Frederick George Fishenden
Frederick George Fishenden (1832-1896)
1896 Obituary [1]
FREDERIC GEORGE FISHENDEN, born on the 31st of July, 1832, was the son of Mr. William Fishenden, of Sheerness.
At the age of seventeen he became a pupil in the Engineering Department of Sheerness Dockyard, where he remained for two years.
He then obtained further practical training in the shops of Mr. Hall, contractor for fortification works on the Medway, after which he was engaged for three years as Assistant to Mr. J. Harrison in carrying out drainage and other works in that district for the War Department.
In 1857 Mr. Fishenden entered the Director of Works Department of the Admiralty, in which he served for nearly forty years. He was at once sent to Bermuda, where he remained for five years as Foreman of Works during the reconstruction of the dockyard and other naval establishments.
From 1862 to 1871 he was employed, under Mr. Richard Townshend, on the heavy and costly work of extending Keyham Dockyard.
In 1872 he was appointed Clerk of Works on the Chatham Dockyard extension, and between that date and 1879 he carried out, under Admiralty orders, extensive works in connection with the reconstruction of the Cape of Good Hope Naval Establishments.
On returning to England he was appointed Assistant Civil Engineer in charge of the harbour and breakwater at Portland, including the extensive Government quarries in the island and the supervision of the Admiralty Works in the district.
In 1883, again under Admiralty instructions, Mr. Fishenden proceeded to New South Wales, to make arrangements and prepare designs for the establishments required in that colony for the use of the Imperial Navy. He returned to Portland in the following year and in 1887 was appointed Superintending Civil Engineer of the Western District, in which are included the Dockyards at Devonport and Keyham and the charge of Plymouth Breakwater.
There he remained until 1890, when he was transferred to Chatham Dockyard in a similar capacity. The duties of the Superintending Engineer of a large dockyard, in which the construction of warships is being carried on, are of an onerous nature, and were performed by Mr. Fishenden with the ability and zeal he brought to bear upon everything he took in hand. One of his last actions at Chatham was to assist in receiving a large party of Students of the Institution who visited the dockyard on the 9th of May, 1895.
Early in the following year he was transferred to his old station at Devonport, where he died on the 10th of April, 1896.
Mr. Fishenden was elected a Member on the 5th of February, 1889.