William Dean | |
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| Born | (1840-01-08)8 January 1840 |
| Died | 24 September 1905(1905-09-24) (aged 65) |
William Dean (8 January 1840 – 24 September 1905) was an English railway engineer. He was the second son of Henry Dean, who was the manager of theHawes Soap Factory inNew Cross,London. William was educated at theHaberdashers' Company School. He became the Chief Locomotive Engineer for theGreat Western Railway from 1877, when he succeededJoseph Armstrong. He retired from the post in 1902 and was replaced byGeorge Jackson Churchward. He designed famous steam locomotive classes such as theDuke Class, theBulldog Class and the long-lived2301 Class.
He was apprenticed at the age of fifteen to Joseph Armstrong at the Great Western Railway'sWolverhamptonStafford Road Works. During his eight-year apprenticeship he attended Wolverhampton Working Men's College in the evening, excelling in mathematics and engineering. Upon completion of his apprentice years in 1863 he was made Joseph Armstrong's chief assistant.
A year later, Joseph Armstrong was promoted to the position of the GWR's Chief Locomotive Engineer and moved toSwindon Works.George Armstrong, Joseph's brother, succeeded him as Northern Division locomotive superintendent, with Dean under him as Stafford Road works manager. This arrangement lasted until 1868, when Joseph Armstrong made Dean his chief assistant in Swindon. Upon Joseph Armstrong's sudden death of a heart attack in 1877, Dean became Chief Locomotive Engineer.
At this time, thebroad gauge was still in use, although conversion tostandard gauge was well underway. Several of Dean's early designs were "convertible" locomotives, which could be easily rebuilt into standard gauge.
Dean was the son of a soap works manager in New Cross, London, and attended theHaberdashers' Boys' School. (He remained aliveryman of theWorshipful Company of Haberdashers to the end of his life.) He married in 1865, and his wife bore him two daughters and a son, but died soon after their third child's birth. He remarried in 1878, but again suffered the death of his wife in 1889.[1]
Dean was ill during his final years as Chief Locomotive Engineer, and he increasingly allowed Churchward to take on the day-to-day responsibilities. He retired in June 1902 to a house that had been bought for him inFolkestone, but died there three years later. His two daughters died before him.[2] A street in Swindon, Dean Street, was named to commemorate Dean's contribution to locomotion engineering. It is located close to the Swindon Works site and would have housed G.W.R. workers.
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| Preceded by | Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent of theGreat Western Railway 1877–1902 | Succeeded by |
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| National | |
