Julian Horn Tolme
Julian Horn Tolme (1836-1878)
1862 Julian Horn Tolme, Engineer, 13 Duke Street, Westminster.[1]
1879 Obituary [2]
MR. JULIAN HORN TOLME was the youngest son of the late Mr. Charles Davod Tolme, merchant, for many years Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul at Havana, in Cuba, in which city Mr. Tolme was born, on the 28th of January, 1836, and where he received the rudiments of his education.
On his father’s return to England, about the year 1851, he was entered as a student at King’s College, London, where he took a distinguished position, especially in geology and mineralogy.
After attending the Civil Engineering classes of the College, he was, in 1855, articled for five years to Messrs. Locke and Errington. It was chiefly under Mr. Errington, at that time Engineer-in-Chief to the London and South Western Railway Company, that Mr. Tolme was employed. He was deputed to superintend various important works then in course of construction, being successively placed in charge of the Salisbury station, and works in connection therewith; the Barnes and Kew curves; and the branch to Kingston. He also assisted to prepare Parliamentary plans for the Company, as well as for the London and North Western Railway Company in Yorkshire and in Derbyshire.
Upon the death of Mr. Errington in 1862, following that of Mr. Locke in 1860, Mr. Tolme and Mr. W. R. Galbraith, M. Inst. C.E., who had been two of the principal Assistant Engineers of the late firm, and the former of whom had been appointed by Mr. Errington as one of his executors, entered into partnership for the purpose of continuing the practice.
Mr. Galbraith was appointed Chief Engineer to the London and South Western Company, and Mr. Tolme carried on other works of the late firm.
That partnership expired by efflux of time in 1869, after which Mr. Galbraith and Mr. Tolme, though continuing to occupy the same offices, conducted separately the various works entrusted to them.
Amongst many minor works, Mr. Tolme acted as Engineer to the following: the Thames Valley railway, the Alton Alresford and Winchester (now known as the Mid Rants) railway, the Garstang and Knot End railway, the completion of the Shrewsbury and North Wales railway (commenced under Mr. Ashdown), the Newport Pagnell Railway, the Harborne railway, the Wigtonshire railway, the bridge carrying the new road over the river Thames at Wandsworth, the Gellivara railway and canals in Sweden, and the completion of the Tunisian railways.
In conjunction with Mr. A. S. Hamand, M. Inst. C.E., he acted as Engineer for the Birmingham District tramways, the Halesowen railway, and the Whitby, Redcar, and Middlesboro’ Union railway; whilst with Mr. F. S. Gilbert he was associated in the construction of the extension to Hammersmith of the Metropolitan District railway. He was also consulting Engineer to the Yarmouth and North Norfolk Railway Company ; consulting Engineer from 1866 to 1870 to the London Financial Association; and one of the last works with which he was connected was a railway from Brighton over the Downs to the Devil’s Dyke.
He was much interested in the volunteer movement, and at its beginning took a leading part in the formation of the 3rd Middlesex Artillery, which was originally composed, in great measure, of men in the service of the London and South Western Company. Shortly before his death, after fifteen years’ service, he retired from the Reserve Forces with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
The immediate cause of his death was acute rheumatism, from which he had suffered for a month previously. He died in the forty-third year of his age, at his residence, Lindfield, Sussex, on the 25th of December, 1878, and was buried in the family vault at Highgate Cemetery, London. A man of extensive knowledge and experience, great amiability and social powers, and with a singularly winning manner, accompanied by a handsome presence, Mr. Tolme. was known to a large circle of friends and acquaintance, who will deplore his early loss.
Mr. Tolme was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 7th of May, 1861, and was transferred to the class of Member on thell3th of March, 1866.
1879 Obituary [3]
JULIAN HORN TOLME was the youngest son of the late Charles David Tolme, merchant and for many years Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Havana in Cuba. There Mr. Tolme was born on the 23rd January 1836, and received his early education.
His father having returned to England about 1851, he completed his education at Ring's College School; and in 1855 entered the office of Messrs. Locke and Errington, with whom he served a pupilage of five years.
At the expiration of his pupilage lie was retained as an assistant to the firm, who had in hand some of the most important works both at home and abroad.
In 1862, both partners in the firm having died, Mr. Tolme took up the business in partnership with Mr. Galbraith, one of the principal assistants of the late firm, who was appointed chief engineer to the London and South Western Railway. The two carried on the practice of civil engineering together until this expiration of the partnership in 1869, after which they continued in the same offices, but carried on business each on his own account.
The principal undertakings in which Mr. Tolme was engaged as engineer were the Thames Valley Railway, the Mid Hants Railway, the Harborne Railway, the Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway, the Poole and Bournemouth Railway, the Tunis Railways, the Gellivara Railway and canal in Sweden, and the Bridge carrying the new road over the Thames at Wandsworth.
In conjunction with the late Mr. F. S. Gilbert he acted for the Hammersmith Extension of the Metropolitan District Railway; and in conjunction with Mr. Arthur S. Hamand he acted for the Halesowen Railway, the Birmingham Tramways, and the Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway.
Mr. Tolme was also one of the promoters and directors of the Railway Working Association, a company formed to promote, amongst other matters, the use of the well-known Fairlie engine.
He suffered from rheumatism for a few weeks prior to his death, which took place on 25th December 1878, at Lindfield, Sussex, in the forty-third year of his ago.
He became a Member of the Institution in 1862.