Henry Prince (c1832-1906)
Born the son of John Prince, a Surgeon.
1871 Living at High Street, Balsham, Cambs: Henry Prince (age 39 born Balsham), Civil Engineer Public Works, Bengal. Single.[1]
1878 Married at Guildford to Elizabeth Sarah Greenlaw
1906 February 10th. Died, of 11 Clanrecarde Gardens, London. Probate to his widow.
1906 Obituary [2]
HENRY PRINCE received his scientific training at King’s College, London, and after serving a pupilage to Mr. W. B. Adams, at the Fairfield Works, Bow, he acted as an assistant on various works for short periods and also engaged in consulting practice on his own account.
In 1858 he obtained an appointment as an assistant engineer in the Public Works Department of India and was employed in the Calcutta Canal division on the construction of iron bridges and in laying out the new town of Muttra.
He was next placed in charge of the Iron Bridge Yard at Calcutta, a large factory supplying the material for bridges, roofs, and other works required by the Indian Government.
In 1863 it was decided to close the Bridge Yard, and after serving for a short time on special duty at the Burrakur bridge, then in course of construction, Mr. Prince was appointed Engineer in charge of the penal settlement at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. Arriving at his post in September, 1863, he found the settlement in a very unsatisfactory state, the buildings being inadequate and unsanitary, and the convicts suffering from diseases arising from their wretched condition.
Mr. Prince at once set to work to effect the needed improvements, with such success that when he left Port Blair in 1866, every man was properly housed and had been taught some trade or handicraft, and convict labour had been utilized to build jetties, roads, saw-mills, military and civil buildings, to work quarries, and to reclaim swamps and cultivate the land.
In 1866 Mr. Prince was transferred to Rangoon, where he had charge of the town and district and of the military cantonment and port. In 1869, after having officiated for a short period as Chief Engineer and Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Burma, Mr. Prince was appointed Superintendent of Works in the Eastern Circle of Burma, and subsequently, Engineer of the Rangoon and Prome railway, for which the surveys, plans, and estimates were prepared under his direction. He held temporary charge during 1872 of the Government workshops at Roorkee, and in the following year he was posted to the North-West Provinces as Superintending Engineer of the Western Circle. Whilst holding this appointment, he constructed the first length of the light-railway system of the Provinces.
On his return from furlough in 1878 he was appointed Engineer-in-Chief of the Provincial State Railways, and retained this post until he retired in 1880, having risen through all grades of the service to the rank of Superintending Engineer, third class. After his retirement, Mr. Prince acted for some years as Consulting Engineer to the Bengal and North-Western and the Rohilkhand-Kumaun railways.
He died in London on the 10th February, 1906.
He was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 3rd March, 1863, and was transferred to the class of Members on the 6th December, 1873.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ 1871 Census
- ↑ 1906 Institution of Civil Engineers: Obituaries