William Radford (1817-1897)
William Radford (1817-1897)
1898 Obituary [1]
WILLIAM RADFORD, born in 1817, was a son of Mr. Joseph Radford, iron merchant, of the Red Bank Foundry, Salford. After being educated at the Manchester Grammar School, he served a pupilage to George Watson Buck, then joint engineer with Robert Stephenson, of the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, on which young Radford was engaged for a time. He next went to Germany, where he was employed for two years as assistant to Mr. Buck, who had undertaken to superintend the construction of the Altona and Kiel Railway. On the completion of that line he was engaged for the Danish Government on the laying-out and construction of the Zeeland Railway, from Copenhagen to Korsor, for his services in connection with which he received the gold medal of the Order of Merit.
Returning to England, Mr. Radford began to practise in Manchester as an engineer and surveyor, about the year 1850. He was soon appointed Bridgemaster and Surveyor of Bridges for the hundreds of Salford, Blackburn, Leyland, Amounderness, and North and South Lonsdale, the duties of which office he discharged with great efficiency. He enjoyed a large practice as a surveyor and valuer, and acted as umpire or arbitrator in many important cases of disputed compensation. At the time of his death he held the appointment of Arbitrator to the Corporation of Manchester, and he was for many years Chairman of the Moss Side Local Board. Both in public and private undertakings Mr. Radford proved himself an engineer of considerable capacity, and an excellent man of business, shrewd and sensible, while his manner was always courteous and genial. In the society of his friends he was a very pleasant companion, full of interesting reminiscences of bygone Manchester.
Mr. Radford died at his residence, South Lea, Whalley Range, on the 1st November, 1897, in his eighty-first year. His connection with the Institution, of which he was elected a Member on the 3rd April, 1849, lasted for upwards of forty-eight years.