George Gilroy
George Gilroy (1823-1894)
1866 George Gilroy, Ince Hall Colliery, Wigan, Member of Inst. Mech. E.[1]
1869 Elected Member of Inst. Civil Engineers
1894 Obituary [2]
GEORGE GILROY, a native of Washington in the county of Durham, was born in 1823. It being determined that he should become a mining engineer, he was articled to the late Thomas Emerson Forster.
On the expiration of his pupilage he was appointed Assistant Engineer at Haswell and Shotton Collieries in county Durham.
In 1847 he was placed in sole charge of the Orrell Collieries in Lancashire, which post he occupied for fourteen years.
From Orrell he went in 1861 to the Ince Hall Collieries, which were worked under his management until the winding-up of the Ince Hall Coal and Cannel Co in 1884.
Mr. Gilroy then commenced practice on his own account as a consulting mining engineer. His health, however, which had never been robust, now began seriously to fail and rendered him unable to undertake work involving much exertion. The latter years of his life were spent in comparative retirement, although he never ceased to take interest in all that was going on around him. He died at Orrell, near Wigan, from paralysis and exhaustion on the 1st of January, 1894, at the age of seventy.
A faithful servant and a kind and considerate master, Mr. Gilroy won respect and regard from all with whom he was associated. He was from time to time engaged as an expert in the solution of important questions and private differences in coal mining matters throughout the country. He was a member of the South Lancashire and Cheshire Coal Association, of which he was elected President in 1870. He was also a member of the British Association, of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers and of the Manchester Geological Society.
In 1867 he was placed on the commission of the peace for the borough of Wigan, and was for a time Vice-chairman of the Southport and Cheshire Lines Extension Railway. For fourteen years he acted as Chairman of the Ince Local Board, many improvements being carried out during his term of office. He took an active interest in local charities and was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Wigan Infirmary.
Mr. Gilroy was elected a Member of the Institution on the 7th of December, 1869.