George Baden Crawley

George Baden Crawley (1833–1879) was a successful railway contractor responsible for the construction of railways in Belgium, Spain, Mexico, Georgia, Romania and Hungary. Early life Crawley was born on 4 September 1833 in Upper Gower Street, London to George Abraham and Caroline Crawley. He was educated at Harrow School where he excelled in sports, particularly cricket, making the winning hit in the match with Eton College at Lord's in 1851, and becoming an excellent tennis player in later life, playing against Charles Gilbert Heathcote at Brighton the year before his death. He initially followed his father's career, training as a solicitor, but found the profession too sedentary for his adventurous spirit and switched to a career in civil engineering. Career He established the contracting company George B. Crawley and Company which won contracts to construct two railway lines in Belgium, two in Spain and a railway of nearly 300 miles from Tiflis to Poti in Georgia. In the 1860s the British-owned railway company, Imperial Mexican Railway (later known as the Mexican Railway) took over the main contract for the construction of a railway line from Mexico City to Veracruz from the French Government and Crawley's company was sub-contracted to build the line. His last work was a railway from Ploiești in Romania to Brașov in Austria-Hungary. Family In 1863 he married Eliza Inez Hulbert (6 January 1841 - 29 July 1913) at East Farleigh, Kent, the daughter of Henry Hulbert. The couple had at least seven children: George Abraham Crawley (1864-1926), Henry Ernest Crawley (1865-1931), Eustace Crawley (1868-1914), John Kenneth Crawley (1873-1943), Arthur Stafford Crawley (1876-1948), Caroline Inez Crawley (married 1893, died 1920), and Georgina Beatrice Crawley (died 1968).