John Anderson
born 9th December 1814, 19 Barron Street, Woodside, Aberdeen, UK
baptised Gilcomston Chapel of Ease, Chapel Street, Aberdeen, UK
died 28th July 1886, Fairleigh, St Leonard's-on-Sea, East Sussex, UK
buried 3rd August 1886, St Nicholas kirkyard, Union Street, Aberdeen, UK
era Victorian
A biographical summary
contributed by Gwilym Roberts
Scotsman John Anderson, though little-known, was an engineer who helped make the British Empire possible. He was one of the most important engineers in Victorian Britain, producing armaments for the British Army and Royal Navy, institutions that underpinned the Empire in the mid-Victorian period. He judged entries at many international exhibitions later in life, and was knighted for this service.
Anderson's father died three months before he was born and his upbringing was greatly influenced by his step-father, Irvine Kempt (1782-1859), a blacksmith at the local cotton mills. Twice a week Anderson walked to Aberdeen to attend evening classes at the Mechanics Institute. He also participated in the local debating society and became librarian of a newly-established library.
After completing a seven-year mechanic's apprenticeship at Kempt's factory, he moved to Manchester and then London where he was engaged by David Napier (1790-1869), a Scottish ship and engine builder with a factory of his own. Napier seconded him to the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, to take charge of brass gun manufacture. This was the start of Anderson's 30-year involvement with the Royal Arsenal.
Anderson was responsible for many innovations, and for mechanising and automating the manufacture of cannon, projectiles and explosives used by the armed forces. He became the Royal Arsenal's first Chief Mechanical Engineer and organised it for the manufacture of heavy armaments. In 1859, he assisted William Armstrong (1810-1900, Sir William from 1859, Baron Armstrong from 1887) for the manufacture of the Armstrong Cannon at Woolwich.
During the Crimean War (1853-6) he enlarged the Royal Arsenal, designed new machinery and produced the armaments needed by the army. He also equipped a ship, HMFF Chasseur, as a floating factory. She was sent to Balaklava in the Crimea to service the army's increasingly extensive and sophisticated mechanical equipment. The Royal Arsenal would continue to use many of Anderson's buildings and machines for many decades after his retirement. Arms manufacture ceased on the site in 1967.
In 1854, Anderson visited the USA to inspect small arms manufacturing installations before designing a new mechanised factory for the government's arms manufacturing site just north of London. The
Small Arms Factory, Enfield kept up production into the 20th century, through both world wars.
Between 1862 and 1878, Anderson was Juror of Machinery for International Exhibitions in London, Vienna, Philadelphia and Paris — and appointed president of the jury for the last two, for which he was was granted a knighthood (1878). He had also received honours from the Austrian and French sovereigns. He was elected a Vice-President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (1868) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (4th December 1871).
When he retired in 1872, he moved with his wife Eliza (1815-93) to St Leonard's-on-Sea in East Sussex. He donated (1883) a public library to his birthplace. Anderson died in 1886 and was buried in Aberdeen. His elder son, who was a clergyman, erected (Anglo-Catholic) memorials to him in Mary Tavy Church, Devon, England.
1814
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Born 9th December, only son (four elder sisters) of merchant John Anderson (d.1814 before son's birth) and Helen Anderson (née Hosie) (1791-1868), shortly after John Snr's death Helen marries Irvine Kempt (1782-1859)
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1827
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Starts seven-year apprenticeship as a mechanic at Gordon, Barron's works
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1839
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Moves to England, finding employment in Manchester and then London, where he works for David Napier.
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1840
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Marries Eliza Norrie (1815-93), a milliner from Islington in London (two sons and a daughter), elder son named after John's step-father and would become the Rev. Irvine Kempt Anderson (1849-1923) [ note: ICE obituary differs, cites 1842 for marriage ]
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1842
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Seconded by Napier to the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich
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1842-72
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Works at Royal Arsenal, Woolwich : Foreman 1842-8, Engineer at Royal Brass Foundry 1848-59, Assistant Superintendent at Royal Gun Factory 1859-66, Superintendent for Machinery 1866-72. Eventually Chief Mechanical Engineer.
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1853-6
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Enlarges the Arsenal during the Crimean War, and equips HMFF Chasseur.
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1854
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Visits the USA to inspect automated small arms manufacturing, designs buildings and installations for the Small Arms Factory, Enfield
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1855
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Visits continental Europe as part of a commission reporting on the manufacture of ordnance abroad
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1859-63
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Superintending the construction of rifled guns (12-pounders) at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich
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1862
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Elected member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (4th February)
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1862-78
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Juror at International Exhibitions. Elected Vice-President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (1868). Knighted (1878), also received Austrian, French and Scottish honours
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1871
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Honorary degree (LL.D) conferred by the University of St Andrew's
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1872
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Retires and moves to St Leonard's-on-Sea, East Sussex
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1881
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Presented with the freedom of the City of Aberdeen
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1883
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Anderson Library at Woodside in Aberdeen opens
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1886
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Dies on 28th July, and is buried in St Nicholas kirkyard, Aberdeen
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1894
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Memorials erected in Mary Tavy Church, Devon
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Selected works
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Bullet-making machine for the Napier works, London, UK
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Various machines for the manufacture of cannon, projectiles and explosives, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London UK
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Bullet machine at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich (to support the 1853 Enfield-designed rifled musket)
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Various machines for the Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey, London UK
— The
Anderson Building and machinery at the Small Arms Factory, Enfield, UK (1842-72)
— The floating factory
HMFF Chasseur, equipped at Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1855)
Sources
John Anderson, Statement of Services Performed, Institution of Civil Engineers, 1873, ref 92 T8V 240
P. Guillery, ed., Survey of London. Volume 48. Woolwich, Yale University Press for English Heritage, London, 2012
M. Henderson, The Admirable Mechanic, Aberdeen City Libraries, 1983 (ISBN: 0 946920 00 1)
F.G. Hogg, The Royal Arsenal, Oxford University Press, 1963
D. Pam, The Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield, Enfield, 1998 (ISBN: 0 9532271 0 3)
Gwilym Roberts, Sir John Anderson (1814-86): The Unknown Engineer who Made the British Empire Possible, Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 78(2), 2008 (DOI: 10.1179/175035208X317710)
Obituary. Sir John Anderson, 1814-1886, in Minutes of the ICE Proceedings, Vol.86, pp.346-353, London, 1886
Memoir. Sir John Anderson (1814-1886), in Proceedings of the IMechE, Vol.37, pp.460-461, London, 1886
Further reading
John Anderson, The Strength of Materials and Structures, D. Appleton & Co, 1872 (14 eds)
A.B. Hawes, Rifle Ammunition, Thomas Publications, Gettysburg, 2004
R. Masters, The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, Sutton Publishing, 1995 (ISBN 0 7509 0894 7)
portrait courtesy Aberdeen City Libraries