Edward Charles Blount

Born into a Catholic family at Bellamour, near Rugeley, Staffordshire, he was the second son of Edward Blount (1769–1843) and his wife, Frances (died 1859), daughter of Francis Wright of Fitzwalters, Essex.

He was sent young to Rugeley Grammar School, where the local Anglican vicar was master, which at home he studied French with Father Malvoisin, an émigré Catholic priest.

Through his father he moved as a young man in Whig society, and sometimes attended breakfast parties at Holland House.

In 1838 a French government bill for the construction of seven major trunk-lines under the control of the state was defeated, and the way thrown open to private enterprise.

The law authorising Blount's firm to construct the railway from Paris was signed by King Louis Philippe on 15 July 1840, and the line, designed by Joseph Locke with Thomas Brassey as contractor, was opened on 9 May 1843.

[1] William Barber Buddicom, the locomotive manager of the London and North Western Railway at Liverpool, brought 50 English drivers to France, Blount himself learned engine-driving, and the line prospered from the first.

With the aid of Brassey and other wealthy friends he started in the autumn of 1852 a third banking business, Edward Blount & Company at No.

[1] Blount dined with Otto von Bismarck at Versailles after the fall of the city, and left for London at the end of March 1871.

He maintained a position in English and French society in Paris, and was for many years president of the British chamber of commerce there.

[1] Devoted to horse racing, Blount followed the stable of the Comte de Lagrange, and was a member of the French Jockey Club.

He died at East Grinstead on 15 March 1905, aged 96, and was buried in the family vault at the cemetery of St. Francis, Crawley, Sussex.