ADAMS Bertram Keith, engineer (General)

by Jefff @, West London, Middlesex, Friday, February 12, 2016, 01:14 (3201 days ago) @ deeds

They certainly moved about a lot! I don't believe Ernest followed his father's vocation, I believe he was an architect.
B.K. Adams was a railway engineer and died in a railway accident in Mauritius, which may explain the lack of death details?

They certainly did !, as did their Woodward ancestors I see, not unusual in Victorian times to find work, of course.
As a mechanical engineer myself I'm impressed by the Adams' technical background,in a time when such people were rightly respected, makes for an interesting FH story too. Unfortunately Familysearch etc don't seem to cover Mauritius (where oddly enough my Lincolnshire born step-niece now lives, small world !).
Do you know/need any more records for him ?

I guess you've seen what appears to be a Railway Magazine article about him ?
"Stephenson Locomotive Society, Journal 872 - November/December 2011,
p245 - Bertram Keith Adams"

http://www.stephensonloco.org.uk/SLS%20-%20Journal_previous.htm


I see Bertram was aged 34 when in London in 1911, so died after this...

Free-searching the BNA site gives some hits which I presume you know of, did he die in 1915 ?. I cannot give full details as have no subscription, but it seems he was an eminent engineer to be proud of;

" news was received at Wilmslow Monday of the sad death at Mauritius of Mr. B. K. Adams, chief engineer the Government ... "

Tuesday 6 April 1915 , Western Mail , South Glamorgan, Wales
and many other papers across the West and Midlands.
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

Also see these records about him

"Title: Author: B. K. Adams; The Floating-out of a railway bridge over the River Don at Conisborough
Reference: O.C/3667
Date: 1906"

Held by: Institution of Civil Engineers, not available at The National Archives"
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/9ac804de-71fd-419e-9295-aa2986ae7544
See this image, http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/Minutes_of_Proceedings_1907_1000771919/259

I think it refers to the erection of the steel section of the Conisborough Viaduct in Yorkshire, referred to as "the lattice span" at the start of this article;
http://www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/bridges/fledconis.html
http://publictransportexperience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/dvr-at-grimethorpe-2-of-series....

Also see this image of "The Engineer" magazine from 1898, word-searching the pdf image shows him listed on page 392 as a prizewinner at the Institute of Civil Engineers, he appears to be based in Colombo (Ceylon?) at this time.
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/9/99/Er18981021.pdf

And from the same magazine Index pages for spring 1898, we can see a reference to what I think? details him giving an address to Association of Civil Englneer Students at Manchester abt "Crossing the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal by the Intercepting Sewer of the Bury Corporation".
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/b/bb/Er1898v85Index.pdf

I wonder if Bertram was essentially a civil engineer, like Ernest, so concerned with the railway's "permanent way", the line itself, rather than the rolling stock which ran along it, altho in the 1900s there was less demarcation between civil & mechanical than there is nowadays.


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