George Wightwick Rendel
| George Wightwick Rendel | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
6 February 1833 Plymouth |
| Died | 9 October 1902 (aged 69) Sandown, Isle of Wight |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Naval architect and engineer |
George Wightwick Rendel (6 February 1833 – 9 October 1902) was a British engineer, and naval architect. He was closely associated with the Tyneside industrialist and armaments manufacturer, William George Armstrong.
George was the third (of five) sons of the civil engineer James Meadows Rendel and his wife Catherine Harris. He was named after George Wightwick, a lifelong friend of his father. He was educated at Harrow, but ran away in 1849. His siblings included Alexander Meadows Rendel, Hamilton Owen Rendel and the Liberal MP Stuart Rendel, 1st Baron Rendel.
George Rendel married Harriet, daughter of Joseph Simpson, the British vice-consul at Kronstadt, on 13 December 1860. They had five sons before her death in 1878. He met his second wife, Lucinia Pinelli, in Rome, while serving on a design committee of the Italian Ministry of Marine. They married in 1880 and had three sons and a daughter. His son George went on to become the distinguished diplomat Sir George William Rendel.
Working for his father, at first on the Great Grimsby Royal docks, then in company with his elder brother Lewis Rendel on the eastern breakwater and new Admiralty pier at Holyhead, he was well prepared for an apprenticeship to his father's great friend, Sir William Armstrong, at his Elswick works. He lived with Armstrong at his house in Jesmond for three years before completing his engineering education at his father's London office. His father died in 1856 and the brothers George, Stuart and Hamilton all joined Armstrong's company, while Alexander took over the family business.
In 1859 Sir William Armstrong formed the Elswick Ordnance Company in order to supply guns for the British Army. Armstrong had been appointed as Engineer of Rifled Ordnance to the War Department, and to avoid a conflict of interests, he had no financial interest in the new company. George Rendel was one of three partners in the business, along with George Cruddas and Richard Lambert. Armstrong had been helped in his early career by James Rendel, and treated his son as a protégé. In 1864 the Elswick Ordnance Company was merged with Armstrong’s original company to form Sir W G Armstrong and Company. George Rendel was one of seven partners in the new company, and was in joint charge of the ordnance departments, together with Captain Andrew Noble.
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