George Andrew Hobson
George Andrew Hobson (1854-1917) of Douglas Fox and Partners
1917 Obituary [1]
GEORGE ANDREW HOBSON, born at Leeds 29th March, 1854, died at Richmond 25th January, 1917.
After leaving the Watt Institution, Edinburgh, in 1871, he was apprenticed for 3 years to Messrs. Hopkins, Gilkes & Co., and was then for some years with the Teeside Bridge and Engineering Company.
In November, 1880, he became Chief Assistant to Sir Charles Fox and Sons, now Sir Douglas Fox and Partners, and afterwards became a member of the firm. He was associated with them in the design and supervision of the construction of numerous engineering works, including the Mersey Tunnel, the Liverpool Overhead Railway, the Hawarden Bridge, the extension of the Great Central Railway to London, involving the terminal works in connection therewith, and the construction of large grain-elevators in this country and in South America.
In designing the Liverpool Overhead Railway he evolved the steel flooring with which his name is associated.
His work in South America and South Africa was principally in connection with railway construction, and in the latter country he was associated closely with Sir Charles Metcalfe, and was responsible for the design of the Victoria Falls Bridge over the Zambezi, for an account of which he received the George Stephenson Gold Medal of The Institution. He also received the Telford Medal and Premium for a Paper on the London terminus of the Great Central Railway.
He was elected an Associate Member 1st May, 1883, and transferred to the class of Members 15th December, 1885.