James Henry Greathead

James Henry Greathead (6 August 1844 – 21 October 1896) was an English mechanical and civil engineer renowned for his work on the London Underground railways, Winchester Cathedral, and Liverpool overhead railway, as well as being one of the earliest proponents of the English Channel, Irish Sea and Bristol Channel tunnels. His invention is also the reason that the London Underground is colloquially named the "Tube".

Greathead was born in Grahamstown, South Africa; of English descent, his grandfather had emigrated to South Africa in 1820. He was educated at St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown, and the Diocesan College private school in Cape Town. After emigrating to England in 1859, he completed his education from 1859 to 1863 at the Westbourne Collegiate School, Westbourne Grove.

He returned briefly to South Africa before finally moving to London in 1864 to serve a three-year pupillage under the civil engineer Peter W. Barlow, from whom he became acquainted with the rectangular shield system of tunnelling. Greathead spent some time (around 1867) as assistant engineer on the Midland Railway between Bedford and London (working with Barlow's brother, William Henry Barlow).

Soon after, in 1869, he rejoined Barlow and they began work on designs for the Tower Subway, only the second tunnel to be driven under the river Thames in central London. Barlow was the engineer for the tunnel and Greathead was in charge of the actual drive.

Greathead became the main contractor for the Tower subway under Barlow. William Copperthwaite asserts that whilst Barlow had patented a tunnelling shield idea, Greathead not only designed a different type of shield but patented it and used it on that contract. Barlow had been awarded a provisional patent on his second idea but Greathead was unaware of this until several years later (as discussed in minutes of a meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) published in January 1896).^{[citation needed]}

Greathead was the Blackwall Tunnel consulting engineer and oversaw its design and construction.

In 1873 Greathead became resident engineer on the Hammersmith extension railway and the Richmond extension of the District Railway, a post which he held for four years. After this he assisted in the preparation of the Regents Canal Railway (1880), the Metropolitan Outer Circle Railway (1881), a new London–Eastbourne line (1883) and in various light railways in Ireland (1884).^{[citation needed]}

Also in 1884, Greathead resumed his involvement in tunnelling, being engaged as engineer on the London (City) & Southwark Subway, later the City & South London Railway (and now part of the Northern line) which was, when it opened in 1890, the world's first underground electric railway. In 1888, he became joint engineer with Sir Douglas Fox on the Liverpool Overhead Railway and also worked with W. R. Galbraith on the Waterloo & City Railway. His final work was on the Central London Railway with Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker.