About John Milton Langdon
John Milton Langdon was born in the seaside town of Barry in South Wales in 1937 and was educated at Barry Grammar School. After completing his basic education he spent the next two years as a national serviceman in the Royal Air Force servicing airborne navigation and blind bombing radars.
After demobilisation in 1958, Langdon joined the staff of the Chief Civil Engineer for South Wales Ports as an articled student and started his training as a Civil Engineer. This was successfully completed in 1969 when he became a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Due to the limited opportunity for promotion in South Wales Ports, Langdon moved to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board in 1970 on a two year contract as the Resident Engineer for a major port re-development. Following his transfer to the permanent staff in 1972 he worked as a Project Manager supervising all aspects of port re-development. The financial crisis that beset Mersey Docks precipitated a major reduction in staff and in 1975 Langdon accepted the offer of a post in Bahrain with a British Consulting Engineer.
This was the beginning of more than thirty years of almost continuous service in the Middle East as a civil engineer involved in port development work.
After completing his assignment in Bahrain, Langdon moved to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates and then to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia where he worked for four years at the headquarters of the Saudi Port Authority. This was followed by a short tour in Iraq.
Between 1982 and 1983 Langdon studied at Liverpool University and was awarded the degree of Master of Engineering.
Between 1983 and 1991 he was employed by Blohm and Voss of Hamburg in various capacities in Abu Dhabi, Lagos in Nigeria and then for four years at Bandar Abbas in Iran during the Iran Iraq war. This last assignment was followed by two years in Londonderry, Northern Ireland where he was the Resident Engineer for the construction of a new deepwater commercial port.
In 1993 Langdon was transferred to the grade of Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. This is an honour that is achieved by only about 5% of British civil engineers.
In 1994 Langdon moved to Dubai and over the next five years he was extensively involved with the construction of the Burj Al Arab hotel and its surrounding facilities. On completion it was the tallest building in the Middle East and the tallest hotel in the world. It remains the only hotel with seven stars in service in the world.
On completion of this assignment Langdon moved to Abu Dhabi where he was involved at a senior level with various projects including the construction of prestigious Grand Mosque for Sheikh Zayed.
John Milton Langdon retired from full time work in 2005 shortly after a weekend visit to Khasab in Oman. During this short break he visited Telegraph Island with his wife and was inspired to write an article about the hardships endured by the telegraph operators who lived and worked on the island at the beginning of the telecommunication age during the reign of Queen Victoria.
This initial work was developed into four separate novels chronicling the fictitious life story of Jason Smiley Stewart. Three of the novels have been published and the fourth is expected to reach the bookshops early in 2009. Details can be found elsewhere in this homepage.
Langdon has also written a series of articles about his adopted home state of Kärnten in Austria which have been published in Dubai. He has written some poetry and is trying to recapture forgotten skills with watercolour.
An absorbing pastime over the past two years has been the construction of a model of the steamship “Thalia” and a series of progress photographs are included in this home page.
John Milton Langdon lives with his wife in the mediaeval Austrian town of Klagenfurt which is located on the south side of the Alps. From his first marriage he has three children and six grandchildren. He has also, two stepsons and a step grandson from his second marriage. Langdon and his wife share many interests including travel, the British canals, music and literature, but hiking in the mountains near their home is their preferred leisure activity.