McAlpine's Fusiliers

Glenfinnan Viaduct

I'm taking a big risk with the famously even handed British libel laws for the rich which have made London a mecca for Libel Tourists. However I can share with you that Sir Robert McAlpine, nicknamed "Concrete Bob", founded the British construction firm now known as Sir Robert McAlpine. He made his name and his nickname building the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct (as seen in Harry Potter) on the West Highland Line in concrete. It was built between July 1897 and October 1898 at the cost of £18,904.

Concrete Bob

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/jacobite-express.html

Robert McAlpine came from a solid working class background starting work as a child at the age of 10 in a coal mine and later becoming a bricklayer. He was ennobled as the first Lord McAlpine in 1918 and the money he made allowed future Lord McAlpine's to be styled "Bon Viveurs" and High Tories, that is to say without any real jobs and betraying their roots. 

The current Lord McAlpine, Alistair McAlpine, who was Tory Party Treasurer under Margaret Thatcher has converted  Il Convento Di Santa Maria Di Constantinopoli is on the outskirts of Marittima in Puglia with his third wife and runs it as a boutique hotel. It is by all accounts a wonderful place to stay and by all accounts  he is an amiable and warm person. He is a great collector and has furnished the convent with many items from his collection including art from Africa, India and Australia, books, furniture and other collectables from around the world.

Alistair McAlpine at Il Convento Di Santa Maria
Di Constantinopoli in Puglia

Dominic Behan, brother of Brendan Behan, in the days before Twitter, praised their excellent employment and safety policies towards Irish people in his song, McAlpine's Fusiliers, which to this very day is never played at company functions;

“ I remember the day that the Bear O'Shea

Fell into a concrete stairs

What the Horseface said when he saw him dead

It wasn't what the rich call prayers

I'm a navvy short, was the one retort

That reached unto my ears

When the going is rough you must be tough

With McAlpine's fusiliers

I've worked till the sweat it has had me beat

With Russian, Czech, and Pole

On shuttering jams up in the hydro-dams

Or underneath the Thames in a hole

I've grafted hard and I've got my cards

And many a ganger's fist across my ears

If you pride your life don't join, by Christ!

With McAlpine's fusiliers."

*Innocent Face*