Sir Charles Hutton Gregory KCMG (14 October 1817 – 10 January 1898) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 civil engineer

Civil engineer

A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...

. He was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers

Institution of Civil Engineers

Founded on 2 January 1818, the Institution of Civil Engineers is an independent professional association, based in central London, representing civil engineering. Like its early membership, the majority of its current members are British engineers, but it also has members in more than 150...

 between December 1867 and December 1869.

Charles was the son of Dr Olinthus Gilbert Gregory a master of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. The chair of mathematics at that time was held by Charles Hutton

Charles Hutton

Charles Hutton was an English mathematician.Hutton was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was educated in a school at Jesmond, kept by Mr Ivison, a clergyman of the Church of England...

, who acted as Dr. Gregory's patron. It was in Hutton's honour that Charles was named.

Gregory was consulting engineer of several major railway construction works, including those in Ceylon, Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...

, Cape Colony

Cape Colony

The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...

, Perak

Perak

Perak , one of the 13 states of Malaysia, is the second largest state in the Peninsular Malaysia bordering Kedah and Yala Province of Thailand to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, Selangor the Strait of Malacca to the south and west.Perak means silver in Malay...

 and Selangor

Selangor

Selangor also known by its Arabic honorific, Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity") is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east, Negeri Sembilan to the south and the Strait of Malacca to the west...

. He was the first to use railway semaphore signal

Railway semaphore signal

One of the earliest forms of fixed railway signal is the semaphore. These signals display their different indications to train drivers by changing the angle of inclination of a pivoted 'arm'. Semaphore signals were patented in the early 1840s by Joseph James Stevens, and soon became the most...

ling which he employed on the London and Croydon

London and Croydon Railway

The London and Croydon Railway was an early railway which operated between London and Croydon in England. It was opened in 1839 and in July 1846 it merged with other railways to form a part of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway ....

 and the South Eastern Railways

South Eastern Railway (UK)

The South Eastern Railway was a railway company in south-eastern England from 1836 until 1922. The company was formed to construct a route from London to Dover. Branch lines were later opened to Tunbridge Wells, Hastings, Canterbury and other places in Kent...

 in 1842-3. This method later superseded all others and was dominant from 1870. In 1882 he was a member of the Channel Tunnel Committee and in 1886 was a Royal Commissioner for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition

Colonial and Indian Exhibition

The Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 was a very substantial exhibition held in South Kensington in London, and intended "to stimulate commerce and strengthen the bonds of union now existing in every portion of her Majesty's Empire"...

. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George in November 1884. In 1894 he married Fanny Stirling

Mary Anne Stirling

Mary Anne Stirling was an English actress-Biography:Stirling was born in London, the daughter of a Captain Kehl. After some experience at outlying theatres, she appeared in London in 1836...

, an actress who died the following year. Gregory died in London on 10 January 1898, and is buried in Brompton Cemetery

Brompton Cemetery

Brompton Cemetery is located near Earl's Court in South West London, England . It is managed by The Royal Parks and is one of the Magnificent Seven...

.

Publications

• Practical Rules for the Management of a Locomotive Engine: In the Station, on the Road, and in cases of Accident (London, 1841)