James Joseph Allport
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Sir James Joseph Allport (27 February 181125 April 1892) was an English railway manager.


Life

He was a son of William Allport, of
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
and was associated with railways from an early period of his life. In 1843, joined the
Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway The Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway was a British railway company. From Birmingham it connected at Derby with the North Midland Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at what became known as the Tri Junct Station. It now forms part ...
in 1839 as the traffic agent at
Hampton in Arden Hampton in Arden is a village and civil parish located in the Forest of Arden in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands of England. Hampton in Arden was part of Warwickshire until the 1974 boundary changes. It lies within ...
, becoming Chief Clerk, then General Manager. When it merged into the
Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...
, he moved to
George Hudson George Hudson (probably 10 March 1800 – 14 December 1871) was an English railway financier and politician who, because he controlled a significant part of the railway network in the 1840s, became known as "The Railway King"—a title conferr ...
's York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway until it merged into the North Eastern Railway. Six years later he assumed the charge of the
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grimsb ...
(later renamed the Great Central Railway), and finally, in 1853, was appointed to the general managership of the Midland Railway; an office which he held continuously, with the exception of a few years between 1857 and 1860, when he was managing director to Palmer's Shipbuilding Company at
Jarrow Jarrow ( or ) is a town in South Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. It is east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is situated on the south bank of the River Tyne, about from the east coast. It is home to the southern portal of the Ty ...
, until his retirement in 1880, when he became a director. During these 27 years, the Midland grew to be one of the most important railway systems in England, partly by the absorption of smaller lines and partly by the construction of two main extensions on the south to London and on the north to
Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...
whereby it obtained an independent through-route between the metropolis and the north. He was instrumental in the Midland's partnership with the MS&L, which led to the "
Sheffield and Midland Railway Companies' Committee The Sheffield and Midland Railway Companies' Committee was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1869 as a joint venture between the Midland Railway and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. Origins For many years the Midland had be ...
", and gave the Midland access to
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
for its London trains. In the railway world Allport was known as a keen tactician and a vigorous fighter, and he should be remembered as the pioneer of cheap and comfortable railway travelling. He was the first to appreciate the importance of the third-class passenger as a source of revenue, and accordingly, in 1872, he inaugurated the policy, subsequently adopted more or less completely by all the railways of Great Britain, of carrying third-class passengers in well-fitted carriages (at the uniform rate of one penny a mile on all trains decreed by Parliament). The diminution in the receipts from second-class passengers, which was one of the results, was regarded by some authorities as a sign of the lack of wisdom of his action, but, to him, it appeared a sufficient reason for the abolition of second-class carriages, which therefore disappeared from the Midland system in 1875, the first-class fares being at the same time substantially reduced. He was a director of the Midland from 1854 to 1857, but returned to being the general manager. When he retired in 1880 he was given an honorary directorship, and was knighted in 1884. Allport was sponsor of an Act of Parliament in 1883 to install a network of high-pressure cast iron water mains under London. It merged two of Edward B. Ellington's companies to form the London Hydraulic Power Company, which eventually powered machinery in docks and buildings across large areas of central London. Allport died at the
Midland Grand Hotel Midland may refer to: Places Australia * Midland, Western Australia Canada * Midland, Albert County, New Brunswick * Midland, Kings County, New Brunswick * Midland, Newfoundland and Labrador * Midland, Ontario India * Midland Ward, Kohima, N ...
, St. Pancras, on 25 April 1892, from acute inflammation of the lungs, the result of a chill. His funeral at Belper Cemetery took place on 29 April 1892.Derby Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1892


References


Sources

*


External links

* * Billson, P., (1996) ''Derby and the Midland Railway,'' Derby: Breedon Books {{DEFAULTSORT:Allport, James Joseph 1811 births 1892 deaths Midland Railway people Great Central Railway people Knights Bachelor People from Birmingham, West Midlands Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway 19th-century English businesspeople