Charles Willman
Charles Willman (1832-1894)
1894 Obituary [1]
CHARLES WILLMAN, born on the 24th of April, 1832, was the son of the late Mr. T. L. Willman, well known as a musician of ability and taste.
After being educated at the Birmingham Grammar School the subject of this notice entered a naval college in France. He then served articles to the late J. Cooksey, who was practising as a mining engineer in Staffordshire.
Anxious, however, to gain wider experience of life, he entered the Navy as an ordinary seaman and in time rose to be a first class petty officer. He subsequently joined the Naval Brigade and served through the Crimean war, obtaining the Turkish and the Baltic medals, and the Crimean medal with a clasp for Sevastopol.
On the conclusion of the war he left the Navy and again took up engineering, acting for five years as an assistant to the late Robert Charles May. He was then for three years in Russia on the construction of the Riga and Dunaburg Railway.
In 1864 Mr. Willman entered the service of Hopkins, Gilkes and Co, of Middlesbrough, for whom during the next five years he superintended the manufacture and erection of the bridges on the line between Addison Road, Kensington, and Richmond, and on the Cockermouth and Workington Railway.
He also acted for that firm as Resident Engineer on the construction of the Kilton Beck Viaduct and of the high-level bridge at Saltburn.
He then abandoned engineering and, in partnership with Mr. Thomas T. Douglas, carried on for the remainder of his life a successful practice in Middlesbrough as an auctioneer, valuer and estate agent.
Mr. Willman was a member of the Town Council of Middlesbrough and was elected to the office of Mayor in 1880. For twenty years he was an officer of the 1st North York Artillery Volunteers in which he held ultimately the honorary rank of major. He was a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and of the Iron and Steel Institute. He was an enthusiastic Freemason, holding the rank of Past Master and Past Provincial Grand Master of the local lodge.
For some months before his death, which took place on the 9th of April, 1894, he had been in bad health.
Mr. Willman was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 11th of January, 1870, and was placed in the class of Associate Member on its creation in 1878.
1894 Obituary [2]
CHARLES WILLMAN, son of Mr. T. L. Willman a celebrated clarionet player, was born in London on 24th April 1832.
He was educated at King Edward's Grammar School, Birmingham, and subsequently at a military and naval college in France; and was then articled to a civil and mining engineer in Staffordshire.
Afterwards, with a view to gaining a thorough knowledge of the world, he entered the navy as an ordinary seaman, and served throughout the Crimean war, rising to the position of a first-class petty officer, and receiving three medals.
He subsequently joined the naval brigade, and was present at the battle of the Baltic, and afterwards went to the Black Sea. He also served in the 12th Lancers. After the war he was engaged in the construction of the Riga and Dunaberg Railway.
In 1864 he went to Middlesbrough in the service of Mr. R. C. May, and assisted in valuing Messrs. Bolckow and Vaughan's works.
He next became erecting engineer to Messrs. Hopkins, Gilkes and Co., with whom he stayed five years.
He was also concerned in the construction of the handsome high-level bridge at Saltburn, crossing over the deep glen which contains the gardens.
In 1868 he withdrew from the engineering profession and became an auctioneer, in partnership with Mr. Thomas T. Douglas.
For eight years he was a member of the Town Council of Middlesbrough, and was Mayor during 1881, when the town celebrated its jubilee.
Having been in failing health for some time, he died at his residence at Coatham, Redcar, on 9th April 1894, in his sixty-second year.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1870; and was also an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Member of the Iron and Steel Institute, and of the Institution of Cleveland Engineers.