Adlib Internet Server 5

Title
Folder with title Articles on Railways
Reference
CANT/1/2
Production date
1937 - 1939

Creator

Cantlie, Kenneth Biography Biography
Colonel Kenneth Cantlie (1899-1986), mechanical engineer, was born in London in 1899 as the youngest son of Lady Mabel Cantlie (née Barclay Brown, 1860-1921) and Sir James Cantlie (1851-1926), a surgeon and specialist in tropical diseases. Kenneth Cantlie had a long international career as a designer of locomotives and coaches in Argentina, India and China and promoting the British locomotive industries after the Second World War. The Cantlie family had strong connections to China: Sir James trained Dr Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925), who became the first president of China after revolution in 1911. Sir James and Lady Cantlie were instrumental in rescuing Sun Yat-Sen in 1896 when he was held captive at the London Chinese Legation by the Chinese Qing Dynasty. Sun Yat-Sen remained a close family friend and became the godfather of Kenneth Cantlie. Kenneth Cantlie was educated in Scotland at Junior School and Gordon’s College, Aberdeen, and University College, London. The loss of his right eye in early childhood resulted in Kenneth being unfit for army service during the First World War, and instead undertook war work at London North Western Railway’s Crewe Railway Shops. He then became an apprentice and a pupil of Crewe’s Chief Mechanical Engineer Mr. Bowen-Cooke, subsequently obtaining a certificate on technical training at Crewe Technical College. Between 1920 and 1923 Kenneth acted as an assistant to the Chief Mechanical Engineer, then Assistant Traction Superintendent and Train Ferry Supervisor on Entre dos Rios Railway in Argentina. In 1924 he joined the Jodphur-Bikanir Railway in India as the Assistant Locomotive Superintendent and then in 1928 as the Deputy Loco Superintendent building 70 coaches to his own designs. In 1929 Kenneth Cantlie was invited by the Chinese government to represent his family at the state funeral of president Sun Yat-Sen when his remains were interred in the mausoleum at Purple Mountain, Nanking and was subsequently appointed to act as an adviser to the Chinese railways by the Minister of Railways Sun Fo, son of Sun Yat-Sen. Before taking up the post in 1930, Kenneth travelled in China, Japan and the U.S. Kenneth Cantlie returned to China in 1930 as the Consulting Expert for Standardisation of Equipment and was offered the official post of the Technical Adviser to the Chinese Ministry of Railways in 1934. He contributed substantially to the rebuilding of the Chinese railways by engineering lines and designed bridges, carriages and locomotives, such as the 4-8-4 KF class locomotives. Kenneth Cantlie was appointed as the Trustee of the British Boxer Indemnity Fund in 1931 and was later awarded the Order of the Brilliant Jade. Kenneth Cantlie married Phyllis Gage-Brown (1896-1965) on 7th April 1931 at the All Saints Church in Kobe, Japan and the family lived in Shanghai and Nanking, China. The couple had three sons, the eldest being born in China: Hugh (1932), Paul (1934) and Bruce St. George Cantlie (1937). The Cantlie family stayed in Nanking until February 1937 when they left for England. The outbreak of the war and Japanese invasion in 1937 prevented Cantlie’s return to China and he stayed in London as the adviser to the Chinese Government Purchase Commission (part of the Indemnity Fund), a post he held until 1950. Cantlie acted as the manager of Caprotti Valve & Gear Ltd Associated Locomotive Equipment Ltd. between 1939 and 1948, becoming the director from the start of the Second World War. Kenneth Cantlie joined the British Army on the 2nd September 1939 and served in various positions in the War Office and invasion areas in Africa and Germany throughout the Second World War. In 1942 he was promoted as Lt. Colonel and 1946 he was posted to the German Section of Home Office in London. After the war Kenneth Cantlie acted as the Overseas Representative for the Locomotive Manufacturers’ Association (LMA) promoting British railway industry exports between 1948 and 1956. He visited and reported on the railways of various countries in North and South America, India, Europe and the Middle East. Cantlie represented the Giesl ejector in the 1950s to the 1970s in various continents including Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. He founded and co-directed a consultancy company called Verity-Orient Ltd. with another locomotive engineer George W. Carpenter. In 1956 Cantlie was invited to attend the 90th birthday anniversary of Dr Sun Yat-Sen as a guest of the Chinese Government, meeting key figures such as Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. He returned to China again in 1957 to 1958 promoting British companies and also reporting on the trips to the British Ministry of Defence and delivering messages between Zhou Enlai and the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Kenneth Cantlie maintained strong connections to China by visiting Peking and Hong Kong until the early 1980s. Kenneth Cantlie was a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, the Newcomen Society, the Society of Chinese Engineers and the China Society (London). He was also the founding member of the Conservative Commonwealth Council and a member of the West African Committee. Kenneth Cantlie died 11 February 1986 aged 87 after a long illness in his home, 8 Chester Row, Eaton Square, London.

Scope and Content
Original folder with Chinese inscriptions containing correspondence, notes and articles relating to China's railways, most likely created after Kenneth Cantlie returned from Nanking to London. Includes newspaper clippings of published articles by Kenneth Cantlie, hand-written notes and other research carried out possibly for the published articles between 1937-1939 in Daily Telegraph, Railway Gazette, Modern Transport etc. Topics include the collision on Chinese Railways; locomotive, coach and Chinese Railways development; steel and wood coach safety controversy; British locomotive design; London Transport; biography of Sir James Cantlie; a Hong Kong pharmacy prescription for 'Mr Cantlee'. Drafts and notes for Kenneth Cantlie's publication 'Some aspects of the rehabilitation of China's Railways (1937, see CANT/5). Seven blank envelopes of different sizes imprinted with header 'Ministry of Railways, National Government, Republic of China'.
Extent
1 file with approx. 80 pages
Level of description
FILE
Repository name
National Railway Museum, York

Associated people and organisations

Transport for London Biography Biography
The brand London Transport came into being in 1933 and remained until 2000. Prior to 1933, the transport system in London was owned and managed by several independent and separate organisations. The Underground railways were developed and owned by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (est. 1902) and the Metropolitan Railway (est. 1863) whilst the Tram and Trolleybus networks were under the control of various local authorities and public companies. The London County Council operated tram routes within the County of London but its responsibility did not extend to the bus or tram routes that ran outside its area and it did not hold responsibility for the railways which also extended into neighbouring counties. From 1933, the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) was established in accordance with the 1933 London Passenger Transport Act and covered both the County of London and adjacent counties within a 48-km radius. For the first time services within the London area were amalgamated. A significant proportion of tram routes were brought under the responsibility of the LPTB, as were the Underground Electric Railways Company of London lines and the bus services; this became known as the London Passenger Transport Area. It was then that the familiar ‘roundel symbol’ (designed in 1918) and the tube map designed in 1931 were adopted by the LPTB. The second World War was to cause some disruption to the ongoing programme, resulting in delays and also the abandonment of some projects. During the post war years, the transport authority was the London Transport Executive until 1962. It was taken into public ownership and London Transport and British Railways were under the same jurisdiction for the first and only time. It was during this time that recruitment began directly from the Caribbean and work began on resolving war damage to stock and stations as well as the completion of projects previously delayed during the war. The post-war years also saw some major developments within London transport, including the withdrawal of both trams and trolleybuses and the introduction of the iconic AEC Routemaster bus in 1956. From 1963, the transport authority was the London Transport Board until 1969 and it reported directly to the Ministry of Transport and no longer held direct association with the management of British Railways. Public transport was not heavily invested in during this period and motor cars increased in popularity. Unprofitable railways across Britain were also closed. The 1960s also witnessed the opening of the underground Victoria line and also the introduction of the single-deck bus. From 1970, the Greater London Council was the transport authority and remained so until 1984. Control of green-coloured country buses and Green Line Coaches were passed on to London Country Bus Services which became part of the National Bus Company. As with many organisations during this period, London transport suffered a severe lack of funding from central government as well as major staff shortages. The inter-modal zonal ticketing system was also introduced in 1981. From 1984-2000 London Regional Transport was the transport authority and was also under direct state control, reporting to the Secretary of State for Transport. Under the London Regional Transport Act in the 1980s subsidiary companies were established to run Underground and bus services. This period also saw the inclusion of British Rail services into fare options and the opening of the Docklands Light Railway in 1987. From 2000 to the present day, the transport authority has been Transport for London (TfL). Unlike its predecessors, it has never been commonly known as London Transport and holds responsibility for many other transportation functions such as road management, taxi and private hire licensing and also cycling and walking. Responsibility for the Underground was not given until 2003. TfL have been the longest running transportation organisation in London to date.
Cantlie, James Biography Biography
Sir James Cantlie, physician and medical administrator, was born on 17 January 1851 at Keithmore Farm, Dufftown, Banffshire, Scotland, the eldest son of William and Janet Cantlie. His early education took place at a local school in the village of Drummuir and at Milne's Institution at Fochabers, Speyside. He graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1871 with an MA in natural science before training in medicine at the same institution and graduating MB and CM with honourable distinction in 1873. Cantlie was appointed instructor of anatomy at Charing Cross Hospital, London, in the same year. He became an instructor in the St John Ambulance Association and in 1882 he joined the London Scottish Volunteers as a surgeon. In 1883 he played a part in the establishment of the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps, volunteering later that year for service in Egypt, where he developed an interest in tropical diseases. Cantlie married Mabel Barclay Brown on 30 July 1884. They had four sons, Sir Keith Cantlie, (1886-1977), Admiral Sir Colin Cantlie (1888-1967), Lieutenant General Sir Neil Cantlie (1892-1975), and Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth R E Cantlie (1899-1986). Cantlie was interested in the physical condition of the urban poor and wrote a paper entitled Degeneracy among Londoners which was read at the Parkes Museum in 1885. In 1887 he moved to Hong Kong where he practised medicine and established a medical college for Chinese students, the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese which later became the University of Hong Kong. One of the college’s first students was Sun Yat-Sen, who became the first president of the Chinese republic in 1911. In 1886 Cantlie was appointed advisor to the India Office when an epidemic of bubonic plague broke out in Bombay. In 1896 Cantlie returned to London to take the chair of applied anatomy at Charing Cross Hospital. Soon afterwards, he was instrumental in obtaining the release of Sun Yat-Sen after his abduction by Chinese agents and detention at the Chinese legation in London. Cantlie was a co-founder of the Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, which published its first edition in August 1898, and was its editor for the following 23 years. He also played a part in the establishment of the London School of Tropical Medicine which opened in 1899 and where he was the first surgeon and lecturer in tropical surgery. Cantlie’s book Physical Efficiency was published in 1906. He continued his involvement with St John Ambulance and was an adviser to the War Office on the establishment of the medical section of the Territorial Force (later the Territorial Army), formed in 1907. Sir James Cantlie and his wife Lady Cantlie were commandants in the British Red Cross Society during the First World War. They founded a College of Ambulance and a humanitarian corps to aid those in medical need or poverty. Cantlie was appointed knight of the British Empire in 1918 and received an honorary LLD degree from the University of Aberdeen in 1919. Lady Cantlie died on 21 December 1921 and Sir James passed away few years after her, on 28 May 1926 at Dorset Square, London, and was buried at Cottered cemetery, Buntingford, Hertfordshire.

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