Frederick Slessor

Frederick George Slessor (1831 - 1905) was a British railway engineer who worked in England, India, South Africa, and continental Europe.

Early life

Slessor was born in 1831 in Sidmouth, Devon, England to Major General John Henry Slessor. He attended the Sherborne School and later trained as civil engineer as a pupil of M. W. Peniston M. Inst. C.E..

Career

Slessor was responsible for sewerage works at Haileybury, Mortlake, Richmond, Barnes, and other places in the Thames valley; a large road bridge at Addison Gardens, Kensington; the renewal of the Cliff Bridge at Scarborough; and, in conjunction with Professor Aitchison, the enlargement of the Rotherhithe repairing dock. Abroad, he conducted an important railway trial at Riga and designed the drainage of that city; in Oporto he designed and built the Crystal Palace exhibition building; he reported on sulphur springs in Iceland and on a government harbour at Heligoland, and carried out various works in other countries.

In December1874, following nomination by Sir Charles Hutton Gregory, he was appointed by Cape Government Railways, first as Chief Officer of Surveys and Resident Engineer, and then as Chief Resident Engineer of the Eastern system. After 16 years’ service at the Cape he retired on a pension and returned home. Alicedale, a village in the Albany district, was named after his wife Alice Slessor. His wife died in Queenstown, Eastern Cape, in September 1882.

Slessor died 15 October 1905 in Somerset, England

Publications

• Reports by Mr. Slessor, Chief Resident Engineer and Mr. Tilney, Locomotive Superintendent of the East London and Queens's Town Railway, of Trials of Coal from the Indwe and Molteno Mines. South Africa: Cape of Good Hope. 1880.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) with J D Tilney
• Report of His Recent Examination of the Country to be Traversed by a Junction Line Between the Midland and Eastern Railways. Cape of Good Hope (South Africa): Richards. 1886.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)