Frederick George Slessor (1831–1905) was a British

railway engineer Railway engineering is a multi-faceted engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction and operation of all types of rail transport systems. It includes a wide range of engineering disciplines, including(but not limited to) civil engi ...

who worked in England, India, South Africa, and continental Europe.

Early life

Slessor was born in 1831 in

Sidmouth Sidmouth () is a town on the English Channel in Devon, South West England, southeast of Exeter. With a population of 13,258 in 2021, it is a tourist resort and a gateway to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. A large part of the town has ...

, Devon, England to Major General John Henry Slessor. He attended the

Sherborne School Sherborne School is a full-boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by Ald ...

and later trained as

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

as a pupil of M. W. Peniston M. Inst. C.E.

Career

In December 1874, following nomination by Sir Charles Hutton Gregory, he was appointed by

Cape Government Railways The Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways (SAR) in 1910. History Private railways The first railways at the Cape were privately ow ...

, first as Chief Officer of Surveys and Resident Engineer, and then as Chief Resident Engineer of the Eastern system. After 16 years' service at the Cape he retired on a pension and returned to Britain.

Alicedale Alicedale is a small settlement in Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, situated on the banks of the Bushmans River. Railway History Alicedale is a railway junction on the main railway line betwe ...

, a village in the Albany district, was named after his wife, Alice Slessor, who died in

Queenstown, Eastern Cape Queenstown, officially Komani, is a town in the middle of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, roughly halfway between the smaller towns of Cathcart and Sterkstroom on the N6 national route. The town was established in 1853 and is cu ...

, in September 1882. Slessor died on 15 October 1905 in

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England.

Publications

* with J D Tilney *

Notes

References

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External links