Page 19 - They Also Served

2William Moorsom 1821.
A son of Admiral Sir Robert Moorsom, William Scarth Moorsom was born in Whitby on 4th July 1804. Entering the Royal Military College Sandhurst, in 1819, he was commissioned into the 31st Regiment stationed in Ireland. Quickly transferring through the 69th, he finally settled in the 79th Regiment of Foot. During the next year he carried out a survey of Dublin and its surrounding area that became the standard reference until replaced by the Ordnance Survey map in 1846. Over the next few years, Moorsom, as was common at the time, purchased commissions in a number of regiments to further his social status, moving to the 7th Regiment, and finally, the 52nd stationed in Nova Scotia.
Once again, his skill as a surveyor came to the fore and he provided the first detailed map of Halifax and its surrounding area. Returning to England to look after his ageing father, Moorsom relinquished his commission in 1832. After his father’s death in 1835, he found employment as a surveyor on the construction of the London and Birmingham railway, where his elder brother, Constantine, was secretary of the board. His first success was surveying a route along the Ouse Valley which negated a proposed, and expensive, embankment. This caught the eye of the great railway
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