John Alan Broughall 1900 - 1974

Nationality:
British
born in:
Wandsworth

John Alan Broughall (1900–1974) was a British electrical engineer whose career centred on the development of power supply systems for mainline railway electrification. He studied engineering at University College London (1916–1919), receiving a Diploma and a B.Sc. (Engineering), before completing a two‑year apprenticeship with the English Electric Company.

He spent a decade in the company’s central design department, working on the mechanical and electrical design of salient‑pole machines and gaining experience across a wide range of alternating‑current equipment. In 1931 he joined the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, becoming responsible for the generation and distribution of electric power and later contributing to major electrification schemes at 1500 V DC and 25 kV AC.

During the 1950s he held senior posts within the Railway Executive and the British Transport Commission, representing the nationalised railway on several technical committees concerned with power utilisation and electric traction. He retired in 1964 as Assistant Chief Electrical Engineer of the British Railways Board, subsequently working as a consultant with Kennedy & Donkin on international transport projects, including the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway.

Broughall was a Fellow of the Institutions of Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Engineers.

He died in 1974.

Related Documents

The archive of British electrical engineer John Alan Broughall (1900–1974), comprising professional papers, correspondence, reports, photographs, and personal documents spanning his life and career. The collection reflects Broughall’s work on mainline railway electrification and his wider involvement in the development of power supply systems for the nationalised railway. Professional papers include reports, lectures, technical notes, and correspondence relating to electrification schemes at 1500 V DC and 25 kV AC, together with material documenting his roles within the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, the Railway Executive, the British Transport Commission, and the British Railways Board. The archive also contains photographs and printed material illustrating major engineering projects and aspects of Broughall’s professional activity. Alongside these are personal papers and family records, including notebooks, certificates, wartime documents, correspondence, and photographs relating to Broughall and the wider Broughall family.

John Alan Broughall Archive
This file contains handwritten notes on fluid heating; typed extracts from Chambers’s Encyclopaedia (1866) on railways; a typed attendance list for the first A.C. locomotive handover ceremony at Sandbach, Cheshire; and printed biographical extracts for various fellows of UK engineering institutions, including John Alan Broughall.

Notes on electrical engineering and railways belonging to John Alan Broughall
This file contains three notebooks kept by John Alan Broughall. They comprise a ring‑binder containing collected notes, diary entries, draft correspondence and related material (1944–1964); a spiral‑bound notebook recording his reflections on Christian retreats, with interleaved correspondence from the Association for Promoting Retreats, East Midlands Area (1948); and a small journal containing notes on railway electrification (June 1949) and diary entries documenting travel in France and Italy (October 1949). Together, the notebooks reflect Broughall’s personal, spiritual, professional and travel interests during the mid‑twentieth century.

Personal diaries and notebooks of John Alan Broughall
This file contains family correspondence exchanged between John Alan Broughall, his wife Edith Russell Broughall (née Anderson), and their son, John Broughall. The letters document aspects of family life, domestic circumstances and personal relationships across the period covered by the correspondence.

Family correspondence between John Alan Broughall, Edith Russell Broughall and John Broughall
This series contains personal papers and family material relating to John Alan Broughall and the wider Broughall family. The papers include diaries, notebooks, correspondence, certificates, and other personal documents spanning childhood, education, wartime service, domestic life, travel, and religious interests. The series also includes papers concerning properties occupied by the family and documents created or retained following the deaths of John Alan Broughall and his first wife, Edith.

Broughall Family Papers

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