Arthur Toulmin Smith: A British Engineer in 19th Century Russia

Know about the book -

Arthur Toulmin Smith: A British Engineer in 19th Century Russia is written by Bessie White and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 1836288301 (ISBN 10) and 9781836288305 (ISBN 13).

This collection of letters tells the story of Arthur Toulmin Smith, a British engineer who spent his working life in Russia in the years leading up to the First World War. After installing the telegraph in the Caucasus and a spell managing the Moscow gas works, he sets up Ludwig and Smith with a Russo-German colleague, manufacturing weighing equipment and pipework for fire brigades as well as the Moscow sewerage system. His first wife dies young in childbirth. Daughter Alice survives and is happily brought up by second wife Minna. Through Arthur’s letters home to his scholar sister Lucy, we watch Alice grow up. Staying with Aunt Lucy in Oxford she meets a young trainee church minister. Will Arthur allow his only daughter to marry on only £200 a year? As a proud ex-pat Englishman, Arthur is conscious of the difference between British society and the limitations and constraints of Tsarist Russia. Yet with a German wife and business obligations he never makes it back to live in his homeland. The letters throw light on a lesser known British community abroad, their comfortable life as ex-pats among, but separate from Russian society. Arthur’s great grand-daughter Bessie White provides a fascinating broader context to his life abroad.