Subject

Engineer. His name appears on a stone at Abbey Road DLR Station. We have found references to him on-line as an engineer and chief engineer on several railways in Britain. Abbey Road DLR Station was built, in 2011, on the route of the former Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway, so we can only assume that he was involved with the construction of this line.

Our colleague Andrew Behan found Alfred Andrew Langley, a civil engineer, who patented a hydraulic railway buffer and who was the author of a book entitled Slate Quarrying in the Festiniog District , North Wales.

Seems highly likely and Andrew provided the following research: Alfred Andrew Langley was born in 1840 in Checkley Rectory, Checkley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, the son of Boniface Langley (1810-1839) and Maria Langley née Ballance (1819-1885). However, before he was born, his father died on 5 October 1839. He was baptised in Checkley on 9 May 1840 and the 1841 census shows him living with his widowed mother at The Heath, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. On 23 September 1841 his mother was remarried to a Charles Bowring (1815-1899) and they had one son, Charles Clement Bowring (1844-1907) who would become, when knighted in June 1900, Sir Charles Clement Bowring J.P. The 1851 census shows him as a boarding pupil at the Ockbrook Boarding School, Ockbrook, Derbyshire. The 1861 census shows him as a Civil Engineer living with his mother, his step-father, who was a Wine Merchant, and his half brother at 16 Market Place, Derby, Derbyshire.

The 1871 census shows him again as a Civil Engineer boarding at 24 Bessborough Street, Westminster. On 6 June 1874 he married a widow, Emily Lankester, née Allport (1844-1926) at the Parish Church of St Peter, Littleover, Derbyshire. His profession was recorded as a Civil Engineer and his residence was shown as Clapton, Middlesex. His wife had two children from her previous marriage, Constance Emily Ethel Lankester (1866-?) and Eric Allport Lankester (1868-1953). The 1880 edition of the Post Office London Directory lists him at 10 Kent Terrace, Marylebone and this is confirmed in the 1881 census that shows him as a Civil Engineer living with his wife, step-daughter, a cook, a housemaid and a maid.

Their own son, Charles Alfred Rupert Langley (1886-1906) was born in Littleover, Derbyshire. The 1891 edition of Kelly's Derbyshire Directory lists him at Highfield, Littleover Hill, Burton Road, Derby but the census of that year shows him as 'Living on Own Means' at 33 Chester Terrace, Regents Park, London, with his wife, step-son, son, a cook, a parlour-maid, a nurse and a housemaid. The 1901 census confirms he was still at the same address, but was again recorded as a Civil Engineer living there with his wife, son, a cook, a ladies maid, a parlour-maid, a housemaid and a kitchen maid. He died, aged 63 years, on 18 February 1904 and was buried in Camden on 23 February 1904. Probate was granted to his widow and his effects totalled £13,321-5s-6d.