Edward Ladd Betts (5 June 1815 – 21 January 1872) was an English civil engineering contractor who was mainly involved in the building of railways.

Early life

Edward Betts was born at Buckland, near

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

, son of William Betts (1790–1867), a successful contractor's agent and railway contractor. He was apprenticed to a builder at Lincoln. However, becoming more interested in engineering, he then worked as agent for Hugh McIntosh building the Black Rock lighthouse at Beaumaris, Anglesey. ()

Railway contractor

Edward Betts's first railway undertaking was to supervise the building of the Dutton Viaduct on the

Grand Junction Railway The Grand Junction Railway (GJR) was an early railway company in the United Kingdom, which existed between 1833 and 1846. The line built by the company, which opened in 1837, linked the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to Birmingham via Warri ...

for Hugh McIntosh under

George Stephenson George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and Mechanical engineering, mechanical engineer during the Industrial Revolution. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victoria ...

as engineer. After the death of McIntosh in 1840, William Betts & Sons—the family firm now named for Edward and his father—gained contracts on the South Eastern Railway for stretches that included the Marsden-Ashford line, Maidstone Branch, and the Saltwood tunnel. They also obtained large contracts on behalf of David McIntosh for the Midlands County Railway, whereby the Betts family relocated to

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

, and for the Manchester-Birmingham Railway. After that, Betts continued to gain contracts, especially in the

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

area. Upon his father's retirement at Bevois Mount,

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

in 1845, Betts assumed full responsibility for the Betts company business. Separately, the partnership between the major civil engineering contractors Samuel Morton Peto and Thomas Grissell was dissolved in 1846, and so Betts worked with Peto on parts of the Great Northern Railway.

Peto and Betts

In 1848, Peto and Betts established a formal partnership and together they were to work on a large number of railway contracts. Frequently, they also working in partnership with Thomas Brassey as Peto, Brassey and Betts. Possibly the greatest enterprise of this trio was the building of the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; ) was a Rail transport, railway system that operated in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the List of states and territories of the United States, American sta ...

in Canada. Betts undertook the actual management of the venture which included the Victoria bridge across the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrenc ...

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The Grand Crimean Central Railway

Peto, Betts and Brassey built at great speed the Grand Crimean Central Railway which enabled supplies, particularly heavy ammunition, to be transported from Balaclava to the British troops engaged in the siege of Sevastopol in the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

. Betts in particular was responsible for obtaining the enormous amount of supplies and equipment, the fleet of ships to convey them from England to the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

and the navvies and skilled workers needed to carry out the work, also in a very short period of time.

Domestic and civil

In 1843, Betts married Ann Peto (19 September 1820 – 23 January 1908From the family vault at Aylesford), the sister of Samuel Morton Peto. Both are interred in the family vault in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's Parish Church, Aylesford. Their children were: # Edward Peto Betts (b. 1845) sometimes referred to as Edward Ladd Betts. # Elizabeth Peto Betts (22 October 1846 — 1 March 1940) interred in the family vault at Aylesford. # Morton Peto Betts (30 August 1847 – 19 April 1914), a leading English sportsman of the time. He was notable for scoring the first goal in an English FA Cup Final. # Alice Peto Betts (b. 1849) # Ernest William Peto Betts (29 October 1850 – 12 November 1932) was ordained as a Church of England minister and officiated at the weddings of his siblings Morton and Ann. # Percy Campbell Betts (b. 7 January 1856 – 14 October 1878) accidentally shot himself at home while cleaning a revolver. Interred in the family vault at Aylesford. # Herbert Peto Betts (b. 1857) was ordained as a Church of England minister and officiated at his sister Ann's wedding. # Ann Gertrude Betts (b. 1858) Around 1850 Betts bought a 'palatial residence', Preston Hall near Aylesford in Kent, and had it rebuilt in a Jacobean style, where he employed a staff of 18. Also in the 1850s, he acquired a London home at 29 Tavistock Square where he employed a further 8 servants and by 1860 he had moved to Great George Street,

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

. In 1858, already a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

and a Deputy Lieutenant, he became High Sheriff of Kent. In the general election of 1865, he contested the

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

seat as a Conservative but was unsuccessful.

Later work

Betts and Peto had always been amenable to major speculation; for example, once they had built the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway, they leased it as operators for twenty-one years from the opening in 1854, a speculation said in 1863 to be losing £24,000 a year (equivalent to £ in ). In the 1860s, Betts and Peto agreed to build a line between London Bridge and Victoria for the

London, Chatham and Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England. It was created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through Lond ...

and to be paid entirely in the company's shares and debentures. To raise the funding for the construction they became involved in complicated finance-raising schemes, and with their overseas operations hindered by war, they overstretched themselves. Consequently, Betts and Peto were probably the most prominent casualties of the collapse of the bank

Overend, Gurney and Company Overend, Gurney and Company was a London wholesale banking, wholesale discount bank, known as "the bankers' bank", which collapsed in 1866 owing about £11 million, equivalent to £ million in . The collapse of the institution triggered a bankin ...

and the ensuing

banking crisis A bank run or run on the bank occurs when many clients withdraw their money from a bank, because they believe the bank may fail in the near future. In other words, it is when, in a fractional-reserve banking system (where banks normally only ...

when railway stocks were particularly badly affected and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway became insolvent''The Times'', 21 December 1866, p. 8; Issue 25687; col E. and therefore the shares they had been paid in became worthless. They were unable to pay their creditors and became insolvent in the following year. Only minor works were to follow for Betts; small alterations to the

Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...

and an abortive attempt to improve the navigation of the River

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

Later life

After his bankruptcy, Betts was forced to sell Preston Hall (to his friend, Thomas Brassey) and moved to The Holmwood, Bickley Park, near

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

, Kent "... where he could still maintain a carriage." For the sake of his health he was sent by his doctors to Egypt in 1871 but he died the following year in Aswan. His estate was valued at less than £16,000.