The Welding Institute at Granta Park near Cambridge UK

Arthur Bevan Midgley Braithwaite (born 27 July 1939 in

Hoddesdon Hoddesdon () is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, lying entirely within the London Metropolitan Area and Greater London Urban Area. The area is on the River Lea and the Lee Navigation along with the New River. Hoddesdon is ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

; died 25 April 2008) was chief executive of

The Welding Institute The Welding Institute (TWI Ltd) is a research and technology organisation, with a specialty in welding. It has had headquarters near Cambridge, England, since 1946, and has other facilities across the UK and around the world. TWI works across a ...

and founding director of

Granta Park Granta Park is a science, technology and biopharmaceutical park based on the bank of the Granta (river), River Granta in Abington, Cambridgeshire, Great Abington near Cambridge, England. The first idea for the park came from the then Chief Exec ...

in Cambridge.

Education

Bevan was from a renowned

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

family. His father was a stockbroker and his grandfather was involved in the set-up of the

Saffron Walden Railway The Saffron Walden Railway was a branch of the Great Eastern Railway between Audley End and Bartlow on the Stour Valley Railway between Shelford to Haverhill, a distance of . Branch information Opening The line was opened between Audley End and ...

. Bevan was brought up by his stepmother Nora (''née'' Ford-Smith), because his Norwegian mother did not survive the

postpartum period The postpartum (or postnatal) period begins after childbirth and is typically considered to end within 6 weeks as the mother's body, including hormone levels and uterus size, returns to a non-pregnant state. The terms puerperium, puerperal perio ...

after the birth of Bevan's younger sister, in 1946. He was educated at

Leighton Park School Leighton Park School is a co-educational Independent school (United Kingdom), independent school for both day and boarding pupils in Reading, Berkshire, Reading in South East England. The school's ethos is closely tied to the Quaker values, havin ...

and Jesus College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, where he obtained an MA in engineering.Howard Stephens
"Rail buff who built his own line and became a world authority on structural fatigue"
''The Guardian'', 27 May 2008.

Welding engineering

After obtaining a qualification as a class 1 welder, in 1961 he joined the British Welding Research Association (which subsequently became The Welding Institute and then TWI Ltd), where he conducted research on the fatigue strength of structural steel and on friction welding. In 1988, he was appointed chief executive of The Welding Institute and in 1991 was granted an OBE. He was president of the

International Institute of Welding International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

and a fellow of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

. In 1997, he conceived building a science park around the deteriorating buildings of TWI, going on to build new offices and laboratories for the company in its centre at

, Cambridge.

Railway engineering

Bevan got a passion for railways from the headmaster of The Downs School in

Colwall Colwall is a civil parish in Herefordshire, England, situated on the border with Worcestershire, nestling on the western side of the Malvern Hills at the heart of the AONB. Areas of the village are known as Colwall Stone, Upper Colwall which sha ...

Malvern, Worcestershire Malvern is a spa town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England. It lies at the foot of the Malvern Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The centre of Malvern, Great Malvern, is a historic conservation area, which grew dra ...

, who managed the

Downs Light Railway The Downs Light Railway is the world's oldest private miniature railway,Tom Banner;Downs Light Railway response to Downs School merger, Malvern Gazette, 22 April 2022.(Retrieved 3 Dec 2022) with a track gauge of . The railway is located within ...

with a track gauge of . He set-up the Institute of Rail Welding in 2001, built a narrow gauge railway line at Granta Park and became chairman of the Bressingham Steam Preservation Trust, at

Bressingham Bressingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 751 in 305 households as of the 2001 census, the population increasing to 882 at the 2011 Census. History The name Bressi ...

, near Diss,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, to which he donated an ex-NCB 1991 Hunslet battery-electric locomotive and three bogie coaches from the Southport Pier Railway"More 2ft-gauge stock for Bressingham"
Norfolk Railway Society News Archive, July - August 2007. He eagerly supported the restoration of the steam locomotive ''

Royal Scot Royal Scot may refer to: * Garde Écossaise, a regiment of the French army * Royal Scots, a regiment of the British Army * Royal Scots (Jacobite), a regiment of Scottish exiles in French service, in existence from 1744 to 1762 * ''Royal Scot'' (t ...

'', which had run on the west coast main line from London to Glasgow from 1927 to 1962.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braithwaite, Bevan 1939 births 2008 deaths Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge 20th-century British businesspeople English metallurgists Welders British people associated with Heritage Railways People from Hoddesdon