Sir Bradford Leslie KCIE

Order of the Indian Empire

The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...

 (1831-1926) was an English civil engineer who specialised in bridges and was a pupil of Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

. His most notable achievement was the 1887 Jubilee Bridge

Jubilee Bridge (India)

Jubilee Bridge is an important rail bridge over Hooghly River between Naihati and Bandel. Jubilee Bridge is flanked on either side by Garifa and Hooghly Ghat stations....

.

Early life

Leslie was born in London on 18 August 1831 the son of Charles Robert Leslie

Charles Robert Leslie

]Charles Robert Leslie , was an English genre painter. Born in London, his parents were American, and when he was five years of age he returned with them to their native country. They settled in Philadelphia, where their son was educated and afterwards apprenticed to a bookseller...

 a noted painter and illustrator. His younger brother George

George Dunlop Leslie

George Dunlop Leslie RA was an English genre painter, author and illustrator.-Life and work:Leslie was born in London, the son of notable genre painter Charles Robert Leslie, R.A. His uncle Robert Leslie was a marine artist. He studied art first at "Cary's art academy", then from 1854 at the...

 was also later a painter and illustrator and his older brother Robert Leslie became a marine artist. Educated at the Mercers' School

Mercers' School

The Mercers' School was a private school in the City of London, England, with a history going back to at least 1542, which closed in 1959.After the disestablishment of the Hospital of St Thomas of Acon in 1538, the hospital's land was bought by the Mercers' Company , and the school was founded in...

 in London at the age of 16 Leslie was apprenticed to Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

, the usual fee of 1,000 guineas was waived in consideration of his father painting some pictures for Brunel. Leslie became a specialist at bridge building and in 1851 was assistant engineer on the Chepstow Bridge, his next position was resident engineer on the Saltash Bridge. Before the Saltash Bridge

Royal Albert Bridge

The Royal Albert Bridge is a railway bridge that spans the River Tamar in the United Kingdom between Plymouth, on the Devon bank, and Saltash on the Cornish bank. Its unique design consists of two lenticular iron trusses above the water, with conventional plate-girder approach spans. This gives...

 was completed he returned to London to undertake inspection of material for the steamship Great Eastern

Great Eastern

-Transport:, a steamship built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1858, one of the largest ships in its era* Great Eastern Railway, a defunct English railway company formed in 1862** First Great Eastern, a defunct train operating company on the Great Eastern Main Line...

 and at the launch of the ship he acted as an assistant to Brunel.

India

Brunel was a consulting engineer to the Eastern Bengal Railway and Leslie was sent to India as engineer in charge of bridges and viaducts. He supervised the building of the Eschamutter and Koormar river bridges before returning to Britain in 1861 to design bridges for railway lines in South Wales. He soon returned to India as chief engineer of the Eastern Bengal Railway and in 1876 Leslie became agent and chief engineer to the East India Railway Company. His greatest achievement in India was the Hooghly Bridge (known as the Jubilee Bridge

Jubilee Bridge (India)

Jubilee Bridge is an important rail bridge over Hooghly River between Naihati and Bandel. Jubilee Bridge is flanked on either side by Garifa and Hooghly Ghat stations....

 when it opened in 1887) for which he was appointed a Knight Commander Order of the Indian Empire

Order of the Indian Empire

The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...

. He also designed an unusual floating pontoon bridge which straddled the Hooghly in Calcutta for 70 years and the Gorai River railway bridge near Kushtia in Bangladesh.

Later years

While in India Leslie lost his wife, three daughters and a son-in-law all within three years and after repeated attacks of malaria Leslie returned home to England with two orphan grand-daughters in 1887. The ship Tasmania was wrecked off Corsica and while carrying one of his grand-daughters to safety he fell and injured his knee, it was to trouble him for the rest of his life. The injury was not helped by an accident when he was 84 when he was knocked down by a bicycle as he left his London home and broke a thigh. Despite the injuries he continued to work and in 1895 he became the chairman of the Southern Punjab Railway Company in London. In 1899 he went on a brief return visit to India to discuss a replacement for his floating bridge which was now inadequate for the increased usage, in 1918 when he was 88 he submitted a new design. He died at his London home on 21 March 1926 aged 95.