John Strachan
John Strachan (1848-1909)
1909 Obituary [1]
JOHN STRACHAN was born at Aberdeen on 14th March 1848, and was educated at Gordon's College, Aberdeen.
He served his apprenticeship with the late Mr. John Gibb, engineer to the Great North of Scotland Railway.
He was afterwards engaged in the construction of the Callender and Oban Railway, having joined the services of Mr. Easton Gibb in 1873.
He also had charge of the Leyburn and Hawes Railway in Yorkshire and of the Barden Moor Reservoir in connection with the Bradford Waterworks, also the making of the Rhymney Railway into Cardiff and the construction of railways for the London and North Western Railway in Staffordshire.
He was afterwards in the employ of Messrs. T. Nelson and Co., contractors, who executed numerous large works in different parts of the country, including the construction of the Roath Dock, Cardiff, eventually becoming junior partner in the firm.
On the completion of the Roath Dock, Cardiff, Mr. Strachan started as a public works contractor himself, and executed large and various works for the London and North Western Railway, Great Western Railway, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, Great Central Railway, Cardiff Railway Co., Barry Railway Co., Taff Vale Railway, Rhymney Railway, Bristol Docks Committee, Cambrian Railways Co., London County Council, Corporation of London, etc.
Amongst the most recent were the widening of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway through the town of Bolton, the new railway to Red Wharf Bay in Anglesey, recently opened, the new railways from Welshpool to Llanfair and Oswestry to Llangynog.
For a number of years he resided at Cardiff, but on the death of his wife in January 1908, he removed to Sydenham near London, where he died on the 2nd April 1909, following a serious operation, at the age of sixty-one.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1885.