Horatio Arthur Yorke

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Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Horatio Arthur Yorke (3 June 1848 - 10 December 1930) C.B. R.E. was Inspector of Railways to the Board of Trade from 1900 to 1913.

Life[edit]

He was born on 3 June 1848 near New Wimpole in Cambridgeshire, the fourth son of the Ven the Hon Henry Reginald Yorke (1803-1871) and Flora Elizabeth Campbell (1813-1852).

He was educated at Cheam School and then Charterhouse School.

On 24 August 1869, he married Harriette Forsse in Gravesend, Kent. This marriage ended in divorce in 1891.[1] On 26 July 1893 he married Rebecca Caroline Garstin (d.1943), daughter of the Revd. Anthony Gartin, Rector of St Peter's Church, Redmile, Leicestershire.

He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1904[2] and knighted on his retirement in 1913.[3]

He died on 10 December 1930 in London and left an estate valued at £4,234 (equivalent to £338,100 in 2023).[4]

Military career[edit]

He entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1865. A year later, he joined the Royal Engineers and entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. In 1869 he was promoted to Lieutenant[5] and received a second commission in the Royal Engineers. He saw service in the Afghan War 1878-80. In 1881 he was promoted to the rank of Captain.[6] He also saw service in the Mahdist War 1884-85 and in 1887 achieved the rank of Major.[7] He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1894.

Career[edit]

He was the British delegate to the International Railway Congresses at Washington in 1905 and at Berne in 1910, and at the International Navigation Congress at Philadelphia in 1912.

He was a director of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, and later a director of the Great Western Railway.[8]

The Board of Trade appointed him as Inspector of Railways in 1891. Following the death of Francis Marindin as Chief Inspecting Officer of Railways in 1899, he succeeded him on a salary of £1,000 (equivalent to £136,700 in 2023)[4] per annum. Towards the end of his career, it had risen to £1,400 per annum.[9] He retired in 1913.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Military Divorce Suit". Manchester Evening News. England. 18 June 1891. Retrieved 18 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  2. ^ "The King's Investiture". Evening Standard. England. 6 July 1904. Retrieved 18 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. ^ "New Year Honours". Banbury Advertiser. England. 2 January 1913. Retrieved 18 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  5. ^ "No. 23458". The London Gazette. 12 January 1869. p. 164.
  6. ^ "No. 24999". The London Gazette. 26 July 1881. p. 3679.
  7. ^ "No. 25743". The London Gazette. 30 September 1887. p. 5321.
  8. ^ "G.W.R. Director's Death". Derby Daily Telegraph. England. 11 December 1930. Retrieved 18 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ "Petition of Right". Evening Standard. England. 10 February 1915. Retrieved 18 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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