Charles Langbridge Morgan

Who was Charles Langbridge Morgan?

Sir Charles Langbridge Morgan CBE was a British civil engineer.

Morgan was born in 1855 in Worcester, England. He married Mary Watkins in Australia to which her parents had emigrated. Their son, also called Charles Langbridge Morgan, was a playwright and novelist.

In 1896, Morgan succeeded Frederick Banister as chief engineer of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. During the First World War he served in the British Army's Royal Engineers as a Lieutenant-Colonel. Morgan's son also served in the war, as an officer of the Royal Navy. During the war the elder Morgan undertook "special engineering duties" for the War Office in Italy and France. On 6 April 1917 he was appointed Deputy Director of Railways and also served as Commissioner of the Newhaven and Seaford Sea Defences in East Sussex. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1918.

After the war Morgan served as a member of the Disposals Board, a government body formed to dispose of surplus war material, a body he was still a member of on 29 December 1922 when it was announced that he would received a knighthood in the New Year Honours. The knighthood was conferred by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 15 February 1923. From November 1923 to November 1924 Morgan served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, an organisation he had joined as an Associate Member on 9 January 1883. He was also a member of the Territorial Army Engineer and Railway Staff Corps, an unpaid volunteer unit which provides technical expertise to the British Army. He resigned his commission as Lieutenant-Colonel in this corps on 18 February 1925, he had permission to retain his rank and to continue to wear the uniform. He died on 9 November 1940.