SIXSMITH, WILLIAM (1815-1893), locomotive driver, was born on 18 November 1815 at Wavertree near Liverpool, Lancashire, England, son of William Sixsmith. As a boy he worked on the construction of the Liverpool-Manchester railway and joined the locomotive branch on the opening of the line. He became an engine-driver on the Liverpool-Manchester and later the Liverpool-Birmingham lines. He then drove engines on the construction line for the Paris-Rouen railway and was similarly employed under Sir John O'Neill in Ireland. He claimed to have driven trains containing the Duke of Wellington and King Louis-Phillipe.

Lured by gold Sixsmith migrated to Sydney with his family and wife Maria, née Townsend, whom he had married in Birmingham in 1841. He soon travelled 'alone and on foot' to the Ovens goldfield where he had no luck. He made his way to Melbourne and worked his passage back to Sydney as a coal-trimmer on a ...

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Source:

Australian Dictionary of Biography