James Henry Greathead - London, UK
N 51° 30.800 W 000° 05.280
30U E 702051 N 5710932
Chief Engineer of the City and South London Railway
Waymark Code: WMBK8Y
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/29/2011
Views: 5
A brilliant railway engineer James Henry Greathead, who lived in Barnes in the 1880's pioneered the use of tunnels. And a mechanical shield he invented made tunnelling deeper, cheaper and safer for the army of workers building the London Underground.
English Heritage approved a commemorative plaque on his home, then known as "Birchwood", in St Mary's Grove, Barnes, where he lived with his family between 1885 and 1890.
He was of English descent but his grandfather emigrated to South Africa, where he was born in 1844. Three of his children were born at St. Mary's Grove. Greathead died from a stomach cancer at the age of 52 in 1896.
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