Harry Wainwright

Harry Smith Wainwright (16 November 1864 – 19 September 1925) was an English railway engineer, and was the Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway from 1899 to 1913. He is best known for a series of simple but competent locomotives produced under his direction at the company's Ashford railway works in the early years of the twentieth century. Many of these survived in service until the end of steam traction in Britain in 1968, and are regarded as some of the most elegant designs of the period. Biography Wainwright was born at Worcester on 16 November 1864, the third son of William Wainwright. In 1896, he was appointed Carriage & Wagon Superintendent of the South Eastern Railway (SER), in succession to his father. On 1 January 1899, the SER entered into a working union with the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR); their respective Locomotive Superintendents, James Stirling and William Kirtley, both retired, and the newly formed South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) decided to combine the locomotive, carriage and wagon departments of the two railways, and appoint Wainwright as the Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent. Robert Surtees, the former LCDR Chief Draughtsman, became Chief Draughtsman of the SECR.