KING OF BUILDERS

Evening Star, Issue 21934, 22 January 1935, Page 13

KING OF BUILDERS

A CONCRETE TOMB SIR R. M‘ALPINE'B WISH Concrete, the strong and enduring rock on which Sir Robert M‘Alpine, the world’s greatest builder, founded his fame and fortune—and to which, indeed, his resolute character may well have been likened—is fittingly to be the material of bis tomb now that be is dead. I learned that he is to be buried in a beautifully wrought mausoleum, made wholly of concrete, which has stood awaiting him for some time! in a peaceful corner of the Surrey countryside (writes a correspondent in the Daily Mail’). ’ iho mausoleum was designed and built at his wish about six years ago, and it is to be tho resting place of other members of the renowned family as they die. The body of Sir Robert, who founded that family, is to bo tho first to occupy it. ‘WORLD SYMPATHY. Many were the messages of sympathy and respect received at liis lovely home at Oxshott following his death at tho ago of eighty-seven. They came from Ml parts of the kingdom and tho world. .1 heir senders ranged from men whose names are world renowned to more bumble friends who can vouch for his wonderful and never-failing kindness. ’I he true story of this man’s life, as R is told in a private volume written solely for members of liis well-loved family, is the story of one who by rock-like resolution forced his way upwards from the status of an odd-job man in a coal mine to become the controller of an enterprise which in his life-time carried out contracts to the total colossal value of £100.000,000. One incident above all others illustrates bis profound contempt for such words as “impossible ” and “failure.” At the same time it emphasises his equally profound love for those who belonged to him.

Years ago, when ho was building an extension of the West Highland Railway from Fort Wdliam to Mallaig his son Malcolm fnow Sir Malcolm M‘Alpine) was struck and gravely in jured by a piece of rock which was hurled more than I,oooft in a blasting operation, "

Sir Robert, who was in Glasgow, was told in a telegram that Malcolm could not recover, one of the factors against him being that he was lying in an inaccessible spot 140 miles from Glasgow and out of the reach of skilled help. Sir Robert resolved that nothing should stop him from taking a surgeon to In's son. He persuaded the late Sir William MaeKwan, (he famous surgeon, to desert his duties for a time on a seemingly useless task. This alone was a triumph for Sir Robert’s indomitable personality. Then he asked for a special train

to take the surgeon and himself to his son. This request could not be granted because the day’s service had finished and all stations and signal boxes were closed down.

At length, however, having obtained permission to take a train about twenty miles, this resolute father set off. When the train reached the twenty-miles limit he forced the driver to descend, unlock switches (thus breaking the law), and continue the journey. He ordered a repetition of this action at every station along the line, and at 5 o’clock the following morning the train had reached Fort William.

What had been regarded as the impossible had been made possible. He then revealed for the first time to Sir William Mac Ewen that they had another forty miles to travel over rough country roads. He hired horses and eventually reached his son’s side. The surgeon said Malcolm would have to bo taken as soon ns possible to Glasgow if his life were to be saved. A, stretcher was improvised, workmen were taught how to bear it, and the little party at length set out on its long and arduous journey. By covering Jong distances on foot, in barges, and by train, it eventually reached Glasgow. The superhuman efforts made by Sir Robert on his son’s behalf were fully rewarded. Malcolm recovered completely. Sir William Mac Ewen later wrote a full record of the case, and in it paid lavish tribute to Sir Robert’s superlative doggedness, pluck, and ingenuity. It was by qualities such as those that Sir Robert succeeded. After starting work in a mine at the age of fifteen, he became successively an engineer and a bricklayer, and set up in business on his own account at twenty-two. Once lie was offered a contract which would have brought him a profit of LoU, but be had not enough money to pay the men lie would have had to engage. He pawned his watch, borrowed £ll from a butcher, and carried out the job.

Nothing, it seemed, could stop his progress. Before bo was thirty he had built and owned almost the whole of a suburb at Hamilton, in Lanarkshire. He was soon employing thousands of workmen and earning a fortune.

HIS FAMOUS WORKS. Famous buildings all over England are monuments to him. The following are some for which ho and his firm were responsible:—• Wembley Exhibition, the great Singer factory at Clydebank, British Dyes building at Huddersfield, factories and housing schemes of the British Celauese Company at Spondon, near Derby,, the £3,000,000 Tilbury Docks, the Dorchester Hotel. He alsp helped to build the first tuba railway in Great Britain, and played a foremost part in countless other projects during the last thirty years. Thirty-eight members of nis family,, including bis sons, now work in the firm which he created from such modest beginnings. Many of the younger ones arc starting at the bottom of the ladder. His sons share equal partnerships in the concern. It is his decree that they shall bo equally poor or wealthy. He had none of the advantages of modern education, but taught himself when a young man by hours of evening study after fatiguing work during the day. In 1877 ho became the first man to exploit the possibilities of reinforced concrete. He was told by experts that he was on the wrong track, but be knew otherwise, and proved himself right. Sir Robert’s first wife died in 1888, and his second in 1909. ' The heir to the baronetcy ia his son Robert, wh« is sixty-si*. ,