John Baldwin (1824-1891)
John Baldwin (1824-1891)
1892 Obituary [1] JOHN BALDWIN was born at Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire, on the 8th March, 1824. His family removed shortly afterwards to the neighbouring town of Bury, where he was educated. In 1843 he was apprenticed to Kaye and Sons, engineers and millwrights of that town, from whom he received a thorough mechanical training. . . . the position of Assistant Engineer and Agent on the Oxford and Birmingham Railway, then (1848 to 1853) in course of construction by Peto and Betts. So rapidly did he gain the confidence of his masters, that in 1854 they placed him in responsible charge of the construction of the West End and Crystal Palace and the Wimbledon and Croydon Railways as Contractors' Engineer and Agent. He carried out these lines satisfactorily to completion.
Four years later he was entrusted, again by Messrs. Peto and Betts, with a portion of the East Kent Railway, which was opened for traffic in December, 1860.
He then took in hand the section of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway between Herne Hill and Beckenham, on which was the well-known low-level Sydenham tunnel. This proved to be most difficult of construction, and its early and successful completion was no doubt due to the skill and perseverance exhibited by Mr. Baldwin. He became convinced at an early stage that the ovoid section then generally adopted for tunnel-lining was particularly unsuited to London clay, and after several intermediate modifications, ultimately secured the adoption of an approximately circular section, which effectually solved all difficulties. The following extract from Mr. Baldwin’s diary shows the difficulties of the work, and also illustrates the risks sometimes run by executive engineers :-
April 5th, 1862.--Called up at 4.30 a.m., the length next to the one now building at No. 3 shaft having given way. I went down and through the debris into the inner length, and found the men had run out in great fear, as they had left their shirts, etc. I came back and went in again with foreman carpenter, and the length again made a start and dropped very near to my back, but I jumped into the inner length and escaped.
Mr. Baldwin organised for this work four large brickyards, which were run all through the winter months and produced some fifty-five millions of bricks in two-and-a-half-years. The tunnel during its progress was visited by several Continental and American engineers, and has often been cited as a typical work. An account of its construction will be found in the Minutes of Proceedings. While the low-level line was still in progress, the Crystal Palace and South London Junction Railway was commenced in 1863, and the Nunhead and Greenwich line in the following year. These works were also under Mr. Baldwin’s charge, and he carried them through to completion in 1866, in which year the affairs of Messrs. Peto and Betts became involved, and Mr. Baldwin left them with feelings of mutual regret and esteem.
During the winter of 1867 he was engaged under Mr. Edwin Clarke in the restoration works at the Crystal Palace after the fire of Christmas, 1866. He then took charge of the South Dock Works of the East and West India Docks, for which the late Mr. George Wythes was contractor, and successfully completed them in 1870. Early in the same year he prepared for Messrs. Brassey and Wythes an exhaustive Report and Estimates on the Channel Tunnel, advocating a plan for running a preliminary heading from end to end. This scheme was abandoned in consequence of the outbreak of the Franco-German war.
From 1871 to 1875 he was engaged for Mr. Wythes in the construction of the Sharpness Docks on the Severn, and in 1876 his connection with that gentleman ceased. Although he sent in tenders for several extensive works, Mr. Baldwin from that time practically ceased the active pursuit of his profession, and continued to live in retirement until his death, which, after some years of failing health, took place at Southend-on-Sea on the 14th of July, 1891, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. He was of a retiring disposition and little known outside his immediate circle. Thoroughly painstaking, accurate, of strict probity, and possessing an intimate knowledge of men and work, he was well-esteemed by the many prominent engineers with whom he from time to time came into contact, and was often consulted by them in practical difficulties.
Mr. Baldwin was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 4th of February, 1873, and was transferred to the class of Associate Member on its creation on the 2nd of December, 1878