Rai Madhub Chunder Roy Bahadoor
Rai Madhub Chunder Roy Bahadoor (1841-1902)
1903 Obituary [1]
RAI MADHUB CHUNDER ROY Bahadoor, second son of Pundit Bhagaban Chunder Roy Bishiirad, a great Sanscrit scholar of his time, was born at Goriffa, Bengal, on the 1st April, 1841, and was educated at the Hooghly College and finally at the Civil Engineering College, Calcutta.
In 1862 he graduated in arts and engineering at the Calcutta University, taking the highest place in engineering, and in September of the same year he entered the Public Works Department of the Government of India, as a Probationary Assistant Engineer. The first work on which he was employed was the erection of the Church of St. James, with two steeples, on the Lower Circular Road, Calcutta, which is still one of the important structures in that city.
He was at Calcutta until 1872, and the Senate Hall, the Dalhousie Institute, the Sailors’ Home and the High Court are among the notable buildings with which he was associated. During his stay at Calcutta he founded, in co-operation with some of his colleagues, the Indian Engineers’ Association.
In 1872 Rai Madhub Chunder Roy Bahadoor was transferred to the Tipperah and Noakhally districts in the capacity of an Executive Engineer. He designed and erected the church at Comillah and made several lines of roads, bridges and canals until his transfer to the Tirhoot division in 1874, where as Executive Engineer of the Sitamari, Mozufferpur, Durbhunga and Saran districts he did excellent service in connection with the relief works during the great Bengal famine of 1874.
In 1880 he was transferred to Chittagong, where he stayed only a short period and carried out some protective works against the encroachment of the sea.
In 1881 he took furlough for a year, and early in 1882 he was posted to the Jalpaiguri division, where he carried out the Jalpaiguri post office building, the Government jail, part of a railway line from Sultanpur to Bogra and a portion of the Dinajpur drainage works.
In 1883 he was appointed a Member of the Committee to consider the re-organization of the Public Works Department at Simla, and his services in that capacity were highly appreciated. In 1885 he became a Fellow of Calcutta University, and he was also a life Member of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.
In 1885 he was transferred to the Rajshahye division, where he carried out some important river-training works in the Ganges, commonly known as the Pudma river. From Rajshahye he went to Burdwan in the higher capacity of Inspector of Local Works, Burdwan and Orisaa divisions, and in 1887 from Burdwan to Dacca in the same capacity in charge of Dacca and Chittagong divisions, his rank being Executive Engineer, first-grade, but duty that of a Superintending Engineer. He supervised the construction of the Dacocl Waterworks, and designed and constructed the Rajrajeswari Waterworks at Mymensing.
In 1893 he took furlough for a year.
In 1894 he was placed in charge of the Chotanagpur division, where he spent about a year in carrying out several Government buildings, bridges and hill-roads, and he retired on the 20th November, 1894, after a brilliant service of thirty-two years. Government was pleased to confer on him the title of Rai Bahadoor as a personal distinction in 1895.
After retirement ho devoted much time to mathematics and philosophy. He had a taste for music, and he devised a graphic method of representing Indian songs, intending thereby to deduce a general law, which, however, he did not live to complete. He was distinguished by sweetness of character, simplicity and pleasing manners. After his retirement from Government service he lost his health, and his eyesight became impaired. He died in Calcutta on the 21st September, 1902.
He was elected a Member of the Institution on the 4th December, 1883.