Francis Giles (1806-1884)
Francis Giles (1806-1884)
Nephew of Francis Giles
1885 Obituary [1]
FRANCIS GILES was born at Walton-on-Thames in 1806, and served a regular pupilage to his uncle, Mr. Francis Giles, Member of Council of the Institution. While in his uncle’s office he was much engaged in marine-surveying and on dock and harbour works.
At the expiration of his pupilage he went to Caraccas on a surveying expedition, and returned to this country after a residence at Caraccas of nearly two years. After this he was engaged on the Mersey and for the New River Waterworks, and then went to the Paris and Lyons Railway, where he remained a district engineer for some time.
In the year 1845 he was much engaged in various railway schemes, and in 1851 he went to St. John’s, New Brunswick, as engineer-in-chief of the Intercolonial Railway for Messrs. Peto, Brassey, and Betts. While in that country he constructed the railway from St. John to Shediac, and returned to England in 1865.
He was latterly engaged in the Dagenham Dock scheme, but retired from active professional life in 1873.
Mr. Francis Giles died at Carshalton on the 7th of October, 1884, in his seventy-ninth year.
He was elected a Member of the Institution on the 9th of April, 1861.