Sir Rowland Macdonald Stephenson (9 January 1808 – 1895) was a 19th-century British railway engineer instrumental in the establishment of the

East India Railway The East Indian Railway Company, operating as the East Indian Railway (reporting mark EIR), introduced railways to East India and North India, while the Companies such as the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, South Indian Railway, Bombay, Barod ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

Early life

Born in Bloomsbury on 9 January 1808, into a long-established Cumberland family, Rowland Macdonald Stephenson was the oldest son of banker and politician Rowland Stephenson and wife Mary Eliza. Educated at Harrow, he began work in his father's bank but its failure in 1828 (and his father's consequent exile in America) caused him to move into engineering, at first as London agent for the Gospel Oak Ironworks in Staffordshire. He applied himself to the study of railway engineering and became and associate of 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 ...

in 1836. In 1838 he became secretary of "The Comprehensive Company for establishing Regular Steam Communication with India", which became the "

Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company P&O (in full, The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) is a British shipping and logistics company dating from the early 19th century. Formerly a public company, it was sold to DP World in March 2006 for £3.9 billion. DP World c ...

" in 1840. In 1840, Sir Rowland married Marianne, the daughter of Lieutenant Edward Hederstedt, R.N., and together, they had twelve children. After Marianne's death in 1882, Sir Rowland, at the age of 75, married Elizabeth Tindall, the widow of J. Tindall of

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

Children

Railroad career

In 1843 he took his family to India, hoping not only to establish railways there, but all the way back to Europe. Sir Rowland was managing director of the East India Railway Company, and his brother Cecil Mackintosh Stephenson, was an agent which started building a line from Calcutta in 1849, and he was knighted for this in October 1856. He advocated an imperial railway to the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

government in 1859Smith, Adrian J.
Privatized Infrastructure: the Role of Government
', pp. 45 ff. Thos. Telford, 1999. . and a Kowloon–Canton Railway to the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce in 1864; both proposals were rejected.

Legacy

Authored works

* Stephenson, C.E., R. Macdonald.
Report Upon the Practicability and Advantages of the Introduction of Railways into British India
'. (London: Printed by Kelly & Co., 1845). * Stephenson, Rowland Macdonald.
Railways: An Introductory Sketch with Suggestions, in Reference to Their Extension to British Colonies, Part I. with Illustrations
' (London: John Weale, Architectural Library, 1850). * Stephenson, Sir Macdonald.
Railways in Turkey
' (London: John Weale, 1859). * Stephenson, Sir Macdonald.
Railways in China
' (London: J. R. Adlard, 1864). * Stephenson, Sir Rowland Macdonald.
Rudimentary and Practical Instructions on the Science of Railway Construction for the Use of Beginners and Those Who Have Commercial Practice
'' (London: Virtue Brothers & CO., 1866). * Stephenson, C.E., F.R.G.S., Sir R. Macdonald
''The Science of Railway Construction''
4th edition. (London: Strahan & CO., Publishers, 1869).

References