Guilford Lindsey Molesworth

Sir Guilford Lindsey Molesworth (1828–1925) was an English civil engineer.

Early years and family Molesworth was born in Millbrook, Hampshire, the son of John Edward Nassau Molesworth, Vicar of Rochdale. The elder Molesworth was a great-grandson of Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth. Sir Guildford's great niece was Margaret Patricia Molesworth (1904–1985), the grandmother of Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh. Molesworth and his four brothers - William, solicitor John, George and Rennell - were educated at the King's School, Canterbury where he found football "a great attraction". He then attended the College for Civil Engineers at Putney, apprenticed under Mr Dockray in the London and North Western Railway, and under Sir William Fairbairn at Manchester.

Career in England, India and Ceylon He became a chief assistant engineer of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, but soon resigned to conduct the constructions at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, during the Crimean War. He received the Watt Medal and the Manby premium in 1858 from the Institution of Civil Engineers for his paper on Conversion of Wood by Machinery. He returned to London for a number of years, worked at his profession, then went to Ceylon in 1859 and in 1862 became chief engineer of the government railways in Ceylon. From 1871 to 1889 he lived in India and was consulting engineer to the Indian government with regard to State railways. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) by Queen Victoria in 1888, the year she elevated her Indian manservant, Abdul Karim, to the position of Munshi. He received medals from the British Government for his services during the Afghan War and the Burma War, and was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1904.

Gauge

Molesworth was consulted on a number of occasions on the suitability of adopting a narrow gauge rather than a broad one. He was generally against the narrow gauge as he regarded the cost savings as illusory. His broad gauge line to Kandy was meant to prove that the gauge was practicable in steep mountains.