Kelso Connections has compiled this fascinating collection of storyboard autobiographies to share the contributions that people from Kelso have made through the ages. Biographies of characters with Kelso connections who have made their mark throughout the world.
Born in Kelso on 5th January 1816, James Brunlees
attended the Parish School before transferring to Mr Scott’s
private school. There he excelled in arithmetic and basic
measuring. He left school at the age of 12 to follow his
father’s profession as a gardener and steward with a view to
becoming a landscape gardener at Broomlands. However he
had a natural taste for engineering work.
Broomlands at that time was occupied by Mr Innes, agent
to the Duke of Roxburghe. Through Innes, Brunlees met
the civil engineer Alexander J. Adie, who was carrying
out work on the Roxburghe Estates. Brunlees picked up a
considerable knowledge of surveying, and was eventually
employed to make a survey of the estates. During this time
he saved money to pay for classes at Edinburgh University,
where he studied for several sessions. Mr Adie continued to
employ James, and in 1838 engaged him in the construction
of the Bolton and Preston Railway. It was in Bolton he met
Elizabeth Kirkman who became his wife.
Brunlees moved on to construct a section of the Caledonian
Railway from Beattock to Carstairs. He then moved to the
Stalybridge branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
under Sir John Hawkshaw. In 1850 Brunlees set up his
own practice, becoming engineer to the Londonderry and
Coleraine Railway in Ireland. This involved the construction
of embankments under difficult conditions across Rosse’s
Bay in the River Foyle. Brunlees’s success here helped him
obtain the appointment as engineer to the Ulverston and
Lancaster Railway.
His reputation had gained universal acclaim and Baron de
Maua, principal concessionaire in Brazil, engaged him in the
survey and construction of the San Paulo Railway in 1857.
On completion of this work the Emperor of Brazil presented
James Brunlees with the Order of the Rose.
Despite his international fame James Brunlees never forgot
his native soil. He frequently returned to Kelso for holidays,
to fish and shoot. A skilful and successful angler, he had an
outstanding record for catching salmon at Sprouston and
Hempseedford. In 1854 the police commissioners asked
him to design new sewerage and water systems for the
town of Kelso and this he did for the cost of the outlay on
plans and specifications, declining payment for much of the
work. The first drains were laid from Horsemarket along
Shedden Park Road to the Tweed. For many years, James
Brunlees was President of Kelso’s Mechanics Institute and
took a keen interest in it, giving
frequent donations of books and,
on occasion, sums of money for
essay prizes.
The Channel Tunnel Railway
Company was incorporated in
1872 and Brunlees once again
worked with Sir John Hawkshaw,
planning a railway link between
England and France. The Company
folded in 1886, a full hundred years
before the tunnel became a reality.
However a deviation of no more
than a few inches was the result
when Brunlees along with Douglas
Fox, the resident engineer started
work at Liverpool and Birkenhead
and met almost exactly in the
middle to form The Mersey Tunnel.
Throughout his career, the design
of iron structures for tidal waters
was a continuing theme. Brunlees
was responsible for impressive
examples of seaside piers, at
Llandudno, New Brighton,
Southport, and Southend, the
longest pleasure pier in the world
at 1.33 miles. As engineer to the
Solway Junction Railway he designed an iron viaduct across
the firth 1¼ miles long.
Brunlees became a Council member of the Institute of Civil
Engineers in 1865 and President in 1882-3. Queen Victoria
awarded him a knighthood in 1886. Brunlees died at his
home, Argyle Lodge, Wimbledon on 2nd June 1892.
Find out about the contribution people from Kelso have made through the ages. Biographies of characters with Kelso connections who have made their mark throughout the world.
View Storyboard: James Brunlees