Hi, Can any Lister help me with William George Brounger born in England c1820 and came to the Cape in 1857 to build the rail-way line from Cape Town to Wellington ? I'm hoping someone will have his wife and childrens names with BMDs. Tx, in anticipation. John.

Hi John I hope this helps? Brounger, William George (*Hackney, Eng., 26.6.1820 - †Guildford, Eng., 5.10.1901), railway engineer, was educated at Totteridge and at London University school. In 1837 he was appointed trainee-railway engineer under the famous Sir Charles Fox (1810-1874), who influenced him greatly. He distinguished himself by becoming, at twenty-seven years of age, a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers. In 1851 he was responsible for designing the large London exhibition hall, later known as the Crystal Palace, and then for building the Sjaelland railway in Denmark. He was the engineer appointed by the Cape Town Railway & Dock company (established in London in 1853) to build the first railway line in the Cape Colony, from Cape Town to Wellington. Remaining in the colony from October 1857 till April 1858 to survey the line, he returned at the end of 1858 with six assistants, becoming the resident engineer during the construction of the line. After the opening of the first section, in February 1862, he was also asked to supervise the operating of the line. In November 1863 the construction work was completed, and, until June 1864, he was the most important link between the company and the Cape government. He was occupied with railway affairs in Britain before returning to the Cape in 1870. In 1871 he joined the government service, and he and his son surveyed railway lines in the Eastern Province. He then inspected the Cape Town-Wellington line, and, after the government had taken it over in 1873, he was appointed colonial railway engineer. As head of the railway department he was in charge of all railway construction and the management of open lines. A great programme, which included the construction of three railway systems linking Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London with the Kimberley diamond-fields, was commenced in 1874. In 1875 chief resident engineers in charge of construction on each of the two eastern systems were appointed. B. then became the consultant engineer to the eastern systems, but remained at the head of the western system and retained the title of colonial railway engineer. During his term of duty the railway lines from Cape Town and Port Elizabeth to their junction at De Aar were almost completed, as was the line from East London to Sterkstroom. Other railways built at this time were the branch lines to Malmesbury and Grahamstown, and the line from Port Elizabeth to Graaff-Reinet. For a few months the junction at De Aar was known as Brounger Junction. From 1873 to 1881 B. was a member of the committee of management of the Cape Town botanical gardens and represented the colony at an international phylloxera congress in France in 1881. On his retirement in 1883 he returned to Britain. In 1885 he received the Telford medal, one of the highest awards of the Institute of Civil Engineers, for his paper The Cape government railways. He was undoubtedly one of the outstanding railway engineers of his time and was noted for his thoroughness. He married Sarah Bethia Roberts on 13.5.1847. There were three sons and a daughter. From 1870 to 1896 one of the sons, Richard Ernest Brounger, M.LC.E., also served as an engineer with the Cape government railways, holding, from 1893, the post of chief resident engineer of open lines. There is a portrait of B. in Rosenthal (infra). D.H.H. General Note Cape arch., C.T.: minutes of the Cape Town Railway and Dock company 1854-71; series C.O., C.C. and Public Works department 1864-84; - [A9-'75]. Cape of Good Hope. Report of select committee of the house of assembly on the railway department and expenditure; - Minutes of proceedings of the institution of civil engineers, v. 147 (Lond., 1902), 412-413; - E. ROSENTHAL, 'Baanbrekerswerk op spoorweggebied - W.G. Brounger se prestasies', S.A.R. & H. Mag., Mar. 1951; - Personal research. Regards Heather Heather MacAlister Content Manager South Africa / Consultant Ancestry.com<http://www.ancestry.com/> P 082-8082251 E [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> P. O. Box 455 Clanwilliam, 8135, South Africa From: John & Liz Wilmot <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Reply-To: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Date: Tuesday 11 February 2014 at 11:14 PM To: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: [ZA-EC] William George Brounger Hi, Can any Lister help me with William George Brounger born in England c1820 and came to the Cape in 1857 to build the rail-way line from Cape Town to Wellington ? I'm hoping someone will have his wife and childrens names with BMDs. Tx, in anticipation. John. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message