Mr Robert Maitland Brereton (2 January 1834–7 December 1911)

British railway engineer. From a Norfolk family of notable Victorian engineers, Brereton was educated privately, and at King's College, the Royal School of Mines in London, and trained under Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1852-56). He assisted in the construction of the Great Western Railway in England. In 1857 he went to India to work as an assistant engineer on the construction of the Bombay to Calcutta Railway. He was eventually appointed chief engineer for the Grand Indian Peninsular Railway. He was subsequently engaged for 8 years in irrigation work in California. Returning to Great Britain after this, he was county surveyor of roads and bridges in Norfolk (1879-1885), commissioner to the late Duke of Sutherland, and a director of the Highland Railway (1886-1888). He took part in carrying out a settlement of crofter families in Canada, and from 1889 onwards, practised as a consulting engineer in the United States. He married Alice Fairchild of Waterloo, New York, and they had four children. In retirement he lived in Portland, Oregon. He died in Woodstock, Oregon, aged 77.