficult work.
On its completion he went to Scotland and became manager in Glasgow for the firm of Castel and Latta.
In 1880 he took up his residence in Spain, where he represented Messrs. Deutsch of Paris in superintending the erection of oil refineries. He also prepared plans for, and superintended the construction of, canals in Madrid and other cities, and the railway from Alcay to Gandia.
He next founded the firm of La Societe Generale Gallega, of which he was the chairman, which supplied Ferrol and Ria de Arosa with electricity.
He was also managing director from 1904 to 1908 of La Societe des Alines do Castilla, which he worked up from an unsatisfactory position to one of prosperity.
He then became President of La Societe de Bienfaisance francaise de Madrid, which position he was holding at the time of his death on 4th April 1909, in his sixtieth year.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1882.