John Boustead
John Boustead (1822-1904)
1841 John Boustead of 34 Craven Street, Strand, became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.[1]
1905 Obituary [2]
JOHN BOUSTEAD died at his residence, 15 Prince’s Gate, S.W., on the 20th October, 1904, at the advanced age of 84.
The scion of an old Cumberland family, he was born on the 15th April, 1822, in Ceylon, where his father owned large coffee-estates. John Boustead was destined for the engineering profession, but after pursuing a course of study with this object, he entered his father’s business, which had attained very large dimensions, and devoted himself energetically to the cultivation of coffee until the occurrence in 1879 of the crisis in this industry, consequent upon the almost total failure of the coffee-crops throughout the island.
Mr. Boustead’s courage and resource proved equal to the occasion, and his far-sighted and energetic action, as one of the most influential owners and agents in Ceylon, was largely instrumental in securing the adoption of the tea-plant in place of coffee, which led to the ultimate recovery of the island from what appeared at the time to be an irretrievable desaster.
Mr. Boustead was the oldest director of the Lambeth Waterworks Company. He was an old resident in Wimbledon, and was long connected with Bassenthwaite in Cumberland, where he built the chapel overlooking the lake and commenced the rebuilding of Armathwaite Hall.
He was elected, on the 26th November, 1867, an Associate of the Institution, with which he had been connected since 1841, when he was admitted a Graduate. In 1842 his Description of the Roofs of Messrs. Simpson and Co.’s Factory was published in the Proceedings.