William Jeffreys

Early life

William Rees Jeffreys was born at 7 Warwick Place in Paddington, London, on 1 December 1871, the eldest of four children born to William George Jeffreys, an upholsterer, and his wife, Mary Ann, née Garratt. He was privately educated, and in 1891 joined the Board of Trade's commercial, labour, and statistical department as a second division clerk; in his late 20s he studied statistics under Arthur Lyon Bowley at the London School of Economics.

In his spare time, Jeffreys was a keen cyclist. Aged 18, he toured Scotland, and returned as member of the council of the Cyclists' Touring Club to gather information to issue as CTC guidance. He also explored Ireland, where he met Richard J. Mecredy, who helped form the Irish Roads Improvement Association.

Career

Cycling advocacy

Jeffreys was elected to the council of the Cyclists' Touring Club in 1900, and chaired its rights and privileges committee from 1901 to 1906. In 1901 he became the CTC's representative at the Roads Improvement Association, and later the same year became its honorary secretary. The RIA had been jointly established by the CTC and the National Cyclists' Union in October 1886, and initially focused on production of technical literature distributed to highways boards and surveyors to promote improved construction and maintenance methods. Jeffreys believed the RIA should focus more on political lobbying and push for a national highway authority and state funding of highways. In 1903, he was the first witness to give evidence to a British government inquiry into highway administration, and provided extensive RIA technical information on road surfaces sourced from cyclists, saying "The bicycle is perhaps the best road inspector there is." He told the CTC Gazette: "To no class in the community are good roads so important as to cyclists."

Highways advocacy

As many cyclists also became motorists, Jeffreys's allegiances and the balance of the debate began to shift; he "became an arch motorist and the RIA morphed into a motoring organisation". In 1903 Jeffreys left the Board of Trade after being appointed administrative secretary of the Automobile Club of Great Britain (later the RAC) and secretary of the Motor Union of Great Britain and Ireland (established by the Automobile Club two years earlier; it amalgamated with the Automobile Association in 1910). In 1904, he wrote the preface for the Automobile Club's first Automobile Handbook.

In 1903, a Royal Commission on London Traffic was established to report on London's traffic and measures to be taken to improve flows. People were invited to submit proposals and Rees Jeffreys was one of many to do so. He proposed twelve road schemes, of which number 12 was the most eye-catching: a "boulevard round London" (see map). This was perhaps the first published proposal for what was implemented in the 1920s and 1930s as the North and South Circular Roads. In practice it was more a concept than a realistic proposal: whereas other schemes which involved large-scale demolition were marked as "involving clearances", it was not, despite passing through Hornsey, Tottenham and Walthamstow.

Rees Jeffreys advocated that the new roads to be built should, where possible, have four separate tracks for different classes of user:

electric trams;

automobiles and cycles;

vans, carts, traction engines, and other slow-going traffic;

foot passengers.

The Royal Commission proposed similar schemes of segregation in its report, distinguishing between slow and fast vehicular traffic, with rapid transit (i.e. limited stop) tramway cars in the middle of the roadway.

Jeffreys also had roles with the Commercial Motor Users' Association and the Institution of Automobile Engineers (he was honorary treasurer from 1910 to 1933; the IAE merged into the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1947), founded the Motor Union Insurance Co Ltd (he was a director for 23 years), and he became a life member of the RAC. In 1908, he was also appointed secretary of the British Section of the Permanent International Association of Road Congresses (PIARC), a role which he later said "enabled gaps in my own knowledge to be filled from first hand information given by men who held positions of authority."

Death and legacy

Jeffreys died on 18 August 1954 in his Sussex home at Wivelsfield Hall in Wivelsfield Green, and is buried in Wivelsfield's churchyard. He had been an art collector and after his death, 158 works—bronzes, lithographs, drawings and paintings (including works by Boudin, Corot, Degas, Augustus John, Matisse, Picasso and Sickert, some of which he purchased from the artists themselves)—were auctioned at Christie's. Some were bought by the Tate Gallery with the money going towards a charity that Jeffreys had founded in 1950.

Several of Jeffreys's ideas were implemented after his death, including motorways ("special roads restricted to motor traffic alone with no stopping permitted and no pipes or cables laid beneath them"), the Severn Bridge between England and Wales (1966), and the orbital London by-pass (the M25 motorway, completed in 1986).

Rees Jeffreys Road Fund

His estate provided an endowment enabling the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund to offer financial support for education, research and physical road transport–related projects. The registered charity's main activities are in three areas: provision of support for academic posts and studentships; contributions to physical projects on land adjoining highways; and support for highway-related research projects.

Imperial College's Transport Library (next to the Letitia Chitty Reading Room) is sponsored by the Rees Jeffreys fund. The fund also sponsors MSc Transport students.

In 2016, a Rees Jeffreys Road Fund report, A Major Road Network for England, recommended creation of England's Major Road Network, implemented in 2018.

In 2018, the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund, with the Campaign for Better Transport, published a guide, Roads and the Environment: Putting an innovative approach at the heart of RIS2.

In September 2021, the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund launched a £150,000 'future roads' competition to mark the 150th anniversary of Jeffreys's birth. Trustees asked entrants to consider their vision of how roads (motorways, highways, streets and footways) could best work for everybody for the next 50 years. In March 2022, two winners of the competition were announced; the Eloy connected vehicle platform and Reed Mobility's automated vehicle system each won £75,000 to support delivery of their ideas.

Roadside rests

In providing several memorial viewpoints across the country, the charity remembered its founder's request for Sussex. A viewpoint (created in 1968) is provided at Duncton Down on the A285 at Petworth, overlooking the playing fields of Seaford College. In East Sussex, a viewing platform was erected at High and Over giving views over the Cuckmere Valley. Other locations include (by date order where known):

A217 Reigate Hill, Surrey (created in 1958)

Old Winchester Hill off the A32 in Hayden Lane (1958)

B2042 Ide Hill, Kent (1960)

Stanmore Common (1972)

B2139 West of Houghton, West Sussex (1991)

A809 Queen's View and The Whangie carpark, Auchineden Hill, near Carbeth, Scotland

Newgale, Pembrokeshire overlooking St Brides Bay and Newgale Beach

Rhaedr y Cwm near Llan Ffestiniog in Gwynedd

A47 The fort car park in Lower Fishguard Harbour

Little Mis Tor, Dartmoor (west of Merrivale on the Two Bridges-Tavistock road)

St Mary's Vale, near Abergavenny, Gwent

Blackgang, Isle of Wight

Other memorials

Since 1998, the Institution of Civil Engineers has presented the Rees Jeffreys Award for the best paper on highway engineering published by the institution, with author(s) receiving a premium of £200 and a certificate.

Notes and references

Baldwin, Peter; Bridle, Ron; Baldwin, Robert; Porter, Ron (2002). The Motorway Achievement, Volume 1. London: Thomas Telford. ISBN 9780727731968.

Reid, Carlton (2014). Roads Were Not Built For Cars. Newcastle: Red Kite Prayer/Front Page Creations. ISBN 9780993005701.