MOUNTAIN William Charles (1862 – 1928)

MINING ENGINEER, UNCLE OF J.R.R. TOLKEIN

Situated in the Consecrated/West Section of Jesmond Old Cemetery.

William Charles Mountain.

Born in Birmingham, Warkwickshire, William married Grace Bindley Tolkein in 1887 in Kings Norton, Warwickshire. Mountain was a northern industrialist at the turn of the century, inheriting a wire manufacturing business before spending 24 years with Ernest Scott and Mountain, electrical and general engineers that were bought by C.A. Parsons in 1913. The company made pumps, dynamos and a range of high speed engines for railways, ships and industrial buildings, and also became the first company to provide electric colliery pumping in this country. In 1908, Lord Armstrong visited his company on its 4 acre site on East Street, off Coulthard’s Lane in Gateshead.

A close up of the monument detail.

Mountain was appointed as an expert on Electricity Regulations in mines in 1910, became a member of the Literary and Philosophical Society and, in 1925, was appointed Vice-President of the North East Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. 

Grace and William Mountain.

He lived in a variety of houses, including 9, St George’s Terrace, Jesmond, South Street in Hexham, ‘The Hermitage’ in Gateshead and Sydenham Terrace, Jesmond – the latter three addresses no longer exist, unfortunately, pulled down in the name of progress!!