Background
Leslie was born on March 18, 1831 in London, England, United Kingdom. He was the son of Charles Robert Leslie, a noted painter and illustrator.
Leslie was born on March 18, 1831 in London, England, United Kingdom. He was the son of Charles Robert Leslie, a noted painter and illustrator.
Educated at the Mercers" School in London at the age of sixteen, Leslie was apprenticed to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the usual fee of 1,000 guineas was waived in consideration of his father painting some pictures for Brunel.
Leslie became a specialist at bridge building and in 1851 was assistant engineer on the Chepstow Bridge, his next position was resident engineer on the Saltash Bridge. Brunel was a consulting engineer to the Eastern Bengal Railway and Leslie was sent to as engineer in charge of bridges and viaducts. He supervised the building of the Eschamutter and Koormar river bridges before returning to Britain in 1861 to design bridges for railway lines in South Wales.
He soon returned to as chief engineer of the Eastern Bengal Railway and in 1876 Leslie became agent and chief engineer to the East Railway Company.
He also designed an unusual floating pontoon bridge which straddled the Hooghly in Calcutta for 70 years and the Gorai River railway bridge near Kushtia in Bangladesh. The injury was not helped by an accident when he was 84 when he was knocked down by a bicycle as he left his London home and broke a thigh.
Despite the injuries he continued to work and in 1895 he became the chairman of the Southern Punjab Railway Company in London. In 1899 he went on a brief return visit to to discuss a replacement for his floating bridge which was now inadequate for the increased usage, in 1918 when he was 88 he submitted a new design. Barry had been the Chief Engineer in charge of the construction of the Jubilee Bridge.