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The Brunels, Father and Son The November speaker was Bill Macey who entertained with “The Brunel’s, Father and Son”. The father was Sir Marc Isambard Brunel born in Northern France in 1806. He was very bright from an early age, but then got involved with the French Revolution which made him unpopular in Paris, so needing to escape from France he went to America. His work was much appreciated there and he was persuaded to become an American Citizen in order to take up the post of chief engineer in New York. He returned to France when he was 30, where he renewed his acquaintance with an English girl called Sophia Kingdom and went to England with her to settle in Portsea. They had three children, two girls and then a boy they named Isambard (which was another maternal name from the family) Kingdom. What Marc really wanted to do was dig tunnels and his opportunity arose when he did the first tunnel under the Thames. This took 19 years to complete and his son was resident engineer on the project. Marc was sent to a debtors prison for two months after getting into a muddle with his various businesses, but was award £3000 from the Government which paid his debts. He died in 1849 aged 80 and is buried in Kensal Green cemetery. His son was educated in France. He built the Clifton Suspension Bridge after winning a competition for the design at the age of 24. He worked for GWR and built 3 ships, Great Western, Great Britain and Great Eastern, each of which was the largest of its time. He died aged 53 in 1859 |
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