John Alexander Brodie

John Alexander Brodie (1858 – 1934) was an English civil engineer. He was especially known for his contribution to town planning in Liverpool, notably as one of the engineers who led the design of the Mersey Tunnel under the River Mersey. He is also known for inventing the netting for football goals in 1889.

Early life John Alexander Brodie was born in Bridgnorth on 1 June 1858. His father, James Brodie, was a Scottish man from Kettins. Brodie served his apprenticeship in 1875, working in the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board engineering department under Chief Engineer George Fosbery Lyster. In 1879 he obtained a Whitworth Scholarship and a Canning Scholarship to study mathematics at Owen's College (now part of the University of Manchester). After graduation, he served a three-year traineeship in the office of Sir Joseph Whitworth.

Civil engineering career After a short spell working for the Liverpool City Engineer's Department, he set up a private consultancy and spent some time working in Bilbao, Spain. He returned to Britain in 1884.

Brodie was a keen sportsman and played rugby and golf. In 1889 he invented the goal net for use in football matches, and he said that this was the invention of which he was the most proud.

Brodie returned to Liverpool in 1898 as the city engineer suggesting several improvements for the town such as the UK's first ring road, electric trams and the East Lancashire Road, the UK's first intercity highway. This technique was later used in road building projects in Manchester, for Kingsway and Princess Road.

Brodie was at the forefront of pre-fabricated housing technology, promoting the use of pre-cast reinforced concrete slabs as a means of building houses quickly and cheaply; he presented an example of this technique to the Cheap Cottages Exhibition at Letchworth Garden City. The design attracted attention from across the world and he is known to have influenced Grosvenor Atterbury who used a similar technique to build the houses at Forest Hills Gardens. becoming the first local authority engineer to receive the accolade.

Personal life Brodie married Aimée Freeland, the daughter of Hugh Freeland from Uddingston, in 1897 in Glasgow. They had two sons and two daughters.

Death and legacy

On 16 November 1934, Brodie died at Aigburth Hall in Liverpool's Aigburth suburb at the age of 76. His former Liverpool home where he lived from 1858 to 1934, 28 Ullet Road near Sefton Park, is commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque. There is also a Stonegate pub called The John Brodie on Allerton Road in the Mossley Hill suburb.