Charles Mitchell

Dr. Charles Mitchell (1820 - 22 August 1895) was an Aberdonian who founded major shipbuilding yards on the Tyne. He became a public benefactor who funded notable buildings that still survive today. He attended Aberdeen University. After an engineering apprenticeship in London, he became a ship designer working for John Coutts' Newcastle-upon-Tyne yard in 1842. He became a shipbuilder in his own right at the Low Walker yard on the Tyne in 1852, which joined in partnership with the Armstrong yard to form Armstrong Mitchell in 1882. From 1857 he built ships for Russia and in 1862 he set up shipyards in St Petersburg. He received a diamond studded snuff box worth 3,000 guineas and a national decoration for his work for Russia. He was a...