Alexander Leslie FRSE PRSSA (16 September 1844 – 7 December 1893) was a Scottish civil engineer. He served as President of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts from 1890 until his premature death in 1893. He specialised in harbour works and reservoirs.
Life
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He was born in Dundee on 16 September 1844 the son of the civil engineer James Leslie and his wife Jane Hunter (1804-1887).[1]
He was educated at the Edinburgh Institution (now Stewarts Melville) then studied mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. In 1862 he joined the offices of David and Thomas Stevenson as a trainee lighthouse and harbour engineer. He worked here for three years and his projects included a new breakwater at Wick. He then briefly gained extra experience as a land surveyor with a Mr Macbey of Elgin before joining the firm of Morkle & Prodham working on the Blaydon and Conside Railway.[2] From 1865 he was also partially employed in his father's office, and in 1871 he was created a Partner, and came to aid his father in several projects, the firm thereafter being called J & A Leslie.
In 1882 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposers being Thomas Stevenson and Peter Guthrie Tait.[3]
In 1881, prior to his father's death (in 1889) a further partnership was created with his brother-in-law, Robert Carstairs Reid (1845–1894), to create Leslie & Reid. Robert had earlier been a school friend and probably through this connection met his sister, Charlotte Leslie (1846–1935). On Reid's death he took on William Archer Porter Tait.[4]
He died on 7 December 1893 aged 49. He is buried with his parents in Dean Cemetery.
Projects
edit- Alnwickhill Reservoir (1875) plus second phase in 1888
- Water Tower in Dalkeith (1879)
- Gladhouse Reservoir (1879)
- Edgelaw Reservoir (1880)
- Rosebery Reservoir (1880)
- Paisley water supply (1881)
- Williamwath Bridge, Dumfriesshire (1882)
- Reservoir on the Gask Burn in Perthshire (1887)
- Alnwickhill Reservoir (1888) created a listed building in 1996[5]
- Reservoir serving Leven in Fife (1889)
Family
editHe was married to Mary Marjoribanks (1845–1912).
His great uncle was the eminent mathematician John Leslie.
References
edit- ^ Leslie grave, Dean Cemetery
- ^ "Alexander Leslie". gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
- ^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. p. 538. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
- ^ "Reference at www.cambridge.org".
- ^ City of Edinburgh Council: Listed Building Records