Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Binnie, Alexander Richardson
BINNIE, Sir ALEXANDER RICHARDSON (1839-1917), civil engineer, born in London 26 March 1839, was the eldest son of Alexander Binnie, wholesale clothier, of 77 Ladbroke Grove, London, by his wife, Hannah, daughter of Isaac Carr, of Johnby, Cumberland. He was educated privately, and articled in 1858 to Terence Woulfe Flanagan, civil engineer, and on the latter’s death to John Frederic La Trobe-Bateman [q.v.] with whom he continued as assistant until 1862. From 1862 to 1866 Binnie was employed in railway construction in mid-Wales, and in 1867, after examination, he was appointed an executive engineer in the Public Works Department of India. He was stationed at Nagpur, and while there in 1873 carried out the works for the supply of that city with water from Ambajheri. In conjunction with Major Lucey Smith, he discovered coal at Warora in the Chanda district. This led to the construction of the Wardha—Warora branch of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway and to the opening up of the coal-field, for which Binnie received the commendation of the government of India. The Warora colliery was worked from 1871 till 1906.
In March 1875 Binnie was appointed chief engineer for waterworks to the city of Bradford. He repaired and reconstructed the Stubden, Leeshaw, and Leeming reservoirs, and designed and constructed the reservoirs at Barden and Thornton Moor. He also prepared the plans and sections for the Nidd Valley water scheme, which, however, was not actually carried out till after he had left Bradford.
In March 1890 Binnie was appointed chief engineer to the London County Council, a position which he held till 1901. During this time he superintended the construction of the Blackwall and Greenwich tunnels under the Thames and the Barking Road bridge over the Lea. In 1891, with Sir Benjamin Baker [q.v.], he prepared a report to the London County Council on the main drainage of London, and began the work of addition and reconstruction, therein recommended, which was completed after his retirement. He also designed the necessary works for widening the Strand and for the construction of the thoroughfares of Aldwych and Kingsway connecting it with Holborn. In 1897, on the completion of the Blackwall tunnel, he was knighted.
On the termination of his engagement with the County Council, Binnie commenced private practice at Westminster. In 1906 he reported to the government of Ireland on the Bann and Lough Neagh drainage, and from 1905 to 1907 he acted as chairman of the viceregal commission on the arterial drainage of Ireland. He visited Malta in 1909 in order to report on the water supply. In 1910 and 1911 he reported on the water supply and drainage of Petrograd, and in 1913 on the water supply of the city of Ottawa.
Binnie became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1865, and was elected president in 1905. In 1913 he published an important work on Rainfall Reservoirs and Water Supply, based on lectures which he had delivered at the request of the Chadwick trustees. A few years before his death, which took place at Beer, Devon, on 18 May 1917, an illness necessitated the amputation of one of his legs. He was buried at Brookwood cemetery. He married in 1865 Mary (died 1901), daughter of Dr. William Eames, physician, of Londonderry, by whom he left two sons and three daughters.
[The Times, 19 May 1917; Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, vol. cciii, 1916-1917; private information.]