James Braidwood

 

We stumbled across Mr Braidwood when in Edinburgh, we can't resist a statue and when we looked him up (as of course we had never heard of him) we knew that he was more than deserving of his own historical blog post.

James Braidwood was born in 1800, in Edinburgh, the 10th child to his parents. 10 years later his family set up an upholstery firm, but that isn't the occupation that James chose when it came down to it, no. He is credit as the first Master of Engines in Edinburgh's first municipal fire service in 1824. He went on to be the first director of the London Fire Engine Establishment (later the London Fire Brigade) and also progressed modern municipal fire services. It seems the fire service was his life work, and ultimately it was also what killed him.

Braidwood became Master of Fire Engines at the young age of 24. He was appointed only 2 months before the Great Fire of Edinburgh and thanks to his background and training in surveying, he established principles of fire fighting that were ground breaking to the point they are still used today. He knew the knowledge of buildings was going to be crucial to fire fighting in order to save lives and so recruited men with similar knowledge of the trade.

In 1833, Braidwood left Edinburgh to head the London Fire Engine Establishment. He ended up being well known for his heroism when it came to fighting fires and saving lives, as well as for his visits to firemen and their families through the London City Mission.

However, his services to his communities didn't end there. Braidwood was the first witness called upon at the trial of William Burke. Burke and Hare were obviously infamous in Edinburgh, and still are, but Braidwood was called to give evidence on Christmas Eve in 1828 as a builder. His job was to draw scale plans of the Tanners Close lodging house used by the terrible twosome for their murders. He had to state as evidence that his plans were accurate and therefore admissible in the case.

On the 22nd of June 1861, a fire broke out at Cotton's Wharf which was dubbed the Tooley Street Fire. It was also the fire that took the life of James Braidwood when a falling wall crushed him three hours after the fire had started. It took two days for his body to be recovered due to the severity of the fire. Despite this, the fire burned for another 2 weeks and was considered the worst fire since the Great Fire of London. But Braidwood sure was celebrated when it came to his funeral. Thanks to his work and care his funeral became a public spectacle. They laid him to rest at Abney Park Cemetery which isn't too far from the Stoke Newington Fire Station. His wife was buried with him when she died ten years later and the two are in proximity of Mary's son and James's stepson who was also a fireman and had died six years earlier. The Braidwood's grave was actually lost for a while until 1981 when Liam Hackett, a Stoke Newington White Watch Station Officer went out of his way to locate it. He then spent the summer clearing the site and restoring the monument so it is now relatively easy to find in the overgrowth.

Following his death Braidwood went on to be immortalised and honoured in several ways. He's recorded on the National Firefighters Memorial by St Paul's Cathedral, had a 2005 Masonic Lodge in Dartford named after him, had the 2008 memorial statue in Edinburgh which is what you see here erected, as well as a memorial plaque in Crown Court Church of Scotland and a street off Tooley Street where he died named after him, there is a memorial on the corner of the street that is part of the London Bridge Hospital. 

So we're feeling pretty honoured to visit this man's memorial statue, even if it was an accident. But you know for sure that we will be visiting his grave to pay our respects next time we are in that part of London too!