Charles Sanderson

• General Notes
  • Charles Sanderson was born on 21stJuly 1823 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England and baptised there
    on 12thNovember 1824.. The third son of Henry Sanderson and Mary Ann Ives, Charles also became a
    Civil Engineer and left home at an early age. He obtained employment in the town of Reading, where it is
    said that he executed a map of the country 10 miles around that town. In 1844 he was offered a position
    with the Great Western Railway and remained there for some years. During which time he was involved in
    every department of engineering construction and was responsible for selecting and laying out of several
    lines. He married about 1847 to Annie Roberts, a Schoolteacher at Mrs Thomas Oat’s School in Reading
    and daughter of the Reverend Roberts a Congregational minister in Reading, England. In 1849 a letter
    written by Lord Fitzwilliam to a Commissioner for the Metropolitan Drainage in London, states. “ Mr C.
    Sanderson has prepared a scheme for the drainage of London. If the author of it has inherited the abilities
    of his father, who was in my employ and died the beginning of this year. I am sure that anything he
    suggests will at least be worthy of consideration.” In 1860 Charles was offered the position of Chief
    Engineership of the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway, which he accepted in December that
    year. But difficulties already in place before he accepted the position, such as staff problems and
    insufficient time to complete his required tasks caused him to resign early in 1862 and return to England.
    Between 1862 and 1868 he was involved in several other activities. Then in April 1868 he was offered an
    appointment as Resident Engineer on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, and remained in their employ
    until his death in Bombay, India on 20thJanuary 1870.