Sir Edward Reed (1830-1906), British naval architect, politician and railroad magnate. Reed was born in Kent, where he became a naval apprentice. He subsequently studied at the School of Mathematics and Naval Construction in Portsmouth. In 1863 he was appointed Chief Constructor for the Royal Navy and oversaw the final transition from wooden to ironclad warships. He resigned in 1870, and in 1874 was elected a Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party. He continued to design ships for the navies of other countries, many of which were eventually purchased by the Royal Navy. In 1881 Reed and others invested in railroads in Florida. Over the next 20 years he made a series of railroad company purchases that unified the rail system of the whole of Florida. Redd died at home in london of heart failure in 1906.