Thomas Henry Statham was born in Liverpool in 1810, son of the Liverpool Town Clerk, who had four sons and six daughters. Statham’s brothers all took up a career in the law or the church, but Thomas chose the profession of civil engineer and was trained by Francis Giles, a railway surveyor and developer. His father mentioned this choice in his will of 1832, leaving him the collection of books he had bought to start him off as an engineer, and also a share in the Liverpool Athenaeum, a proprietary library, newsroom and club, which share Thomas promptly disposed of.
According to official sources, Statham was a respectable and accomplished engineer. But there are aspects of his behaviour which show he was at times irascible and impulsive, affecting his own life and the lives of those around him.
In 1834, he was appointed as Resident Engineer on the Liverpool and Birmingham Railway, the construction of which involved heavy embankments, and arches. The same year, he married Eliza Krebs, daughter of a Liverpool eye surgeon and oculist. While working on this railway, Statham was involved in an argument with a fellow engineer, John Lindop, during which he assaulted Lindop, who lost his front teeth as a result of a blow, not from Statham, but from Eliza! [i]Staffordshire Advertiser 9 July 1836 While working on the same railway, Statham, with reckless bravado, jumped off a locomotive at full speed, which ran over his foot, disabling him for life.
Having sufficiently recovered to resume work, Statham was appointed Engineer on the southern section of the London and Brighton Railway, and he and Eliza moved to Brighton in 1838. Statham was highly praised for his work on the Brighton Railway, and after it was completed in 1841, he was appointed Managing Engineer of the works, rolling stock and locomotive production for the entire line. As a member of the Clarence Lodge, Brighton, he enjoyed and exerted considerable influence in the management and construction of the railway. The opening of the New England viaduct in 1839 is commemorated by the foundation stone inscription:
‘By the blessing of almighty god, in the reign of Queen Victoria, Daniel Manthrop Folkard, Worshipful Master of the Royal Clarence Lodge of the ancient fraternity of freemasons, laid this foundation stone of the viaduct on the London and Brighton Railway, on the 27th day of May, in the year of our lord, 1839, and of the eve of Masonry 5839, assisted by his brethren and the freemasons in the province, and under the auspices of the following directors of the London and Brighton railway Company
The inscription continues, naming those present, including John Urpeth Rastrick, Thomas Henry Statham, and John Harman, Chairman of the Railway Company.[ii]Foundation stone laid in 1839 | Railway bridge, New England Road | My Brighton and Hove
On the completion of the Patcham and Clayton tunnels in 1841, Statham was presented with an engraved silver ceremonial trowel by D.M Folkard, Master of the Clarence Lodge.[iii]Brighton Gazette 24 June 1841 Folkard was also a pawnbroker and silversmith, and appears to have supplemented his living producing ceremonial trowels for the freemasons on several occasions.
The completed final stretch of the London and Brighton railway was opened on 21st September 1841. The line had presented large scale challenges, not least the construction of Clayton tunnel beneath The Downs, more than 2000m long and 82m deep. Statham clearly drove himself very hard to complete the whole project in three years. The railway transformed Brighton from being an exclusively wealthy resort to a destination for anyone who could afford the train fare. It also marked the beginning of Brighton’s industrial expansion, both in the railway construction itself, and later in extensive locomotive manufacture. Between the 1841 and 1851 censuses the population of Brighton increased by 40.5%. Houses, churches and schools were built to accommodate this growing population, attracting more people to the town.
Although Statham had by 1845 become a successful and respected engineer, he did not remain in Brighton to see the long term results of his labours. Unfortunately, things had not been too good at home. Statham and Eliza had settled in St George’s Place, Brighton, and in 1841 employed Charlotte Gates, as a domestic servant. Statham became involved in a relationship with Ellen Gates, Charlotte’s sister. In 1843, Ellen gave birth to a daughter, Ellen Clara, and Statham’s relationship with Ellen continued. Eliza Statham moved out of the house in St George’s Place, and died, it is recorded, at a property in Lewes High Street on 14th March 1847. The death certificate gave Thomas Henry Statham as the informant, and present at her death, which he reported was caused by chronic bronchitis. The death was registered in Lewes four days after Eliza died, and she was buried the following day in the churchyard at St Michael’s Lewes. Allowing only the briefest period of mourning, Statham applied for a marriage licence and married Ellen Gates at St John the Evangelist, Lambeth on 29th May 1847. In May 1846, Statham had given evidence to the Metropolitan Commissioners of Railways and stated he lived in Brighton. [iv]UK Parliamentary Papers Vol 17 page 399. 1846, but by the time he remarried, it appears that Statham, Ellen and Ellen Clara had left Brighton.
Statham’s ICE obituary states that he left the railway upon ‘a change of management’. This appears to coincide with the formation of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company in 1846, which subsumed the London and Brighton Railway. Statham, no doubt unwilling to become a small fish in a much larger pool, accepted a post surveying a new railway in Barbados. Although his work on the Barbados railway route was highly praised, the line was not built, and Statham was subsequently appointed superintendent of the construction of the New Liverpool Waterworks. Thomas Henry, Eileen and Ellen Clara settled in Horwich, Lancashire, as did Ellen’s brother Charles William Gates and his family. Charles worked for the Liverpool Waterworks as Superintendent of the Horwich water facility for about 10 years, but eventually returned to Brighton to return to his previous occupation of cabinet maker. It appears that his employment at Horwich had depended on his brother in law, Thomas Henry Statham, who by then was unwell. The press reported that Statham determinedly continued his work, despite his increasing ill health, and he died in Southport, aged 46 on 15th October 1856. The cause of death was given as ‘phthisis’, usually taken to refer to tuberculosis, but Victorian understanding of industrial diseases was limited , and it is quite possible that Statham’s working conditions contributed to his death. It may be that the Brighton work left Statham a deadly legacy in the form of inhaled stone, chalk, cement, and coal dust. His will, drafted in 1848, made Ellen, his newly wedded second wife, sole beneficiary. It may be that at that time, he knew he was suffering from a pulmonary disease, as had his first wife, Eliza.
The Institute of Civil Engineers remembered Statham as:
‘ a man of good natural abilities, and great energy of character; he was an excellent surveyor, with much experience in the practical arts of the profession, taking considerable pride in the excellent finish of the works under his charge.’[v]Institution of Civil Engineers obituaries 1867
There is no doubt that Thomas Henry Statham was a dedicated engineer, who overcame disability to carry out his work, achieved much, and paid the price for doing so. Brighton is in his debt.
After Statham’s death, Ellen returned to Brighton, and married Arthur Charles Hempel, a schoolmaster and dentist. Ellen’s daughter, Ellen Clara Statham obtained a post of governess to the children of Charles Welch, a chemist, with a business in Trafalgar Street, Brighton. In what seems like history repeating itself, Ellen Clara developed a relationship with her employer, and gave birth to a daughter in 1862, named as Annie Ward. Charles Welch and his wife Frances parted company, and Charles moved his business with Ellen Clara Statham and Annie to Reading. The relationship endured until Charles died in 1905, but Ellen Clara, although having lived as his wife for 34 years was outlived by his legal wife, Frances Welch, and therefore was never able to marry him. At this time, divorce would have been possible only if Frances had filed for it on the grounds of her husband’s adultery. Ellen Clara remained close to her mother, Ellen Statham, and her own daughter, Annie Ward married Herbert Hempel, her grandmother’s stepson. Charles and Frances Welch’s eldest daughter, also Frances, married an artist and leatherworker, Frederik Davey, who along with Annie Hempel ws executor of Charles Welch’s will. And so it is apparent that despite illegitimacies and marital breakdowns, family ties and support endured. Thomas Henry Statham’s personal legacy was a family of positive and determined women, who were not to be defeated by convention and social rejection.
