George
Bidder,
the son of a stonemason, was born at Moreton Hampstead in 1806. A
talented mathematician, Bidder was educated at Edinburgh
University,
where he met Robert Stephenson. After
a brief period working as a clerk for an insurance company, he became
an engineer.
Bidder worked with Robert Stephenson
on the London & Birmingham Railway.
As chief engineer on the Norwich & Lowestoft line, Bidder became
the first person to design and build a railway swing bridge. However,
Bidder's most important work was the Victoria Docks in London.
Bidder was one of the founders of the Electric Telegraph Company (the
first company formed to provide telegraphic
communication). George
Bidder
died at Dartmouth on 20th September, 1878.
(1)
Robert Stephenson told Samuel
Smiles how George Stephenson liked
to wrestle with George Bidder.
When
my father came about the office he sometimes did not well know what
to do with himself. So he used to invite Bidder to have a wrestle
with him, for old acquaintance sake. And the two wrestled together
so often, and had so many falls (sometimes I thought they would bring
the house down between them), that they broke half the chairs in my
outer office.
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