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 Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born in Portsmouth, England in 1806.He was the son of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel who fled to America from the French Revolution before coming to England in 1799.
Like his father,Isambard was an engineer, designer and builder of bridges, tunnels, railways and steamships.
In his early working life he was of tidy and clean appearance, olive skinned in colour, just over 5 feet tall. He was quite nimble and would wear smart clothes and top hats to help him look taller.
He studied at the Henri 1Vschool in Paris where he developed an appreciation for the architecture of the Grand Siecle. He entered his fathers office in 1822 and apprenticed with his father on the early stages and construction of the Rotherhithe Tunnel. 
In 1825, he became resident engineer and displayed great skill and courage when it flooded.
Until Victorian Times,travelling anywhere was uncomfortable, and very slow.
The vehicles were horse-drawn, with the carriages travelling on rough, uneven and muddy roads.
The roads had to follow the lie of the land, so that if a steep hill was in the way, the road went round it, which made the journey longer, but with the arrival of the railway land travel changed dramatically.
 On the 7th March 1833 at the age of 27, Brunel was appointed chief engineer to the G.W.R.(Great Western Railway), at Bristol,to bring the railway in from London. By August 1833 he had produced his plans for the railway, with the estimated cost of £2,805,330.00. After two years of hard argument in Parliament, it received the Royal Assent, for it to be constructed, to include stations at Bath, Chipppenham, Swindon, Maidenhead and Reading with branch lines to Trowbridge and Bradford on Avon. Impressive achievements on the route included the viaducts at Hanwell, Chippenham, and the Maidenhead Bridge.
The Box Tunnel between Bath and Chippenham took five years to dig, and when the two tunnels from each side of the hill met, they were only one and a quarter inches out from each other, even though the tunnel was built with a deliberate bend in it. On the 30th June 1841, the directors of the G.W.R. left London and made the first train journey to Temple Mead's Station, Bristol, in 4 hours.
 During the next 20 years the Great Western Railway expanded quickly, reaching Weymouth in the south, most of Devon and Cornwall, Birmingham and the Midlands,and also South Wales with a spur to Neyland, Pembrokeshire. Whilst working on the railway in South Wales he travelled in a handsome black Britszko of his own design, drawn by four white horses.
His navies christened it the "Flying Hearse", in which were his plans, survey equipment, a pull out bed, and never ending supply of cigars. Pembrokeshire had its first view of this dynamic, olive skinned man with his rakish stovepipe hat; purple cravat and cigar akimbo outlining his great dream of a broad gauge empire to the west.
In March 1853, the G.W.R. offered the South Wales Company favourable terms to provide for a double track to be laid to Carmarthen, followed by a single-track extension to Neyland, via Haverfordwest by 1857. In spring of 1857, Neyland opened, being called Milford Haven until 1859. Brunel christened the terminus and new town "New Milford", adding insult to the injury he had already inflicted on old Milford, when he refused to take his line there.
During his career, Brunel also built three ships that were very important in the history of ocean travelling, as each one was a first of its kind.
In 1838 he built a paddle steamer called the Great Western, which was the first transatlantic passenger steamship in regular service. It made its maiden voyage to New York from Bristol, taking 15 days on the crossing, and over the next eight years made 60 crossings.
 The next steamship that Brunel built was the "Great Britain", fitted with a six bladed propeller, and designed to carry 250 passengers, 130 crew and 1,200 tonnes of cargo. She made her first crossing from Liverpool to New York in 1845.
In 1858, Brunel started to build the Great Eastern, which took 5 years to build. It had a displacement of 22,500 tons, a length of 693 feet, a width of 120 feet, and a depth of hull of 58 feet. It was designed to make a round trip to Australia, going past the Cape of Good Hope without being re-coaled. This was to avoid the need for Coaling stations en route, which would have made the cost of the journey uneconomical. It was best remembered as the ship that laid the first successful telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean as well as several other cables which greatly improved communications with the United States.
All of Brunel's ships had a mix of sails and engines, so that on days when there was no wind, they had engines to power them, but on windy days, the engines could be turned off to save the amount of fuel used. They could also be used at the same time, to enable the ships to go faster.
These new iron paddle boats and packets which called at Neyland called for a pontoon, which was made from two pontoons which had been used to raise Brunel's masterpiece, the tubular bridge at Saltash in 1858-59. These pontoons were still in use in recent times, and passengers on the Pembrokeshire car ferry used to tread on a chunk of history every time they crossed the river.
During his lifetime, Brunel generated imaginative and confident designs for tunnels, railways, bridges, harbours, prefabricated buildings and ships. He confidently readopted contemporary concepts of efficiency and beauty in order to meet the challenge of New technology. Throughout his career, Brunel made every effort to seek out New technologies and to anticipate developing markets, using fundamental logic and analysis to reshape the mechanical and structural engineering of his time. In doing so, he helped reshape the art and technology of architecture.
Work on the " Great Eastern" project caused Brunel a number of difficult engineering problems, and the strain gradually began to affect his health. Whilst watching the "Great Eastern" in her trials on 5th January 1858, Brunel suffered a seizure. He died ten days later and was subsequently buried at Kensal Green cemetery.
Neyland owes a great debt of thanks to Isambard Kingdom Brunel for putting "Neyland" on the map, and providing work and prosperity for the area. To show its appreciation, the townspeople, with considerable sponsorship support, raised £30,000 to commission a statue of the Great man.
This now proudly stands at Brunel Quay, on the site of the old railway station, facing west to the U.S.A, having been unveiled by H.R.H. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, on the 23rd July 1999.
 The "Great Eastern" appears to have been a ship clouded with controversy, with a number of incidents of ill-fated deaths associated with the ship. Prof. James Gaddarn, of London, whose father owned shipyards at Neyland, relates the story told to him, of the "Great Eastern" coming to Neyland for refurbishment and repairs on the gridiron, a little north of the Promenade. Whilst work was being carried out on the Great ship, a panel was removed revealing a male skeleton together with two large full bags of gold sovereigns. Had this person hidden himself behind the panel with the gold sovereigns, to protect the gold sovereigns from unknown assailants, or had he been the one to hide with a view to procuring the sovereigns for himself? Whichever course of action was taken, it resulted in him being incarcerated, behind the panel, unable to get out. Will anyone ever know the answer to this mystery?
(Article by Fred Knapp-Gareth Hopkins) Isambard Kingdom Brunel & his Times
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