William Magee Grier
William Magee Grier (1839-1893)
1893 Obituary [1]
WILLIAM MAGEE GRIER the third son of the late Rev. John William Grier, M.A., Incumbent of Amblecote, near Stowbridge; nephew of the late Archbishop Magee of Dublin and cousin of the late Archbishop Magee of York, was born on the 17th of September, 1839.
At sixteen years of age he was articled to Cochrane Brothers of Woodside, near Dudley. During the five years of his pupilage he was occupied in the workshops and in the drawing and estimating offices and was subsequently employed by Messrs. Cochrane to assist in the erection of the Westminster and Charing Cross Bridges over the Thames.
He was next engaged for Messrs. Ordish and Le Feuvre in preparing designs and details for the Exhibition buildings of 1862 and then for Henry Carr on designs and working drawings for the Blackfriars Railway Bridge.
In 1863 he inspected bridges for the Concessionaires of certain Italian railways and was then for two years Engineer to Fleet and Newey, bridge builders in Staffordshire.
In 1865 he became an assistant to W. T. Barlow, Past-President Inst. C.E., on the Midland Railway extension to London. He prepared detail drawings of bridges and other works at the London end and superintended their construction; and was also placed in charge of the erection of a portion of the roof of the station at St. Pancras, and of the columns and girders of the lower floor.
Mr. Grier then became in 1869 Engineer to the Park Gate Iron Co, Rotherham, which had large contracts in hand for bridges and roofs; on the completion of some exceptionally difficult iron-roof and girder work for John Aird and Sons at the Chartered Gas Works, Beckton, he retired from that post.
In 1870-71 he was employed by the late J. M. Heppel, Consulting Engineer to the Oude and Rohilkund Railway Company, in preparing the plans and detail drawings of large workshops and running-engine sheds for Lucknow; on the completion of these, contracts were let and the materials sent forward and set up, Mr. Grier being requested to proceed to Lucknow and superintend the erection, a request to which he was unable to accede.
In 1872 he became General Manager and Engineer to the Trent Foundry Co, which post he held for five years....[more]