George England
George England was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1811 or 12. He received his training as an engineer with John Penn Boiler Works and other shipyards in south east London. Later he set up the Hatcham Iron Works and started to make jacks and other machinery. By about 1849 he started building railway locomotives and in March 1863 received an order from the FR for two locomotives with the option of a third and later a fourth. Three years later he built another 2 slightly larger original six FR locomotives.
George sold the business to Robert Francis Fairlie in 1869 and retired, living on in France until he died in 1878. His daughter, Lizzie, eloped (under the age of 21) with and married Robert Francis Fairlie, inventor of the Fairlie's Patent locomotive. This led to an acrimonious court case brought by England against Fairlie, which England lost because he was not married to her mother at the time she was born and therefore declared to be nobody's child. It seems no in will lasted between the two men as they later went in partnership.
He had been a director of the Crystal Palace Company after it moved to Sydenham Hill (within a few miles of Hatcham)but resigned after his personal affairs were made public by the trial with Fairlie. He declared he had uncovered incompetence and corruption which made him unpopular. He was also very unpopular with his workers and ruled them with a "rod of iron".
In addition to the single England engines (above), George England also offered to build a Double Fairlie for the FR in 1868. The engine (Little Wonder) was built at England's works in 1869.
The only other George England loco still in existence is "Shannon", a small 0-4-0 well tank engine dating from 1857 which was built at a cost of £800, for Captain William Peel, R.N., owner of the Sandy and Potton Railway in Bedfordshire. Absorbed into the LNWR, but subsequently sold in 1878 for use on the Wantage Tramway (Picture)and is now at the Great Western Society depot at Didcot.
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See Wikipedia link here
