Allan Wilson
Allan Wilson (1820-1897)
1898 Obituary [1]
ALLAN WILSON, twin brother of the late Mr. Edward Wilson, M. Inst. C.E., was a son of Mr. John Wilson, civil engineer, of Glencorse, Midlothian, where he was born on the 12th August, 1820.
From an early age he took a keen interest in the works, which his father, a pupil of Telford, was carrying out, and in due course served a regular pupilage under him. During that time he had experience of many and varied works, including those of the Edinburgh Water Company, and afterwards was employed as an Assistant Engineer on the Corpach end of the Caledonian Canal, and on the construction of the Hull and Bridlington Railway, now part of the North Eastern system.
In 1847 he returned to Scotland and was for three and a half years the Resident Engineer in charge of the works on the North Berwick Railway, on leaving which he was presented with the freedom of the town of North Berwick.
In 1853 Mr. Wilson received the appointment of second engineer on the Madras Railway, of which Mr. (now Sir) George Barclay Bruce, Past-President, was then Chief Engineer, and at once proceeded to India. On his arrival there he was placed in charge of the first division, consisting of 75 miles of railway, which he carried out to completion without any general contractor, one of the most importa,nt works on the line being the stone bridge-twenty-seven arches of 30 feet span-over the Cortilleaur River. . . .
.... On Mr. Wilson’s return to England he for some years assisted his brother, the late Mr. Edward Wilson, in the design and execution of several works of magnitude, amongst which may be mentioned the Great Eastern Railway Company’s Liverpool Street. Station, and the lines leading to it from Walthamstow and from both the Cambridge and Ipswich main lines.
In 1873 he went to Santiago, in Galicia, on behalf of the Credit Foncier of England, as that Company’s Local Representative on the Compostelana Railway, and as such had to deal with the financial affairs, as well as with the engineering of the undertaking. He remained in Spain for six years, and on his leaving that country the late King Alphonso XI1 created him a Caballero of the Order of “Isabel la Catolica.” On his return to London he continued to act as Consulting Engineer for the Credit Foncier, and at the same time commenced to practise independently.
In 1884 Mr. Wilson became Consulting Engineer to the North Western of Uruguay Railway Company,....
....In the same year he was consulted by the River Dee Company, and after making an extensive survey of the tidal portion of the river advised, jointly with Mr. (now Sir) Leader Williams, as to the best means of obtaining the statutory depth of water between Chester and Connah’s Quay, the object being to enable the Company, who were the conservators of the river, to impose tolls, which they could not do unless the statutory depth at low tide was maintained. As the result of his residence in Spain, Mr. Wilson’s advice was frequently applied for in connection with various engineering projects in that country, and amongst these may be mentioned the Anglo-Vasco-Navarro Railway, for which he was Chief Engineer, the Pamplona and Cordoba Waterworks, the Laguna Antella Reclamation and the Denia Irrigation.
Mr. Wilson continued his London practice until 1892, when he gave up his office and retired to Bridgnorth in the county of Salop....[more]