STEPHENSON

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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20.10.1819 Newcastle upon Tyne/UK - 26.10.1905 Cheltenham/UK

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George Robert Stephenson was the son of Robert Stephenson, a collaborator with his elder brother George, the railway pioneer. George Robert was sent at the age of twelve to a mine, then the best general engineering training. He attended from 1836 King William's College, Isle of Man, from where he returned to his uncle's drawing office. In 1844 Stephenson set himself up as a consultant in London, joined the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1853 and by 1855 had been appointed engineer-in-chief for three railway schemes. In 1860 he went to New Zealand as a consultant for the Lyttelton breakwaters. Thus began his long-standing interests in ports and harbors, a subject on which he frequently contributed discussions to the Institution of Civil Engineers, of which he was president in 1875-1876. Stephenson retired at the age of eighty in 1899. He was also a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers from 1868.

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Like his father, Stephenson has been overshadowed by the larger-than-life reputations of his uncle George and his cousin. Where he was involved in civil engineering works of great importance, it was in a subordinate capacity, and the works for which he was engineer-in-chief were relatively modest. He was, however, a man of wide-ranging interests and achievements working in an age when engineers no longer became folk heroes. Despite being considered "in uncertain health" in the 1860s, he lived a long and very active life in business and leisure alike.

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_{Anonymous (1905). George Robert Stephenson. Proc. Institution of Mechanical Engineers}

_{(3/4): 1057-1058.}

_{Anonymous (1905). George Robert Stephenson. Engineering 80: 597. P}

_{Anonymous (1906). George Robert Stephenson. Minutes Proc. Institution Civil Engineers 163: 386-388.}

_{Jarvis, A. (2004). Stephenson, George Robert. Oxford dictionary of National biography 52: 498-500. P}

_{Stephenson, G.R. (1876). Presidential address. Minutes Proc. Institution of Civil Engineers 44: 2-17.}

_{Stephenson, G.R. (1877). Discussion to Description of cofferdams used at Dublin, Birkenhead and Hull. Minutes Proc. Institution of Civil Engineers 51: 151-160.}

_{Stephenson, G.R. (1877). Discussion to Direct acting of non-rotative pumping engines and pumps. Minutes Proc. Institution of Civil Engineers 53: 115-129.}