George Hudson
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George Hudson (probably 10 March 1800 - 14 December 1871), English railway financier, known as "The Railway King", was born in Howsham, in the parish of Scrayingham in the East Riding of Yorkshire, north of Stamford Bridge, east of York. He is buried in Scrayingham. In 1815 at the age of 15 he fled his home village in disgrace having fathering a child.
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[edit] Career
Apprenticed to a firm of linen-drapers in York, he soon became a successful merchant, and in 1837 was elected lord mayor of York. Having inherited, in 1827, a sum of £30,000, he invested it in North Midland Railway shares, and was shortly afterwards appointed a director. In 1833 he had founded and managed the York Banking Company.
[edit] Railways
Having long believed in creating a successful a railway to York, Hudson took an active part in securing the passing of the York and North Midland Railway Bill, and was elected chairman of the new company when the line opened in 1839. Turning his attention to the proliferation of railways, he initiated the Newcastle and Darlington line in 1841. With George Stephenson he planned and carried out the extension of the North Midland to Newcastle, and by 1844 had control of over a thousand miles of railway. The mania for railway speculation was at its height, and no man was more courted than the "railway king", a name conferred upon him by Sydney Smith.
[edit] Member of Parliament
Despite his personal wealth, he was presented with a tribute of £20,000. Deputy-lieutenant for Durham, and thrice lord mayor of York, he was elected the Conservative MP for Sunderland between 1849 and 1851; [1] the event being judged of such public interest that the news was conveyed to London by a special train, which travelled part of the way at the rate of 75 miles an hour.
[edit] Fraud and ruin
Full of rewards and honours, he was suddenly ruined by the disclosure of fraud in the Eastern Railway, along with the discovery of his bribery of MPs. Sunderland clung to her generous representative till 1859, but, on the bursting of the financial and political bubble, he had lost influence and fortune. His later life was chiefly spent on the continent. Some friends gave him a small annuity a short time before his death, which took place in London.
His name has been used to point the moral of vaulting ambition and unstable fortune, Thomas Carlyle calling him the "big swollen gambler" in one of the Latter-Day Pamphlets.
[edit] Baldersby Park
He built the estate Baldersby Park, often referred to as the first palladian villa in England, between the small towns of Ripon and Thirsk. The mansion is now home to Queen Mary's School, a girls' independent school.
[edit] Memorials
Hudson House, on the site of the former York and North Midland Railway terminus in York, is named after him, as is George Hudson Street in the City of York running parallel to North Street.
[edit] References
- ^ Who's Who in British History. ISBN 1-85585-771 - 5. p 435
[edit] Further reading
- A.J. Peacock and David Joy, George Hudson of York, Dalesman, 1971.
- A. J.Arnold, and S. M. McCartney, George Hudson: The Rise and Fall of the Railway King, London and New York: Hambeldon and London, 2004
- Lambert, Richard S. The Railway King 1800-1871, a study of George Hudson and the Business Morals of his Times, George Allen and Unwin, 1964.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Short biography, bibliography and more
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by David Barclay and Viscount Howick |
Member of Parliament for Sunderland 1845 – 1859 With: David Barclay to 1847 Sir Hedworth Williamson 1847–1852 William Seymour 1852–1855 Henry Fenwick |
Succeeded by Henry Fenwick and William Shaw Lindsay |
