Glenfinnan Viaduct
I'm taking a big risk with the famously even handed British
libel laws for the rich which have made London a mecca for Libel Tourists. However I can share with you that Sir Robert McAlpine,
nicknamed "Concrete Bob", founded the British construction firm now
known as Sir Robert McAlpine. He made his name and his nickname building the famous
Glenfinnan Viaduct (as seen in Harry Potter) on the West Highland Line in concrete. It was built between
July 1897 and October 1898 at the cost of £18,904.
Concrete Bob
http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/jacobite-express.html
Robert McAlpine came from a solid working class background
starting work as a child at the age of 10 in a coal mine and later becoming a
bricklayer. He was ennobled as the first Lord McAlpine in 1918 and the
money he made allowed future Lord McAlpine's to be styled "Bon
Viveurs" and High Tories, that is to say without any real jobs and
betraying their roots.
The current Lord McAlpine, Alistair McAlpine, who was
Tory Party Treasurer under Margaret Thatcher has converted Il Convento Di Santa Maria Di Constantinopoli
is on the outskirts of Marittima in Puglia with his third wife and runs it as a
boutique hotel. It is by all accounts a wonderful place to stay full and he is
by all accounts an amiable and warm person. He is a great collector and has
furnished the convent with many items from his collection including art from
Africa, India and Australia, books, furniture and other collectables from
around the world.
Alistair McAlpine at Il Convento Di Santa Maria
Di Constantinopoli in Puglia
Dominic Behan, brother of Brendan Behan, in the days before
Twitter, praised their excellent employment and safety policies towards Irish
people in his song, McAlpine's Fusiliers, which to this very day is never
played at company functions;
“ I remember the day that the Bear O'Shea
Fell into a concrete stairs
What the Horseface said when he saw him dead
It wasn't what the rich call prayers
I'm a navvy short, was the one retort
That reached unto my ears
When the going is rough you must be tough
With McAlpine's fusiliers
I've worked till the sweat it has had me beat
With Russian, Czech, and Pole
On shuttering jams up in the hydro-dams
Or underneath the Thames in a hole
I've grafted hard and I've got my cards
And many a ganger's fist across my ears
If you pride your life don't join, by Christ!
With McAlpine's fusiliers."
*Innocent Face*