Surveyors of Lloyd's Register's past: Alfred W.B. Edwards

Place of Birth: Coalbrookdale/Ironbridge, Shropshire, England, United Kingdom. 

Place of Death: Auckland, New Zealand. 

Lloyd’s Register Surveyor in: London 1927-1932, Hull 1932-1938, Fleetwood 1938-1939, Liverpool 1939-1942, Hull 1942-1963.

Alfred William Bernard Edwards was born on 31 May 1898 to parents Alfred Edwards Snr and Jane Ellen Edwards and was baptised in Coalbrookdale on 31 July 1898.1 Little is known about Edwards’ early education, but he served an apprenticeship with Coalbrookdale Company Ltd and the Liverpool Refrigerating Company, which included a year in the drawing office.2  This was perhaps the result of company links to Edwards Snr who, according to the 1921 census, worked as an insurance-store manager for the same Coalbrookdale Co.3 After his apprenticeship, Edwards went to sea, spending around five and half years on steam and diesel vessels for the Royal Mail Packet Company and Elder Dempster and Company out of Liverpool.4 Edwards continued in the Mercantile Marine during the First World War and, in 1920, he was awarded both the Mercantile Marine Medal and the British Medal in recognition of his continued merchant service during the conflict.5

After the war, Edwards’ focus turned towards furthering his own education. He attended courses at the University of Liverpool and obtained a certificate followed by a University Diploma in Engineering.6 At the time of the 1921 census, Edwards, then 23, was listed as a ‘full-time engineering student’.7 While attending university, Edwards became an Associate Member of the Institute of Naval Architects and obtained a first-class Board of Trade certificate with first-class motor endorsement, a formal recognition of competency in engineering.8

Alongside his developing career, Edwards met Elizabeth Holdaway, and the couple were married in Peartree Church in Southampton on 26 July 1925.9 Two years into married life, Edwards put the skills he had gathered from his education, apprenticeship and sea service to full use, applying for a surveying role at the maritime classification society then known as Lloyd’s Register of Shipping.  

On 4 July 1927, Edwards joined LR as a ship and engineer surveyor and was appointed to the Society’s London Office in a temporary or probationary position, a common feature of early LR careers.10 After just under a year of probationary service, Edwards’ appointment to the Society was made permanent, and he continued to work for LR in London until April 1932.11 During his time in the capital, Alfred and Elizabeth welcomed two sons in April 1929 and November 1931 respectively, sons whose later life and careers would also be linked to LR.12

In April 1932, Edwards accepted a surveyor post in Hull, a port with which he was to become very familiar. In Hull, Edwards not only continued his survey work on standard merchant vessels but also the vast quantity of trawlers being built at the port. One such example was the Cape Argona, a trawler built in Selby in 1936 for Hudson Brothers Ltd and surveyed under construction by Edwards and his Hull-colleague, Walter Malcolm.13 It was during this first period in Hull that Edwards also received firsthand experience of the support regularly offered by LR to its staff in times of difficulty. In July 1933, LR granted the Edwards family £120 to help with costs after Elizabeth had fallen ill.14 Alongside the varied work and experiences, it is this care offered to staff and their families in times of need that explains why so many LR employees, Edwards included, decided to remain with the Society for the rest of their careers, and perhaps why following generations opted to continue family links with LR.  

In March 1938, Edwards was transferred over to the West Coast, initially to Fleetwood, another major trawling port, and then on to Liverpool in August 1939.15 According to the 1939 England and Wales Register, the family were living in Crosby, a base that allowed Edwards to move between the offices in Fleetwood and Liverpool with relative ease.16 During his time in Liverpool, Edwards got his first glimpse of the impact of the Second World War. In July 1939, Edwards conducted a survey of the repairs completed on the Davara, a trawler built in Selby but fishing out of Fleetwood.17 On 13 September 1939, just 10 days after the British declaration of war and only two months after Edwards’ survey, Davara was shelled by a German submarine, U-27, off Tory Island, becoming the first British trawler to be sunk by enemy action during the conflict. Her crew managed to escape in a lifeboat.18

By the end of the war, 85 British and Welsh steam trawlers had been lost to enemy action whilst fishing, and hundreds more were lost on duty with the Royal Naval Patrol Service.19 Edward’s survey would be the last official contact the Society had with Davara, a trawler it had surveyed since its launch in 1912. Edwards’ own experience of the Second World War would become far more direct in 1942. In April that year the family returned to Hull, Edwards accepting a surveyor post in the office and moving onto Victoria Avenue in the city. Upon his return and alongside office-colleagues Roynon Piddington, William Engledow (surveyors) and Dorothy Jacobs (clerk), Edwards volunteered time to the war effort.20 Edwards and his two surveyor-colleagues all volunteered as fire guards and watchmen. Although their exact experiences are unknown, ‘it is likely these three surveyors would have seen some service’ in those roles, especially in Hull, the ‘second most blitzed British city of the war’.21 Estimates suggest that around 95% of the buildings in Hull’s Old Town, the location of the LR office at the time, were damaged to some extent by the bombing raids of the Luftwaffe. The conflict certainly left its mark on the city and its people, and it would not be too far a stretch to include LR’s Hull staff, like Edwards, in this picture.  

Whatever his exact experience may have been during the Second World War, it is clear Hull left an impression on Edwards. Indeed, he would remain an LR surveyor in the port for the rest of his career. He rose through the ranks of staff seniority in Hull, taking on more responsibility for its successful functioning and attracting attention from other LR offices. In January 1950, Edwards was called to interview for the post of senior LR surveyor in Manchester but, to Hull’s benefit, he was unsuccessful.22 Three years later in June 1953, the Society awarded Edwards £100 for his ‘good work as senior surveyor’ in Hull, ‘especially in training probationers’, the next generation of LR-recruits.23 His career reached its zenith on 1 January 1955 when Edwards was invited to succeed Hull’s outgoing Principal Surveyor, John McMillan.24 For the next eight and a half years, Edwards led the Hull office, overseeing the surveys of the port’s vast merchant and trawler fleets and its expanding interest in material and component manufacture. He retired from LR on 30 June 1963, his tenure at the head of the office making Edwards one of the longest serving LR principal surveyors in Hull’s history.  

After retirement, Alfred and Elizabeth moved back south, ending up in Bournemouth by 1973.25 However, despite Alfred’s retirement, the family’s links to LR were to continue. Evidence suggests that both their sons, John Comston and David Francis Edwards followed in their father’s footsteps. One ‘J.C. Edwards’ is listed in the London office of LR in the late-1950s as an exclusive ship and engineer surveyor before moving to Swansea and Hull in 1964 and 1971 respectively.26 A lack of available records make complete confirmation that this was John very difficult, but electoral registers have John and his wife, Annita, living in Swansea at the time that LR records have ‘J.C. Edwards’ working there, so it is highly likely John was an LR surveyor.27 The records for David are slightly more substantial. According to court documents relating to his father’s will, David was a marine surveyor, and LR records reveal a ‘D.F. Edwards’ starting in London as a ship and engineer surveyor in the early 1960s.28 By 1968, however, D.F. Edwards had been transferred to the LR office in Auckland, New Zealand, the place where the aforementioned court documents have David working as a marine surveyor.29 Again, available evidence prevents a firm conclusion beyond reasonable doubt, but it is likely that ‘D.F. Edwards’ and David were one and the same.  

In 1973, Elizabeth passed away after 48 years of marriage.30 Alfred, now widowed, joined John and Annita and emigrated to New Zealand, reuniting with David. By 1975, Alfred, John and Annita were living in Paraparaumu Beach near Wellington City.31 Alfred would remain in New Zealand with his two sons and their families for the rest of his life. He passed away in Auckland on 12 October 1983, aged 85.32

In life, Alfred William Bernard Edwards represented the ideal LR surveyor, demonstrating how surveyors aided the ports to which they were appointed, not only through their work on vessels, machinery and materials, but also in the communities, especially at times of great need. Decades after his death, his LR career was an important marker in my own PhD journey, and this surveyor story celebrating his life stands as my own tribute to him.  

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Lloyd’s Register Group or Lloyd’s Register Foundation.