William Routledge

Cape Breton coal mine manager William Routledge passed away in early 1895 while travelling on the train to Stellarton.

Routledge was born in Durham, England, in 1829, and he studied mining engineering at England’s School of Mines. He moved to Nova Scotia in 1865 to manage the Lingan coal mine, then-owned by the General Mining Association. Under his management, new slopes (tunnels) were opened, a railway from the mine to a port was built, and a mining plant was installed.

Ten years later, Routledge switched to managing the Gardner coal mine and he later ran the International and Reserve mines.

The March 1895 edition of the Canadian Mining Review described Routledge’s passing:

“Mr. Routledge was a member of the Board of Examiners of Cape Breton. and with his associates, Messrs. Henry Mitchell, of Old Bridgeport, and A. B. McGillivary, of Little Glace Bay, was en route for Stellarton, where they were to attend a meeting of the board. When the train was approaching the Grand Narrows, where a stoppage of twenty minutes is made for breakfast, the three gentlemen were sitting in the smoker of the ‘sleeper’ when Mr. Mitchell noticed Mr. Routledge falling from his seat, apparently in a faint. Mr. Mitchell leaned forward and caught him in his arms, and with assistance laid him on the lounge, when it was found that life was even then extinct. Mr. Routledge has for some years suffered from heart disease, which was undoubtedly the immediate cause of death.”

Routledge, his wife and five sons lived “at his private residence, ‘Colby,’ a beautiful villa in the suburbs of Sydney.” (Colby House, at 10 Park Street, was demolished in 2023.)

Mining often runs in families, particularly historically, and a number of other Routledge family members also worked in the industry. Two of his sons worked for the Dominion Coal Company in Cape Breton, and a third was “engaged in mercantile pursuits at the mines,” as the Canadian Mining Review put it.

Routledge’s brother, Walton, was a State Inspector of Mines in Illinois.

Tunnel at the Lingan mine.

The Reserve Mine, later called Dominion No. 5.