thumb|"Naval Construction". Caricature by [[Carlo Pellegrini (caricaturist)|Ape published in Vanity Fair in 1875]]

Sir Edward James Reed, KCB, FRS (20 September 1830 – 30 November 1906) was an English naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870. He was a Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1906.

Early life

Edward Reed was born in Sheerness, Kent and was the son of John and Elizabeth Reed. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1876. He was also a Knight Commander of the Imperial Russian Order of St Stanislus, a Knight of the Austrian Order of Franz Joseph, and of the Turkish Order of the Medjidie. On his return to London, Reed wrote a sympathetic history of the country published to some success the following year.

At the next General Election in 1880 he was elected as member for Cardiff. In 1886, he was appointed Lord of the Treasury in Gladstone's third ministry.

In 1882, Reed acquired the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad (JP&M), which ran from Quincy east through Tallahassee to Lake City, and its subsidiary, the Florida Central Railroad, which ran east from Lake City to Jacksonville. Reed reorganized both the JP&M and the Florida Central as the Florida Central and Western Railroad. His son Edward Tennyson Reed became the political caricaturist of Punch magazine.

Works

Notable works include

  • Shipbuilding in Iron and Steel (1868)
  • Our Ironclad Ships, their Qualities, Performance and Cost (1869)
  • Japan: its History, Traditions, and Religions, with the Narrative of a Visit in 1879 Two volumes. London, J. Murray (1880)
  • Treatise on the stability of ships (1884)
  • Modern ships of war (1888) at Project Gutenberg

References

Further reading

  • Brown, DK (2003). Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860–1905. Caxton Editions. .
  • Archibald, EHH (1984). The Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy 1897–1984. Blandford. .
  • Sandler, Stanley, "The Emergence of the Modern Capital Ship". Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press/Associated University Presses. 1979.
  • Turner, Gregg M. (2008) A Journey into Florida Railroad History. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. .
  • Royal Society of London on-line biography
  • Reed Obituary
  • A Treatise on the Stability of Ships written by Edward Reed in 1885