Robert Carstairs Reid

Robert Carstairs Reid (1845-1894)

1845 Born in Fife

Son in law of James Leslie

1871 Associate of Inst Civil Engineers

1877 Member of Inst Civil Engineers; of 72A George Street, Edinburgh

1881 Became a Partner in J. and A. Leslie, subsequently J. and A. Leslie and Reid

1891 Robert C Reid 45 civil engineer, lived in Edinburgh with Charlotte Reid 44, William C Reid 14, James L Reid 13, Alexander Reid 11, Emily C Reid 9, Robert S Reid 8, Charlotte L Reid 4, Jane H Reid 1

1894 Died in Edinburgh; one of his executors was Walter Reid naval surgeon

---

1894 Obituary

ROBERT CARSTAIRS REID, born at Kettle, county of Fife, on the 6th of December, 1845, was the second son of the late Rev. William Reid, minister of the parish of Kettle for forty-two years. After completing his education at the Edinburgh Institution and the Edinburgh University, in 1862, he entered the office of the late Mr. James Leslie, with whom he served an apprenticeship of five years. During the latter part of this period he was appointed Resident Engineer on the Thornhill Waterworks; and subsequently, he was actively engaged in the Parliamentary surveys, and on the working-drawings of the Dundee Waterworks (Lintrathen Extension) and the Edinburgh Waterworks (Moorfoot Extension).

Mr. Reid was admitted a partner in the firm of Messrs. J. & A. Leslie in 1881. In the west of Scotland at Ardrossan, Saltcoats, Irvine, Rothesay, Oban, and other places, he constructed water-, drainage- and harbour-works; and at Paisley he carried out the extensive works of the Rye Scheme under the Act of 1881, augmenting the water-supply to that town by 3,000,000 gallons per day. He visited the United States in 1854 to report on a project for utilizing the water-power of the St. Louis River, Minnesota; and on his return read an interesting Paper before the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, of which he was a Fellow, on the "The Hydrological Conditions of the Upper Basin of the Mississippi River and of the great Lakes, and on the utilization of the Water-Power of the Mississippi River at Minneapolis, with Observations on the Water-Power of the Niagara Falls."

Mr. Reid took special interest in the purification of rivers, and was for some years associated with Dr. Alexander Crum Brown, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, in reporting on the sources of pollution in various rivers, and in designing and carrying out remedial works. He was instrumental in devising a scheme and promoting a Bill in Parliament for the purification of the water of Leith, which was passed after great opposition from the millowners. His firm was entrusted with the carrying out of the upper or landward portion of the works. The whole scheme as projected by Mr. Reid has now been completed, with the result that the stream and harbour of Leith are free from pollution.

In 1889 Mr. Reid, in conjunction with the late Mr. Alexander Leslie, drew up and reported upon three schemes for an increased supply of water to Edinburgh and district, viz., from the Manor Valley, near Peebles; from the head-waters of the River Tweed; and from St. Mary’s Loch. These schemes were all favourably reported upon by Mr. Gale, Mr. Hill, and Mr. Mansergh, who were appointed Consulting Engineers by the Edinburgh and District Water Trustees. These gentlemen, together with the engineers of the Trust, were again asked to give their opinion as to which of the three schemes should be adopted. They recommended unanimously the Manor Scheme, but, after a series of pits and bores had been sunk in the line of the puddle-trench, which showed that a water-tight foundation could not be obtained without going to an abnormal depth, and thereby very materially increasing the cost of the undertaking, the same engineers were again requested, under the altered circumstances, to reconsider their former recommendation. This further investigation finally resulted in the recommendation of the Tweed scheme. The report of the engineers is still under the consideration of the trustees, who directed further borings to be made in the valleys of the Talla and the Fruid, which were being carried out at the time of Mr. Reid’s death.

In 1891 Mr. Reid reported on the means of supplying water to the outlying villages and towns in the Middle Ward of the county of Lanark, and in the following session of Parliament a Bill was promoted empowering the District Committee of that ward to carry out his suggestions. He prepared the Parliamentary plans, and gave evidence in support of the measure, and on the Bill being passed, his firm was appointed Engineers of the works, which are now being carried out at an estimated cost of £300,OOO. In the county of Linlithgow similar works were also being carried out under his direction for the County Council, and he had just completed waterworks for the towns of Alloa and Haddington and a sewerage scheme for the Burgh of Dunfermline. In 1892 he was consulted by the Belfast Water Commissioners as to the best scheme to be selected out of a number proposed for an additional water-supply for that city by Mr. L. L. Macassey. He submitted an exhaustive report recommending the Mourne scheme, which was adopted by the Commissioners. An Act was subsequently obtained empowering the Commissioners to proceed with the undertaking. This was the last Parliamentary work in which Mr. Reid was engaged. He was frequently called as a witness in cases of dispute before the Courts of Law, and acted as valuator to the Board of Trade and also as arbiter in many important cases connected with docks, railways, water and other works.

Mr. Reid died on the 4th of March, 1894, of a painful disease from which he had suffered for about two years. At a meeting of the Edinburgh Water Trustees, the Lord Provost (Russell), in moving a vote of sympathy to Mrs. Reid and family, said : “It will be consonant with the feelings of every member present if I make some reference to the loss of our friend and engineer, Mr. R. C. Reid. His death, after the sudden death of his partner - both comparatively young men, for whom we expected a career of usefulness - was almost tragic. I think you will agree with me that in Mr. Reid we have lost an adviser as fair-minded as could be wished. I myself have never met an adviser who was more free from prejudice. We saw his honesty of purpose and his clearness of description in connection with the recent investigations in the Water Trust.”

Mr. Reid was married to the fourth and youngest daughter of the late Mr. James Leslie, and leaves a family of four sons and one daughter, two daughters having predeceased him. He was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 7th of February, 1871, and was transferred to the class of Member on the 27th of November, 1877.

---

1894 Obituary

ROBERT CARSTAIRS REID, born at Kettle, county of Fife, on the 6th of December, 1845, was the second son of the late Rev. William Reid, minister of the parish of Kettle for forty-two years.

After completing his education at the Edinburgh Institution and the Edinburgh University, in 1862, he entered the office of the late James Leslie, with whom he served an apprenticeship of five years. During the latter part of this period he was appointed Resident Engineer on the Thornhill Waterworks and subsequently, he was actively engaged in the Parliamentary surveys, and on the working-drawings of the Dundee Waterworks (Lintrathen Extension) and the Edinburgh Waterworks (Moorfoot Extension).

Mr. Reid was admitted a partner in the firm of J. and A. Leslie in 1881. In the west of Scotland at Ardrossan, Saltcoats, Irvine, Rothesay, Oban, and other places, he constructed water-, drainage- and harbour-works; and at Paisley he carried out the extensive works of the Rye Scheme under the Act of 1881, augmenting the water-supply to that town by 3,000,000 gallons per day. He visited the United States in 1854 to report on a project for utilizing the water-power of the St. Louis River, Minnesota....[more]

---

1894 Obituary

---

See Also

Loading...