William Lancaster Owen (8 November 1843 - 28 November 1911) was a British civil engineer primarily with 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 ...

Career

In 1868 he took a commission as a First Lieutenant in the 1st Gloucestershire Engineer Volunteer Corps which he held until 29 October 1873. He entered the service of the Great Western Railway as assistant engineer in 1865. In 1872 he was Engineer to the

Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company The Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company was a canal and railway company that operated a canal and a network of railways in the Western Valley and Eastern Valley of Newport, Monmouthshire. It started as the Monmouthshire Canal Navigation and op ...

, but returned to the Great Western Railway in 1875 where he remained until retirement in 1891. He was responsible for some important works on the Great Western Railway including the rebuilding of

Newport railway station , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Newport_railway_station_MMB_32_43187.jpg , caption = Newport railway station looking eastbound. , borough = Newport, Wales , country = Wales , coordinates = , grid_name = Grid reference ...

in 1878, Torquay railway station in 1878 and

Penzance railway station Penzance railway station serves the town of Penzance in west Cornwall, England. It is the terminus of the Cornish Main Line from Plymouth, from via , and is the southernmost railway station in Great Britain. The first station opened in 1852 a ...

in 1879, and also the conversion from broad gauge to standard gauge of the Hereford to Bristol line with J.W. Armstrong. In 1885 he succeeded his father as Chief Civil Engineer of the Great Western Railway. He was elected an Associate of the

Institute 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, wh ...

in 1874 and made a Member on 28 March 1882.

Personal life

He was born at Bath on 8 November 1843, the son of William George Owen (1810-1885) (Chief Civil Engineer of the Great Western Railway 1868-1885) and Amelia Sarah Martin (1818 - 1896). He married Helen Evans, second daughter of William Evans on 24 May 1871 at St Woollos Church and they had two children: *William Cecil Owen (1872 - 1959) *Helen Mary Lancaster Owen (1883 - 1941) He lived in retirement at 26 Cornwall Gardens, London and died in 1911 aged 68 leaving an estate of £17,868 ().

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, William Lancaster English civil engineers 1843 births 1911 deaths People from Bath, Somerset Great Western Railway people