Leo Schuster

Leopold Schuster (1791 – 27 February 1871), was a German-born British cotton trader turned merchant banker, best known as the Chairman of the London and Brighton Railway and then the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, and part of the consortia which bought The Crystal Palace.

The son of a cotton merchant, he moved to England in 1808, and in 1820 formed the trading company Leo Schuster, Brothers & Co., cotton merchants based in Manchester, Bradford and Liverpool. Like many German Jews in Northwest England at the time, he converted to Unitarianism.

In 1855 he moved to London, and formed the merchant bank Schuster Sons & Co. in Cannon Street, City of London. Through this he became involved in financing various railway ventures, and was Chairman of the London and Brighton Railway. As chairman he negotiated the tripartite merger to form the new London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, which he became Deputy Chairman of to his friend Samuel Laing.

After Laing retired at the end of 1855 to pursue a political career, Schuster replaced him as chairman of the LB&SCR, instituting a policy of rapidly expanding new routes throughout South London, Sussex, and East Surrey. Some of these routes were financed and built by the company itself, while others were built by independent local companies, set up with the intention of connecting their town to the growing railway network, and with the intention of sale or lease to the LB&SCR. Schuster accelerated the speed of mileage increase after appointing Frederick Banister as the new Chief Engineer in 1860. Resultantly, between 1857 and 1865 a further 177 miles (285 km) were constructed or authorised.

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