Henry Yates
Henry Yates (1820-1894)
of Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
1894 Obituary [1]
HENRY YATES was born at Walton-le-Dale, near Preston, on 28th October 1820.
After being educated at a private school near Liverpool, he was apprenticed to Messrs. Nasmyth and Gaskell, Bridgewater Foundry, Patricroft. On the termination of his apprenticeship he was sent by Mr. Nasmyth to France, to assist ill the construction of the first railway there from Paris to Rouen.
In 1846 he returned to England, and was employed in the locomotive works of the London and South Western Railway to superintend the construction of their new engines and rolling stock.
There he remained until 1853, when he was engaged by Mr. C. J. Brydges, managing director of the Great Western Railway of Canada, to go out for a term of years as chief locomotive superintendent and mechanical engineer of the whole line.
In 1857 he entered into an arrangement with Captain Barlow to complete the Buffalo and Lake Huron Railway, receiving the position of chief mechanical superintendent and engineer.
In 1862 he became chief contractor for the maintenance of the permanent way and the whole of the works between Buffalo and Goderich.
In 1863, on Sir Edward Watkin becoming president of the Grand Trunk Railway, he was appointed chief engineer of the whole railway and its branches, which position he held until 1866. He was afterwards engaged more or less as engineer and contractor for works in connection with the same railway from 1880 to 1886.
The Michigan Air Line Railway was surveyed, plotted, and completed under his entire supervision as chief engineer. Since then he was engaged as consulting engineer in various railway matters in Canada. During his active career of thirty-five years he introduced several important improvements in locomotives.
In 1869 he entered into partnership with Mr. John H. Stratford for supplying railway materials.
He was an alderman and also a justice of the peace of the city of Brantford, Ontario.
His death took place at his residence at Brantford from Bright's disease, on 22nd July 1894, in his seventy-fourth year.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1878; and was also a Member of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers.