William Dean (8 January 1840 – 24 September 1905) was an English railway engineer. He was the second son of Henry Dean, who was the manager of the

Hawes Soap Factory Sir Benjamin Hawes (1797 – 15 May 1862) was a British Whig (British political party), Whig politician. Early life He was a grandson of William Hawes (physician), William Hawes, founder of the Royal Humane Society, and son of Benjamin Hawes of ...

in New Cross,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. William was educated at the

Haberdashers' Company The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, is an ancient merchant guild of London, England associated with the silk and velvet trades. History and functions The Haberdashers' Company follows the M ...

School. He became the Chief Locomotive Engineer for the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

from 1877, when he succeeded Joseph Armstrong. He retired from the post in 1902 and was replaced by George Jackson Churchward. He designed famous steam locomotive classes such as the Duke Class, the Bulldog Class and the long-lived 2301 Class.

Apprenticeship

He was apprenticed at the age of fifteen to Joseph Armstrong at the Great Western Railway's

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Stafford Road Works. During his eight-year apprenticeship he attended Wolverhampton Working Men's College in the evening, excelling in mathematics and engineering. Upon completion of his apprentice years in 1863 he was made Joseph Armstrong's chief assistant.

Posts with GWR

A year later, Joseph Armstrong was promoted to the position of the GWR's Chief Locomotive Engineer and moved to Swindon Works. George Armstrong, Joseph's brother, succeeded him as Northern Division locomotive superintendent, with Dean under him as Stafford Road works manager. This arrangement lasted until 1868, when Joseph Armstrong made Dean his chief assistant in Swindon. Upon Joseph Armstrong's sudden death of a heart attack in 1877, Dean became Chief Locomotive Engineer.

Convertible locomotives

At this time, the

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

was still in use, although conversion to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

was well underway. Several of Dean's early designs were "convertible" locomotives, which could be easily rebuilt into standard gauge.

Personal

Dean was the son of a soap works manager in New Cross, London, and attended the

Haberdashers' Boys' School Haberdashers' Boys' School (also known as Haberdashers', Habs, or Habs Boys), until September 2021 known as Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, is a public school for pupils age 4 to 18 in Elstree, Hertfordshire, England. The school is a mem ...

. (He remained a liveryman of the

Worshipful Company of Haberdashers The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, is an ancient merchant guild of London, England associated with the silk and velvet trades. History and functions The Haberdashers' Company follows the M ...

to the end of his life.) He married in 1865, and his wife bore him two daughters and a son, but died soon after their third child's birth. He remarried in 1878, but again suffered the death of his wife in 1889. Dean was ill during his final years as Chief Locomotive Engineer, and he increasingly allowed Churchward to take on the day-to-day responsibilities. He retired in June 1902 to a house that had been bought for him in

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

, but died there three years later. His two daughters died before him. A street in Swindon, Dean Street, was named to commemorate Dean's contribution to locomotion engineering. It is located close to the Swindon Works site and would have housed G.W.R. workers.

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