Gavin Gemmel Dick
Gavin Gemmel Dick (1846-1905)
1906 Obituary [1]
GAVIN GEMMELL DICK, born at Ayr in January, 1846, received his education at Ayr Academy, and served a term of three years in the workshops of Messrs. J. and T. Young of that town.
On leaving their service he entered the Engineer’s department of the Glasgow and South Western Railway, under the late Mr. William Johnstone, with whom he remained 4 years. After a short period of employment at Carlisle, on the Settle and Carlisle branch of the Midland Railway, he proceeded to Edinburgh early in 1872 and joined the staff of Messrs. Blyth and Cunningham, civil engineers, of that city, being employed by them on the surveys and in the preparation of Parliamentary plans and working drawings for the new lines and works of the Caledonian and the Callander and Oban railway companies.
At the end of 1875, having resolved to pursue his career in the colonies, Mr. Dick went to Australia, where he obtained an appointment as Engineer of Harbours and Rivers under the Queensland Government. During the 4 years he occupied this position, Mr. Dick was entrusted with the design and execution of many important harbour and river works, and the able and successful manner in which he carried out these undertakings earned for him the confidence of the Government, and led to his appointment in 1880 to the office of Executive Engineer to the Colony in London, a position of considerable trust and responsibility, which he retained until his retirement, owing to failing health, in April 1905.
He died at his sister’s residence in Ayr on the 23rd August, 1905, in his fifty-ninth year.
Mr. Dick was elected an Associate of this Institution on the 6th February, 1877, was subsequently placed in the class of Associate Members, and was transferred to the class of Members on the 15th November, 1881.