Early Life and Great Northern Railway
He was born in Invercargill, New Zealand to William Bulleid and his wife Marian Pugh, both British immigrants. On the death of his father, Bulleid returned to Llanfyllin, Wales in 1889 with his mother, where the family home had been. In 1901, after a technical education at Accrington, at age 18 he joined the Great Northern Railway (GNR) at Doncaster as an apprentice under H. A. Ivatt, the CME. After a four-year apprenticeship he became the assistant to the Locomotive Running Superintendent, and a year later the Doncaster Works manager. In 1908, he left to work in Paris with the French division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation as a Test Engineer, soon promoted to Assistant Works Manager and Chief Draughtsman. Later that year he married Marjorie Ivatt, Ivatt's youngest daughter.
A brief period working for the Board of Trade followed from 1910 arranging exhibitions in Brussels, Paris and Turin. During this time, he was able to travel widely in Europe, including a trip with Gresley, Stanier and Hawksworth to Belgium to see a metre-gauge bogie locomotive. In December 1912, he rejoined the GNR as Personal Assistant to Nigel Gresley, the new CME. Gresley was only six years Bulleid's senior. World War I intervened; Bulleid joined the British Army and was assigned to the rail transport arm, rising to the rank of Major. After the war, Bulleid returned to the GNR as the Manager of the Wagon and Carriage Works.
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