John Wigham Richardson
Encyclopedia
- This article concerns the shipbuilder John Wigham Richardson (1837-1908), and not his cousin the Irish-based inventor and lighthouse engineer John Richardson WighamJohn Richardson WighamJohn Richardson Wigham was a prominent lighthouse engineer of the 19th century.-Early life:Wigham was born to a Quaker family in Newington, Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Henry, operated a mill for the manufacture of shawls. When he was 15 years old he was apprenticed to his brother-in-law...
(1829-1906)
John Wigham Richardson (7 January 1837 – 15 April 1908) was one of the great figures of British industrial life, and a leading shipbuilder on Tyneside
Tyneside
Tyneside is a conurbation in North East England, defined by the Office of National Statistics, which is home to over 80% of the population of Tyne and Wear. It includes the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside — all settlements on...
during the late 19th and early 20th century.
Career
Richardson was born on 7 January 1837 - the son of devout Quakers Edward Richardson and Jane Wigham, and grew up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on the North East Coast of the UKUnited 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...
. His nephew, Charles Merz, was a pioneer of electricity distribution in the UK and internationally conceiving the idea of a synchronised electricity grid, now common throughout the world.
Although the family business was in leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
tanning
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
, he devoted his life to shipbuilding, learning his skills initially as a draughtsman for Lloyds Register of Shipping in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
(in 1853) and then as an apprentice to Jonathon Robson, a steam-tug builder in Gateshead
Gateshead
Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England and is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Historically a part of County Durham, it lies on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne and together they form the urban core of Tyneside...
(from 1853 to 1856).
In 1860, at the age of just 23, he founded the Neptune Works, often incorrectly referred to as Wigham Richardson
Wigham Richardson
The Wigham Richardson shipbuilding company was named after its founder, John Wigham Richardson , the son of Edward Richardson, a tanner from Newcastle upon Tyne, and Jane Wigham from Edinburgh.-History:...
, at Walker on Tyne, with a loan of less than £5,000 from his father. This was one of the world's first shipyards to build ships in steel, and the original steam engine on the site also provided electric lighting to the neighbourhood.
The company later merged with Swan Hunter
Swan Hunter
Swan Hunter, formerly known as "Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson", was one of the best known shipbuilding companies in the world. Based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, the company was responsible for some of the greatest ships of the early 20th century — most famously, the RMS Mauretania which...
's yard to become Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson in 1903. This Company became the most technically advanced ship building facilities anywhere and built the RMS Mauretania
RMS Mauretania (1906)
RMS Mauretania was an ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend, Tyne and Wear for the British Cunard Line, and launched on 20 September 1906. At the time, she was the largest and fastest ship in the world. Mauretania became a favourite among...
for Cunard
Cunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
which was launched in 1906 and held the Blue Riband
Blue Riband
The Blue Riband is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. Under the unwritten rules, the record is based on average speed...
as the fastest liner across the Atlantic for 26 years.
True to his Quaker beliefs, John Wigham Richardson cared greatly for the workers in his company and was a founder of the Workers’ Benevolent Trust in the region, a forerunner to the trades’ union movement. In 1890 he became President of North East Coast Institution of Engineers & Shipbuilders. The yard built all sorts of ships, other than warships. However, in his later years, Richardson moved away from the Quaker faith and attended an Anglican church.
Among his many passions was one for sundials. He wrote papers on the construction of sundials which were advanced for their time. His most famous sundial was on the store house at the Neptune shipyard at Walker on Tyne. This is now in the collection of the Tyne and Wear Museums.
In 1864, he married Marian Henrietta Thöl, the daughter of a prominent Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
businessman, Nicolaus Johann Phillip Thöl, founder of J.P. Thöl & Co Merchants of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. They had seven children. He died on 15 April 1908 and is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in Kensal Green, in the west of London, England. It was immortalised in the lines of G. K. Chesterton's poem The Rolling English Road from his book The Flying Inn: "For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen; Before we go to Paradise by way of...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.