Oliver Robert Hawke Bury

Who was Oliver Robert Hawke Bury?

Oliver Robert Hawke Bury, was an English railway engineer, chief mechanical engineer on the Great Western Railway of Brazil, General Manager of the Great Northern Railway in England and Director of the London and North Eastern Railway.

Bury, the son of a barrister, was educated at Westminster School. The first manager of the Great Northern Railway in 1847 had been his great uncle. In 1879 he was apprenticed to William Adams, locomotive engineer on the London and South Western Railway.

At Hunter and English of Bow, steam engine manufacturers from 1791 to 1921, he worked on the construction of both a floating crane and of a distillery in 1881. From there he joined the Coleford Railway in 1884 and became resident engineer of the Great Western Railway of Brazil under Ailsa Janson, becoming locomotive superintendent in 1885.

His appointment as Chief Engineer and Manager of the Great Western Railway of Brazil followed in 1892. Thereafter he joined the Entre Rios Railway in Argentina and went on to the Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway. He returned to England in 1902 to become General Manager of the Great Northern Railway, joining the GNR Board in 1912. He was a Director of the London and North Eastern Railway until 1945. His business interests extended to South America.