Thomas Aveling (engineer)
Thomas Aveling (1824–1882) was an English engineer and founder of Aveling & Porter, known as a manufacturer of agricultural equipment and steamrollers.
Background and early life
[edit]Thomas Aveling was born 11 September 1824 at Elm, Cambridgeshire, the son of Thomas Aveling (1801–1835), and his wife, Ann Hobson (1802–1873); he was the elder brother of James Hobson Aveling.[1] His paternal grandfather Thomas Aveling of Whittlesey was High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire in 1802;[2] his father was a landowner.[1]
His mother was the daughter of Francis Hobson of Eaton Socon, then in Bedfordshire.[3] Widowed in 1835, she remarried in 1836 at Eaton Socon to the Rev. John D'Urban, curate at High Halstow, in Kent.[4] He had graduated at Queens' College, Cambridge in 1833, as Durban, and was ordained priest in 1834, by John Kaye. His first appointment was as curate at Hedsor in Buckinghamshire.[5][6] He was moved in 1841, within Kent, to Hoo St Werburgh, near Rochester. He remained there as curate to 1860.[5]
Aveling's stepfather brought him up with "a Bible in one hand and a birch rod in the other".[7]
Career
[edit]Aveling was apprenticed to Edward Lake, a farmer, of Hoo. and in 1850 took a farm at Ruckinge on Romney Marsh. In 1851 he was recorded as a farmer and grazier employing 16 men and 6 boys. The business also included a drainage tile works. In 1859, Aveling invented the traction engine when he modified a Clayton & Shuttleworth portable engine, which had to be hauled from job to job by horses, into a self-propelled one. The alteration was made by fitting a long driving chain between the crankshaft and the rear axle. Aveling later invented the steamroller in 1867. Thomas Aveling is regarded as "the father of the traction engine".[8][9]
Aveling had a reputation as something of a martinet in business, only keeping on the best men. He did provide his staff with recreational facilities with a lecture room and mess room. Lectures were delivered on educational, social and political topics with Aveling himself in the chair and participation from the floor encouraged.[8]
Aveling enjoyed yachting and had his own 28-ton yacht Sally. He was active in the management of several yacht clubs including the Royal Cinque Ports and the Royal Victoria. After contracting a chill on board her in late February 1882 he developed pneumonia and died on 7 March 1882. Aveling is buried at St Werburgh Church, Hoo.[8]
Interests
[edit]Following the success of the Aveling & Porter business, Thomas rose to local prominence, first on the council and then between 1869 and 1870 as Mayor of Rochester.[1] Politically he held rather radical views within the Liberal Party. Not surprisingly (given the location of the Invicta Works) he was a strong advocate of improving the river bank at Strood, which was at that time marsh.[8] As mayor he took an interest in the Richard Watts Charity and was appointed to the board of trustees in 1871.[10] He helped lay out the public gardens in Rochester Castle, sat on the Rochester School Board and was a governor of the Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School.[8]
He was a member of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, serving as councilman 1875–1882 and on various committees. He secured the building of a chemical laboratory for the society.[8] He was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Iron and Steel Institute.[1]
Family
[edit]Aveling married in 1850 Edward Lake's niece, Sarah Lake. She was the daughter of Robert Lake, of Milton Chapel, Milton next Canterbury.[1]
Legacy
[edit]In Hoo St Werburgh Church there are stained glass windows to Thomas and Sarah Aveling.[11]
There is a secondary school in Rochester, Kent named after Aveling, called The Thomas Aveling School.
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Brown, Jonathan. "Aveling, Thomas (1824–1882))". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38436. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Institution of Civil Engineers (Great Britain) (1883). Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. The Institution. p. 356.
- ^ "Married". Bury and Norwich Post. 13 August 1823. p. 2.
- ^ "Marriages". Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser. 30 July 1836. p. 8.
- ^ a b "Durban, John (DRBN829J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ "Durban, John (1833–1834)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. CCEd Person ID 57641. Retrieved 19 April 2025.
- ^ Preston, J. M. (1987). Aveling & Porter Ltd. Rochester: North Kent Books. p. 3. ISBN 0948305037.
- ^ a b c d e f Preston, J. M. (1987). Aveling & Porter Ltd. Rochester: North Kent Books. p. 28. ISBN 0948305037.
- ^ Science Museum Group, "Aveling and Porter steam traction engine. 1953-1", Science Museum Group Collection Online, archived from the original on 4 August 2018, retrieved 3 August 2018
- ^ Hinkley, E. J. F. (1979). A history of the Richard Watts Charity. Rochester: Richard Watts and the City of Rochester Almshouse Charities. p. 64. ISBN 0-905418-76-X.
- ^ "Hoo St Werburgh Parish Church". hoochurch.org.uk.