Edward Betts

Edward Ladd Betts (5 June 1815 – 21 January 1872) was an English civil engineering contractor who was mainly involved in the building of railways.

Edward Betts was born at Buckland, near Dover, son of William Betts (1790–1867), a successful contractor's agent and railway contractor.

He was apprenticed to a builder at Lincoln. However, becoming more interested in engineering, he then worked as agent for Hugh McIntosh building the Black Rock lighthouse at Beaumaris, Anglesey.

Edward Betts's first railway undertaking was to supervise the building of the Dutton Viaduct on the Grand Junction Railway for Hugh McIntosh under George Stephenson as engineer. After the death of McIntosh in 1840, William Betts & Sons—the family firm now named for Edward and his father—gained contracts on the South Eastern Railway for stretches that included the Marsden-Ashford line, Maidstone Branch, and the Saltwood tunnel. They also obtained large contracts on behalf of David McIntosh for the Midlands County Railway, whereby the Betts family relocated to Leicester, and for the Manchester-Birmingham Railway. After that, Betts continued to gain contracts, especially in the Chester area.

Upon his father's retirement at Bevois Mount, Southampton in 1845, Betts assumed full responsibility for the Betts company business.

Separately, the partnership between the major civil engineering contractors Samuel Morton Peto and Thomas Grissell was dissolved in 1846, and so Betts worked with Peto on parts of the Great Northern Railway.

In 1848, Peto and Betts established a formal partnership and together they were to work on a large number of railway contracts.

Frequently, they also working in partnership with Thomas Brassey as Peto, Brassey and Betts. Possibly the greatest enterprise of this trio was the building of the Grand Trunk Railway in Canada. Betts undertook the actual management of the venture which included the Victoria bridge across the Saint Lawrence River at Montreal.