Sir Robert McAlpine, 1st Baronet (13 February 1847 – 3 November 1934) was a Scottish businessman who founded the British construction firm which is now known as

Sir Robert McAlpine Sir Robert McAlpine Limited is a family-owned building and civil engineering company based in Hemel Hempstead, England. It carries out engineering and construction in the infrastructure, heritage, commercial, arena and stadium, healthcare, educ ...

. He was made a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

in June 1918, the first of the McAlpine baronets.

Career

He left school at the age of 10 to work in a

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

, but became an apprentice

bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsperson and tradesperson who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of maso ...

. He was involved in the building of roads, public buildings and other works, some of the tunnelling for the Glasgow Subway and the

Singer Sewing Machine Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of consumer sewing machines, first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac M. Singer with New York lawyer Edward C. Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Man ...

factory in

Clydebank Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...

Dunbartonshire Dunbartonshire () or the County of Dumbarton is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Dunbar ...

. Overseas, in 1918 McAlpine was contracted to expand the harbour in

Heraklion Heraklion or Herakleion ( ; , , ), sometimes Iraklion, is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in G ...

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

. The power station built for the purpose was later used to provide the town's electricity.

Construction company

McAlpine built up the large building and

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

firm that bears his name. He was also a pioneer in the use of

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

and labour-saving machinery. McAlpine oversaw the construction of Glenfinnan Viaduct.

Family

Robert McAlpine was married twice. On 12 June 1868, he married Agnes Hepburn (d. 1888). They had five sons: Robert (1868–1934), William Hepburn (1871–1950), Thomas Malcolm (1877–1967), Alfred David (1881–1944) and Granville (1882–1928) and two daughters, Agnes and Ethel. His daughter Agnes became the second wife of Louis Marie Charles Fradin de Belabre in 1905. De Belabre had a son and two daughters from his first marriage to Janetta Alexandra West, a grand daughter of Admiral Sir John West, but she had died in 1903. Agnes de Belabre and Louis had one daughter, Yolande born in 1908, but divorced in 1915. On 21 August 1889, McAlpine married Florence Margaret Palmer and had one son: Archibald Douglas McAlpine (1890–1981) and two daughters, Emma and Roberta. Roberta married Richard Lloyd George and was the mother of

Owen Lloyd George, 3rd Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor Owen Lloyd George, 3rd Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (28 April 1924Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 2, ...

. McAlpine died while at sea onboard MV Warwick Castle of a cerebral haemorrhage. He was 87 years old.

References

1847 births 1934 deaths Nobility from North Lanarkshire Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom British construction businesspeople Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

Civil engineering contractors Scottish civil engineers Scottish company founders 19th-century Scottish businesspeople 20th-century Scottish businesspeople {{Scotland-business-bio-stub