Charles Louis Aimė De Bergue (1807-1873) :

'Mr. Charles Louis Aimė De Bergue, born at Kensington on the 24th September, 1807, was the eldest son of seventeen children of Mr. de Bergue by his wife, daughter of Mr.Rain, native of Ireland. At the age of twelve he accompanied to Paris his godfather Prince Louis de Broglio, who had, with the Prince Polinec and several other French noblemen, commenced engineering works in the Place de la Bastille. Here he had the opportunity of exercising his natural taste for that profession, and, though almost a child, took an active part in making some valuable improvements in machinery. He was afterwards for a time with Mr. J. Waddington, and English Engineer, at St. Renie. After the revolution of 1830 the establishment in Paris broke up. The Prince de Broglio and the Prince de Polinec came to England, and Mr. Charles de Bergue went for three years to Spain. He returned to settle in England in 1834, taking the contract for the gates of the Seraglio at Constantinople.

In 1850 he built engineering works at Manchester, and engaged to construct the railway from Barcelona to Tarragona, for which he invented a new iron permanent way, that was afterwards laid down on several other lines in Spain, and was found to make a great reduction in the cost of maintenance, especially in hot climates. He also invented a useful carriage for laying the same with perfect exactitude.

In 1861 he built works at Cardiff, entering extensively into bridge-building. In 1871 he took the contract for the erection of the Tay Bridge, on the plans of the engineer of the North British railway. After completing the calculations for that work, which greatly fatigued his brain, he was seized with congestion, softening of the brain supervening, which ended his life on the 10th April, 1873, having lost the power of speech for above twelve months.

He was the inventor of many valuable tools, now in use, for shearing, punching, riveting, rail-leveling, and rivet-making. He was also the inventor of a new system of tramway, which has been laid down in Java, Syria, and other places ; likewise of a new construction of lattice bridge, uniting lightness with great strength, upon which system the new Wandsworth Bridge has been built.

Mr. de Bergue was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on the 6th March, 1849, and occasionally took part in its proceedings.' from 'Memoirs' of the Institution of Civil Engineers. [174]

As a prolific inventor the following patent applications were attributed to Charles Louis Aimė De Bergue : -

GB 9052 / 1841 - Axletrees and axletree-boxes. 21 August 1841.
GB 11184/1846 - Atmospheric-railways. 24 April 1846. (residing at Arthur-street, West - 6th June 1846 - [167])
GB 11649/1847 - Wheeled-carriages. 8 April 1847.
GB 11815/1847 - Buffing and traction apparatus; railway and other carriages. 26 July 1847.
GB 12013/1848 - Carriages used on railways. 5 January 1848
GB 12286/1848 - Bridges, girders, and beams. 12 October 1848.
GB 12435/1849 - Steam-engines; pumps; springs for railway and other purposes. 23 January 1849.
GB 13043/1850 - Locomotive and other steam-engines; buffers for railway purposes. 15 April 1850.
GB 13493/1851 - The permanent way of railways, and construction of the same. 7 February 1851.

Many thanks to the steamindex website for this data. [186]

	The De Bergue & Co. Ltd. of Manchester integrated nameplate which is displayed upon a bridge built in 1892 and installed over the river in St. George's Street within the town of Hebden Bridge in the former West Riding of Yorkshire ; only about 6 miles from our home. [001] [20170825]
	The signature of Charles de Bergue taken from an 1864 contract drawing for the River Taff swing bridge. [599] [20170825] The full story of the swing bridges over the River Taff, the Glamorganshire Canal and Mr be Bergue is at Volume 09, Chapter 11.

The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery in Harrow Road, London have a record of Charles Louis Aimė De Bergue buried alongside many other leading Victorian engineers, architects, entrepreneurs and artists of the great age of railways.