George Henry Saunders
George Henry Saunders (1820-1857)
1858 Obituary [1]
MR. GEORGE HENRY SAUNDERS was born at Gold’s Hill, near West Bromwich, on the 4th October, 1820.
His early years were spent in that neighbourhood, and his education was completed at the celebrated school at Hazlewood, near Birmingham.
At the age of nineteen, he became a pupil of Mr. W. Fowler, Surveyor, at Birmingham ; and in 1846, at the expiration of his period of pupillage, he removed to London, where he soon received an engagement, under Mr. J. R. McClean, M. Inst. C.E., to make part of the survey for the Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Dudley Railway.
Other employment of a similar nature soon followed, and he took part in the surveys of the Furness, -the Ulverstone and Lancaster, -and the Coniston Railways, with that of Barrow Harbour, with very complete soundings, for Messrs. M'Clean and Stileman; and of the Essex Sewers for Messrs. Walker and Burges, with several other works of analogous character.
He then joined Mr. T. W. Mitchell, the grandson of the Inventor of the Screw Pile and Mooring, and undertook the erection, as Contractor, of the Gunfleet Lighthouse, founded upon Mitchell's Screw Piles ; this offered considerable difficulties, which were overcome with great skill, and to the entire satisfaction of Messrs. Walker and Burges, the Engineers. This induced him to become the sole Licensee of the Screw Pile Company, and to devote himself almost entirely to the prosecution of works on that system, which he employed in several important constructions, such as the Foundations to a Viaduct on the South-Eastern Railway, a Pier at Victor Bay, Colon, in South America, for the Royal West India Mail Steam Packet Company, a Beacon at Calais for the French Government, &c. ; he also laid down screw moorings in most of the ports and harbours of England, as well as abroad.
Among other designs he made that for the Pier at Madras, to extend across the surf on that coast, a most important work which, in consequence of the decease of both Mr. Saunders and Mr. T. W. Mitchell is now about to be executed, under the sanction of the local authorities, and of the Home Government, by Mr. F. Johnson, the present licensee of the patent, and who was for many years the principal assistant of the late Mr. Saunders.
The last few years of his life were almost entirely devoted to the execution of contracts, for putting in screw piles, or laying down moorings ; and had his health been good, the system would doubtless have received very rapid extension. He was, however, attacked by a painful and lingering complaint, against which he struggled manfully, but without success ; and on the 27th March, 1857, he expired, leaving a wife and family to lament a kind and affectionate husband and parent, too early removed from them. Mr. Saunders was universally esteemed as a conscientious, worthy man, of excellent business habits, and good ability, and his premature decease was much regretted.
He joined the Institution as an Associate March 7, 1848, and was very constant in his attendance at the Meetings, and took much interest in all the proceedings.