This walk leads us to the sites of the activities of Rosport’s most popular historical character, inventor and engineer Henri Tudor.

The Tudor family originates from Wales. Henri Tudor’s father, John Thomas Tudor, moved to Rosport in 1843 and, in 1950, he married the daughter of Hubert Loser, mayor and owner of the Irminenhof. Henri Owen Tudor was born at the Diesbugerhof in Ferschweiler (D) in neighboring Prussia, at that time rented by his parents, as the youngest of three sons on September 30 in 1859.

It was already during his engineer studies in Brussels that he started exploring possibilities to optimize existing lead acid accumulators and streamline them to a manageable size. His experiments initially took place around the mill of the former Irminenhof (“Old castle”) which his family inhabited since 1873. 

He furthermore kept himself busy with the development of electric lighting. He apparently succeeded in installing electric lighting in his parent’s home from 1882 onwards. Electricity was generated in the mill on site by water power. After concluding his engineer studies, Henri Tudor returned to Rosport where he had spent most of his childhood. He consecrated himself to the optimization of the accumulator developed by physicist Planté and, in 1886, founded a small plant in Rosport together with his elder brother Hubert and his cousin Nikolas-Josef Schalkenbach in order to produce and distribute his optimized accumulators. This plant was located in the direct vicinity of the family residence in the so-called “Engelsburg”.

The initially small plant celebrated its economic breakthrough already a few months later thanks to the successful in-stallation of an electric hub for the street lighting of Echternach city. As a result, the demand for Tudor accumulators rose to such an extent that Henri Tudor decided to open further plants abroad. Production in Rosport ended in 1908.

Henri Tudor, however, still inhabited his manor. He died on May 31st in 1928 from lead poisoning which he contracted from his works and manipulations in order to optimize the lead acid accumulator..