THE HISTORY OF GEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING
PART FOUR - VISCOUNT COWDRAY

Chapter 10  -  World Wide Works

In the year 1879, when Weetman Pearson was twenty-three, his grandfather, Samuel Pearson, retired from the business and gave his grandson his share. Weetman became his father's sole partner in the firm of S. Pearson and Son, and as a successor to his grandfather had his own independent interest in it. Also in 1879, young Pearson began the persistent wooing of Annie Cass, the daughter of Sir John Cass of Bradford. The young couple were married in 1881. There were four children born to this happy marriage; Harold in 1882, Gertrude in 1884, Clive in 1887 and Geoffrey in 1891.

In 1882 the firm took on its first contract in London from the Metropolitan Board of Works and in 1884 the company offices were moved from Bradford to London. After the move to London, Weetman Pearson was to all intents and purposes head of the firm. His father, George Pearson, took his work lightly, was fond of travel and liked to enjoy himself. When his son was still in his teens, George would depart suddenly and leave Weetman to gather in the accounts due, pay the wages and wind up the week's work. His father was weIl content to allow Weetman to take over, once London was reached and the move was on for S. Pearson and Son to come into prominence as an international engineering establishment. Even at Bradford it was not unusual for Weetman to be up night after night until two in the morning, working on plans and drawings.

Hard work now began to move Pearson to the heights of his profession. Success was continuous and unbroken. Ten years after the move to London, Weetman Pearson was created a baronet. This prosperity had to be bought by incessant and exhausting toil. He did everything himself, down to the smallest detail. His wife furnished the office rooms, and the young couple often spent their Saturday afternoons together at the office at Delahay Street, tidying up after the staff had gone. For eight years, Weetman took no vacation. He was often so exhausted that when the Bank Holiday week-end came, he went to bed and slept through the entire period.

In 1888 the firm moved to 10 Victoria Street, and in 1906 added the great office at 47 Parliament Street, formerly the Whitehall Club. In 1898 Weetman moved his family to their first large home at 16 Carlton House Terrace. George Pearson died in 1899 and the son became "The Chief" in title as weIl as in responsibility. Mrs. George Pearson survived her husband by a dozen years and thus lived to see two stirring events in the year 1910. In that year her son was raised to the peerage with the title of Baron Cowdray of Middlehurst, and her great grandson was born, the present Third Viscount Cowdray.

We may surmise that if the First Viscount Cowdray had been born a half century later than was the case, he might weIl be an adherent of the present Labour Government. His ideas on politics were fifty years in advance of his times. If ever the working man had a friend in managament it was Weetman Pearson. When his workmen went on strike on a jurisdictional dispute he paid them half wages so that they would not suffer. One of the many humanitarian facets of this extraordinary man's character may be seen in his position as a Liberal's Liberal.

In February, 1895, he won election to the House of Commons from the Borough of Colchester. It was Weetman's second attempt at politics; his bid for the House in the elections of 1892 had ended in defeat. He was reelected in 1900 and again in 1906. Shortly after his retirement from the House of Commons in 1909 he became a member of the House of Lords.

Lord Cowdray was one of the earliest advocates of old-age pensions and a warm supporter of workmen's compensation insurance as weIl as insurance to cover periods of idleness caused by sickness. Both Weetman and his wife were from the beginning of the suffrage movement zealous in the fight for women's rights. Weetman Pearson argued that equal voting privileges should not be postponed and that the delaying tactics on the part of Parliament justified the militancy of women.

Weetman Pearson bought the estate of Paddockhurst in Sussex in 1894. No sooner was he in possession of this estate than he was at work altering, planning, levelling, developing, making parks and lakes, installing new water supplies or renovating old ones. For long periods of time the six thousand acre property resembled a public works project. In a few years order was restored. Mr. and Mrs. Pearson succeeded in making the most beautiful of gardens and many of their happiest hours were spent among the flowers at Pacdockhurst.

With the event of the country life, Pearson took up golf and went back to his early boyhood diversions of shooting and horseback riding. When in London it was his habit to begin the day by riding in the Row with his wife and sister-in-law, and in later years with his daughter. When bicycling came into fashion the whole family rode together on wheels. Paddockhurst was filled with guests and gay laughter. His daughter tried to teach Weetman to drive a car but he handled the wheel like it was attached to a tractor and this endeavor was at last abandoned. Pearson's only daughter, Gertrude, married Lord Denham, who in 1911 was appointed Governor General of the Australian Commonwealth.

In the fifty-five year period from 1870 to 1925, S. Pearson and Son, Ltd., handled a total of exactly 100 contracts. Australia was the only continent without an engineering monument to the firm. The hundred contracts called for the expenditure of roughly $350,000,000, which translated into today's dollar would mean over a billion dollars worth of public works and private works.

South American countries where contracts were performed included Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Columbia. The sole Asian project was the construction of the Taokou to Ching Hau Railway for the Pekin Syndicate, Ltd. in the years 1902-1906. The firm's first railroad construction had been the Avila and Salamanca Railway, across Spain and Portugal, from 1888 through 1890.

Marine construction accounted for 37 contracts. This included the construction of docks at King's Lynn, Milford Haven, Liverpool, Halifax, Surry, Southampton, Cardiff, Port Talbot, Malta, Para, Hull, Dover, Royal Albert, St. Clement's, Valpariso, Junin and Seaham. Dredging and deepening of harbors together with underwater construction was done at Alexandria, Bermuda, Dover, Vera Cruz, Leith, Coatzacoalcos, Davenport, Seaham, Salina Cruz, Holyhead and Bayonne. In 1887 a torpedo range was built at Portsea for the British government.

There were twenty railroad contracts in all and 26 contracts having to do with water-works, drainage, canals and power plants. Miscellaneous enterprises included the building of office buildings, collieries, streets, bridges and an oil tank farm. The engineering contracts in the United States were as follows:

Five of the largest projects of S. Pearson and Son were undertaken during World War One. From 1915 through 1918 the Gretna Munitions Factory, the Dover Defense Against Submarines, the Wallett Defense Against Submarines, together with the construction of the forts at Sunk Island and at Stallingborough on the Humber, were all undertaken for the British government. The Anglo-American Commission had Pearson build the Chateauroux Tank Factory in France in 1918. Total expenditures on the Gretna Munitions Factory was close to fifty million dollars. Edward Pearson, Weetman's brother, was in charge of the Gretna undertaking. The King and Queen made a special visit to Gretna in 1917 at which time Edward Pearson was knighted.

Lord Cowdray's most famous construction job is generally considered to be the building of the Sennar Dam across the Blue Nile in the years 1922- 1925. At just under twenty millions of dollars, the Sennar Dam enterprise was exceeded only by the huge Gretna Munitions factory in contract cost. The main purpose of the Sennar Dam was to furnish irrigation waters for a half million acres of the Gezira Plain, which lies in a triangle between the Blue Nile and the White Nile to the south of Khartoum. Sennar was chosen for the site of this undertaking for three reasons; that the river is comparatively narrow there, and it was the only place where a solid foundation was obtainable and that the presence of an island in mid-stream facilitated construction.

The Nile rises to flood stage in July and recedes to low Nile in October, so that there are roughly four months of high water and eight months of low water each year. The conquest of the Nile at Sennar would require a race egainst time for three periods of eight months of low water. The operations commenced in November, 1922. The Nile was diverted from the western part, when all the water ran only in the eastern channel and the western side was unwatered. During the season of 1922-1923, 5,000 feet of dam was completed to its full height of 128 feet, leaving an opening of 450 feet between it and the island, through which the water was diverted in the 1923-1924 season of low Nile. In the 1923-1924 season the eastern or deep channe1 section was unwatered.

The second season was the really exciting season. There were some who declared that it was impossible to do all that had to be done in aperiod of only eight months. This included construction of the temporary dams both upstream and downstream across the deep channel; pumping out the water; excavating for the foundation, and building up the entire work to the level of the temporary gantry across the river, 85 feet above the level of the lowest foundation. During the busiest time of the 1923-1924 season, over twenty thousand men were employed. The race against time was won though only by the margin of a scant few days.

The third reason was comparatively easy, the eastern section was built up to its full height, the western section gap of a width of 450 feet was finished to join the island. Also the necessary irrigation sluices and canals were built. The entire project was completed in June, 1925, a month ahead of schedule. Of all the tributes and expressions of high praise that came to Lord Cowdray upon the successful completion of the Sennar Dam, the most valued one came from the pen of Dr. Gwynne, Bishop of Egypt and Sudan:

"I do indeed congratulate the firm on the great accomplishment of the erection of the Dam across the Blue Nile; and I should like to say, on behalf of those who are interested in the natives of the country, how weIl they have been treated by the firm. There are some of us who feel that the fair and humane treatment that they received has won the confidence of thousands of natives who can bear witness to the uprightness, integrity, and personal regard of those Englishmen with whom they had dealings."