William Eassie (1805-1861) was a prominent Scottish businessman of the mid 19th century, working as a railway contractor and then as a

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

-based supplier of prefabricated wooden buildings.

Career

Eassie was born at

Lochee Lochee () is an area in the west of Dundee, Scotland. Until the 19th century, it was a separate town, but was eventually surrounded by the expanding Dundee. It is notable for being home to Camperdown Works, which was the largest jute production ...

near

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

in 1805. Little is known of his early life, but he was involved in construction of the

East Lancashire Railway East Lancashire Railway is a heritage railway line in North West England which runs between Heywood, Greater Manchester and Rawtenstall in Lancashire. There are intermediate stations at Bury Bolton Street, , Summerseat and Ramsbottom, with ...

in 1840. In 1849 he moved to Gloucestershire and worked on the

Gloucester and Dean Forest Railway Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of ...

, securing a contract to supply and install wooden sleepers and to lay iron rails. He subsequently worked on the docks branch of this railway on the west side of the

Gloucester and Sharpness Canal The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal (also known as the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal) is a ship canal in the west of England, between Gloucester and Sharpness; for much of its length it runs close to the tidal River Severn, but cuts off a sign ...

, and on the

Vale of Neath Railway The Vale of Neath Railway (VoNR) was a broad gauge railway company, that built a line from Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare to Neath, in Wales, chiefly to transport the products of the Merthyr iron industries to ports on Swansea Bay. The railway focus ...

in south Wales. Eassie established a factory in Gloucester in 1849, and became one of the city's major employers, employing over 1,000 men, working in shifts.'Gloucester, 1835-1985: Economic development to 1914', in
A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 4, the City of Gloucester
'' ed. N M Herbert (London, 1988), pp. 170-183. British History Online (accessed 20 July 2018). In delivering contracts, Eassie worked often with Richard Potter of Price & Co, a Gloucester-based timber importer, and in 1851 he set up a steam-powered saw mill on land beside the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal that Price & Co leased from Gloucester Corporation. From this mill, Eassie also supplied other contractors, including those working on rail projects for

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...

. Eassie's work diversified from rail projects into supply of wood for buildings, including greenhouses for a Royal Agricultural Society show in Gloucester in July 1853, and doors, windows and complete buildings for export to Australia to house gold prospectors. This experience in prefabricated buildings led to an 1854 commission to supply huts to house British troops engaged in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

,Portable wooden barracks for the Crimea, supplied by William Eassie & Co, Gloucester. ''Illustrated London News'', XXV, 716 (9 December 1854), p 57. followed by a similar order from the French government. Shortly after completion of these orders in early 1855, Eassie was approached by Brunel to work on designs for prefabricated buildings to form the Renkioi military hospital near the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...

. The hospital was designed as 16 buildings, each holding 50 patients in two wards, and were shipped direct from Gloucester Docks to

Balaklava Balaklava ( uk, Балаклáва, russian: Балаклáва, crh, Balıqlava, ) is a settlement on the Crimean Peninsula and part of the city of Sevastopol. It is an administrative center of Balaklava Raion that used to be part of the Cri ...

. After the Crimean War, Eassie's business expanded its engineering capabilities, forging scrap iron to manufacture ship anchors and other components, and developing a piling machine to work at the

Millwall Iron Works The Millwall Iron Works, London, England, was a 19th-century industrial complex and series of companies, which developed from 1824. Formed from a series of small shipbuilding companies to address the need to build larger and larger ships, the hol ...

in London where Brunel's ''

SS Great Eastern SS ''Great Eastern'' was an iron sail-powered, paddle wheel and screw-propelled steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and built by John Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall Iron Works on the River Thames, London. She was the largest ship ev ...

'' was being built. However, Eassie's business got into financial difficulties, and he was forced to restructure the business, giving his sons (William and Peter Boyd Eassie) formal roles in William Eassie & Sons. The company continued to make wooden buildings for UK and overseas customers, later expanding into the supply of wood for the manufacture of railway wagons in an adjacent works in Gloucester.

Legacy

Eassie died in May 1861, but the company was continued by his sons, becoming a limited company in 1868. In 1875, Eassie & Co was acquired by its neighbour, the

Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (GRC&W) was a railway rolling stock manufacturer based in Gloucester, England from 1860 until 1986. Products included goods wagons, passenger coaches, diesel multiple units, electric multiple units ...

, and in 1900 became the Gloucester Joinery Co. Ltd, making shop fronts, shop fittings, staircases, greenhouses and church and school furniture until the mid 1940s. William Eassie Jr became a prominent civil engineer engaged on public health projects, and an advocate of

cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a Cadaver, dead body through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India ...

, writing a book ''Cremation: Its History and Bearings upon Public Health'' (published in 1875) and serving as honorary secretary of the Cremation Society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eassie, William 1805 births 1861 deaths People from Lochee People from Gloucester Prefabricated buildings