Walmsley Stanley

6/12/2022

On This Day 6th December 1859 Walmsley Stanley was admitted to membership of te Institute of Civil Engineers. He lived at "The Knowle" in Leigham Court Road

Walmsley Stanley (1831-1907) a Civil Engineer and his wife Helena (1842), 4 children: Edith, Walmsley, Hartley and Geuldins plus 3 servants and other staff working in the stables.

Walmsley (1831) was the son of Walmsley (1796) and Isabella (1801) and the family lived in Rice Lane, Walton on the Hill, West Derby, Lancs. Walmsley Sr was also a Civil Engineer who was involved in the construction of the Leeds- Liverpool canal.

Walmsley Sr was possibly related to Thomas Fletcher, Civil Engineer, who was responsible for the Yorkshire side of the canal project.

Walmsley Stanley (1831) spent some time in Mauritius as Chief Engineer for the railway projects and his eldest child Edith was born in Mauritius in 1863

While in Mauritius Walmsley was involved with the collection of Dodo bones and was at the centre of an academic dispute relating to the Dodo

".....Sir Henry Barkly and the above-mentioned Stanley were going to start a Dodo Company ‘limited to us three’, and work another marsh that they thought might be as productive as the Mare aux Songes".....

(Source: How Owen ‘stole’ the Dodo: academic rivalry and disputed rights to a newly-discovered subfossil deposit in nineteenth century Mauritius
J.P. Hume , A.S. Cheke & A. McOran-Campbell)

6 Comments

Mary Ritter

27/12/2022 02:48:10 pm

I am very interested in Walmsley Stanley as he is my Great grandfather and his daughter Edith my paternal grandmother.
I know he lived at The Knowle, 85 Leigham Court Road, Streatham, though the old house has been pulled down and I think flats built in it place.
I have the ceremonial spade that was used to dig the first sod of the first railway in Mauritius.
Do you have further information on him?

Mary Ritter

27/12/2022 03:12:41 pm

I do also have some further information on Walmsley and photographs of the Knowle, if the Streatham Society is interested.

Mark Bery

27/12/2022 11:01:29 pm

Mary
Many thanks for getting in touch- I would be very interested to have more information and we may also have some information which I can share with you. My email is [email protected] Look forward to hearing from you. Thanks

Dick Waller

14/3/2025 05:28:32 am

Mary and Mark,
Although the previous comments are over two years old, I have found this correspondence of interest because I am researching the history of transport in Mauritius.

The principal engineer concerned with introducing the public railway to Mauritius was James Longridge who took Walmsley Stanley with him as his deputy. Their purpose was to undertake the surveys and planning necessary to invite tenders for construction.

The construction contract was awarded to Brassey & Co. who started work in 1861. They employed Longridge as their Agent in Mauritius which left the government there without its own engineer, so Walmsley Stanley was recruited to that post.

I have co-authored an article on how Mauritius moved from having no public railway to the contract with Brassey and am now gathering material for another to take the story forward to the early stages of construction. In this connection, I would be grateful for a photograph of the ceremonial spade. There may be other details we can usefully share. I am in New Malden and Streatham is near enough if a meeting would be helpful.

Mary Ritter

15/3/2025 03:07:02 pm

Many thanks for your comments on Walmsley Stanley. It would be good to meet to discuss all this - hopefully with Mark too. Streatham may be a good half way point as I live in North London. Are you on LinkedIn or have a email we can contact you through?

Mark Bery

15/3/2025 04:36:51 pm

Dick, this sounds fascinating. Please send me an email [email protected] and we can arrange a meeting-thanks

Walmsley Stanley

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