Harrison Hayter (10 April 1825 – 5 May 1898) was a British engineer, participating in many significant railway construction projects in Britain and many harbour and dock constructions worldwide.

Biography

Family grave of Harrison Hayter in Highgate Cemetery

Hayter was born at Flushing near

Falmouth, Cornwall Falmouth ( ; kw, Aberfala) is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,797 (2011 census). Etymology The name Falmouth is of English ...

the second son of Henry Hayter and his wife Eliza Jane Heylyn. He became a

Civil Engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

, and began his professional training on the

Stockton and Darlington Railway The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Darli ...

and then in the construction of the Great Northern Railway. In 1856 he was living in Anglesey, while working on the construction of

Holyhead Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and i ...

Harbour. In 1857 he joined Sir John Hawkshaw and was associated with most of his projects until Sir John retired in 1888. These including the

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways. It was the third-largest railway system based in northern ...

, Charing Cross and Cannon Street Lines, East London Railway, completion of Inner Circle, the

Severn Tunnel The Severn Tunnel ( cy, Twnnel Hafren) is a railway tunnel in the United Kingdom, linking South Gloucestershire in the west of England to Monmouthshire in south Wales under the estuary of the River Severn. It was constructed by the Great Western ...

Railway and many overseas railways. The bridges he helped build included the Charing Cross Railway Bridge, in 1864 he was awarded a

Telford Medal The Telford Medal is a prize awarded by the British Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) for a paper or series of papers. It was introduced in 1835 following a bequest made by Thomas Telford, the ICE's first president. It can be awarded in gold ...

by the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

for his paper 'On the Charing Cross Bridge', the

Cannon Street Railway Bridge Cannon Street station, also known as London Cannon Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Travelcard zone 1 located on Cannon Street in the City of London and managed by Network Rail. It is on ...

and the

Clifton Suspension Bridge The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Avon Gorge and the River Avon, linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset. Since opening in 1864, it has been a toll bridge, the income from which provides f ...

. Harbours were at

Alderney Alderney (; french: Aurigny ; Auregnais: ) is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The island's area is , making it the third-largest ...

, IJmuiden (Holland) and Mornungao (India) and docks at Hull,

Penarth Penarth (, ) is a town and Community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg), Wales, exactly south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay. Penarth is a weal ...

Maryport Maryport is a town and civil parish in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England, historically in Cumberland. The town is situated just outside the Lake District National Park, at the northern end of the former Cumberland Coalfield. Locatio ...

Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

and the South dock of the

West India Docks The West India Docks are a series of three docks, quaysides and warehouses built to import goods from and export goods and occasionally passengers to the British West Indies on the Isle of Dogs in London the first of which opened in 1802. Follow ...

. Other works included the

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Ship Canal, the foundation of the Spithead Forts,

River Witham The River Witham is a river almost entirely in the county of Lincolnshire in the east of England. It rises south of Grantham close to South Witham at , passes through the centre of Grantham (where it may be closely followed using the Riversi ...

middle level, Thames Valley drainages, and sewerage in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

. When he died he was completing a large system of docks at

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

(a dredged channel long and a river frontage), where James Murray Dobson was the resident engineer. Harrison was a

Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

in the Engineer and Railway Volunteer Staff Corps and served as President of the

between May 1892 and May 1893. He was buried on the eastern side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

.''Engineering''
/ref> Harrison was a younger brother of

Henry Heylyn Hayter Henry Heylyn Hayter (28 October 1821 – 23 March 1895) was an English-born Australian statistician Life Hayter was the son of Henry Hayter and his wife Eliza Jane ''née'' Heylyn, and was born at Eden Vale, Wiltshire, England. He was educated ...

the Australian statistician. In 1854 he married Eliza Jane Walker (1827–1882), the eldest daughter of Rev Thomas Walker, Rector of Offord D'Arcy, Huntingdonshire and a Lincolnshire landowner. They had eight children including Rev. William Thomas Baring Hayter and Frances Jane Hayter who married

Falconer Madan Falconer Madan (15 April 1851 – 22 May 1935) was Librarian of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University. Early life and education Falconer Madan was born in Cam, Gloucestershire, the fifth son of George and Harriet Madan. He was educated at ...

(1851–1935), Librarian of the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...

of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. He is the great great grandfather of Paul Hayter.

Publications

* ''An Account of the Construction of large Breakwaters at Holyhead''. * ''Details of the Construction of Charing Cross Railway Bridge'' * ''Construction of Amsterdam Ship Canal''

References

*Who's Who {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayter, Harrison 1825 births 1898 deaths People from Flushing, Cornwall Engineers from Cornwall British railway civil engineers Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers Engineer and Railway Staff Corps officers British bridge engineers English canal engineers Harbour engineers Burials at Highgate Cemetery