Richard Peacock

Richard Peacock (April 9, 1820 - March 3, 1889) was an English engineer, one of the founders of locomotive manufacturer Beyer-Peacock. Born in Swaledale, he was educated at Leeds Grammar School but at 14 left to be apprenticed at Fenton, Murray and Jackson in Leeds. At 18 he was a precocious locomotive superintendent on the Leeds and Selby Railway. When the line was acquired by the York and North Midland Railway in 1840 he worked under Daniel Gooch at Swindon, but reputedly fled to escape Gooch's wrath. In 1841, he became the locomotive superintendent of the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway, subsequently the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. In 1853, he joined Charles Beyer to found the celebrated locomotive company Beyer-Peacock. He had met Beyer through the acquisition of locomotives from Sharp Brothers, and through both being among the founders of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1847^[1]. From the 1885 general election until his death in 1889, Peacock was MP for Manchester Gorton. Peacock was an Unitarian, and one of his contributions to the community in Gorton was the construction of Brookfield Church; a place of worship which still stands today, and whose bells are named after his children. Peacock was married twice, and at the time of his death his eldest son Colonel Ralph Peacock succeeded him at Gorton Foundry. Of his daughters the eldest one, Jane Peacock, married William Taylor Birchenough J.P., a silk manufacturer who was elder brother of Sir Henry Birchenough, and the younger, Eugenie, married George P. Dawson, who succeeded Colonel Peacock as Managing Director on the formation of the new Beyer, Peacock and Company Limited in 1902. He died in Manchester.

References

1. ^ Lloyd, Backtrack, 2004, 18 710

• This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.
• Beyer Peacock Quarterly Review July 1927

Bibliography

• Ahrons, L.E. (1927) The British Steam Railway Locomotive 1825-1925
• Obituary - The Engineer, March 8, 1889.