Charles Graham Blatchley (1828-1887)
1887 Obituary [1]
CHARLES GRAHAM BLATCHLEY, the eldest son of the late Charles Blatchley, Commander R.N., born at Ringwood, near Bristol, on the 23rd October, 1828.
About the year 1845, Mr. Blatchley became a pupil to the late Mr. William Glennie, who was then stationed at Dawlish, as Resident-Engineer for the South Devon Railway.
After completing his pupilage he removed to Ipplepen, being employed as Resident Engineer on the South Devon Railway, between Newton-Abbot and Totness. On this work being finished, Mr. Brunel sent him to the Mickleton Tunnel on the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway, a piece of work which had given considerable trouble to contractors, but which the Company successfully completed under Mr. Blatchley’s superintendence. During its progress he resided at Chipping Campden.
From thence, in the year 1852, he removed to Saltash, becoming Resident Engineer for the portion of the Cornwall Railway lying between Devonport and St. Germans, his work including the setting out of the Royal Albert Bridge.
In 1860 he removed to Falmouth, having been appointed Resident Engineer for the branch of the Cornwall Railway between Truro and that town, under Mr. R. P. Brereton, M.Inst.C.E., as Chief Engineer.
After the Falmouth line was opened, Mr. Blatchley went to Dublin in charge of the Dublin Trunk Connecting Railway, and on the stoppage of that undertaking he acted as Resident Engineer for his friend Mr. W. B. Lewis, M.Inst.C.E., on the Worcester, Bromyard, and Leominster Railway, residing for some three years at Bromyard, Herefordshire.
On the completion of the line to that place, in 1878, he retired to Cheltenham for the education of his daughters, only occasionally being employed in professional matters. During his residence in Cheltenham he was busily occupied in many religious and philanthropic efforts, and there, to the sorrow of a large circle of attached friends, he died on the 2nd October, 1887, aged fifty-eight years.
Mr. Blatchley was a man of singularly consistent character ; he sought to do everything thoroughly and well, and this in the whole of life, as well as in particular duties, and the conscientious care with which he carried out the details of every engineering work committed to his charge, appeared also in family and social relations, and in the performance of the many public services he voluntarily undertook. Although of quiet and retiring habits, his usefulness caused him to be widely known and greatly esteemed wherever he resided, and he was followed to his grave in Leckhampton churchyard by many of the leading residents of Cheltenham.
He was elected a Member on the 1st of December, 1813