George Beeton Alderson
Sir George Beeton Alderson (1844-1926)
of Allen, Alderson and Co, Alexandria, Egypt; Sheen Mount, East Sheen, London, S.W.:
1926 Obituary [1]
Sir GEORGE BEETON ALDERSON, K.B.E., was a native of Ipswich, where he was born in 1844.
He served his apprenticeship with Messrs. Ransomes and Sims and was sent by them to Egypt in 1864 to erect a pumping plant.
He became associated with Mr. S. S. Allen and they founded the firm of Allen, Alderson and Co. of Alexandria.
On the death of Mr. S. Allen in 1870, Sir George was joined by his brother, the late Mr. Francis Allen, whose death occurred only eight months before his own. The whole of Sir George Alderson's career was devoted to engineering and philanthropic work in Egypt.
In 1882 he superintended the erection of an iron swing bridge over the canal at Alexandria, and amongst the many fine British pumping plants, for whose erection he was responsible, may be mentioned that at Baliana, consisting of two 500 h.p. Corliss condensing engines with boilers and pumps, capable of delivering 125 cubic metres of water per minute. This was erected in 1897, revised twenty-five years later, and is now lifting still larger quantities.
His firm supplied also machinery for ginning and other factories, particularly one in 1907 with engines and boilers of 1,300 h.p., and sugar machinery for the Societe Generale des Sucreries; they undertook among other works, the building of the Mixed Tribunals Palace in Alexandria, the excavation of the Royal Tewfiki irrigation canal, an iron bridge at Wasta with locks, and machinery for a dry dock in Alexandria.
Sir George was largely instrumental in founding the Victoria College and the Seamen's Home at Alexandria.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1885, and his death occurred on 2nd December 1926.