James Braidwood (firefighter)

James Braidwood (firefighter)

James Braidwood (1800–1861) founded the world's first municipal fire service in Edinburgh in 1824, and was the first director of the London Fire Engine Establishment (the brigade which was eventually to become the London Fire Brigade). He is credited with the development of the modern municipal fire service.

He was born in Edinburgh the tenth child of Francis James Braidwood a cabinetmaker, and Janet Mitchell. He was educated at the Royal High School. He learned about the construction of buildings after joining his father's building firm as an apprentice, knowledge he was later to put to good use.

Appointed Master of Fire Engines in 1824, at the age of twenty-four, Braidwood established principles of fire-fighting that are still applied today. His training as a surveyor gave him exceptional knowledge of the behaviour of building materials and housing conditions in the Old Town of Edinburgh. He recruited to the service expert tradesmen - slaters, carpenters, masons and plumbers - who could apply their various fields of expertise to fire fighting. He also recruited experienced mariners for an occupation that required heavy manual work in hauling engines and trundling wheeled escape ladders up and down Edinburgh's steep streets, as well as nimble footwork when negotiating rooftops and moving through partially destroyed buildings. His many original ideas of practical organisation and methodology, published in 1830, were adopted throughout Britain. He was, however, resistant to the introduction of steam-driven engines. In 1833 he left Edinburgh to lead the London Fire Engine Establishment.

Braidwood was distinguished for his heroism on the occasion of great fires in Edinburgh (1824) and London (1830). He also undertook a pastoral role, introducing visits to ordinary firemen and their families by the London City Mission. On 22 June 1861 his life was claimed in the Tooley Street fire at Cotton's Wharf near London Bridge Station when a falling wall crushed him to death. It took two days to recover his body and his heroism led to a massive funeral on 29 June, a public spectacle equal almost to the Tooley Street fire itself, which continued to burn for a fortnight and causing ₤2,000,000 damage. A London fireboat was named in his honour in the 1930s.

Braidwood is buried at Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London, within sight of the Stoke Newington Fire Station.